Miscellaneous. 



250 



[September, 1910. 



and of the people of the country, upon 

 whom the towns and cities have drawn 

 so heavily. 



The subject of agricultural economics 

 is a comparatively new one in this 

 20uutry or in Europe, aud its field and 

 the utility of its studies have not yet 

 been widely recognised. Its studies have 

 been restricted and more or less frag- 

 mentary, and permanent agencies for 

 conducting them have been provided to 

 only a quite limited extent. Such studies 

 as have been made have been largely 

 confined to production rather than to 

 distribution, and have left many large 

 questions bearing on the agricultural 

 industry and its broad relations still 

 to be worked out. 



Not only do such economic studies 

 need to be made for the intelligent and 

 wise development of our agriculture, 

 but they are highly desirable in the 

 interest of the general public — the con- 

 sumer. The interests of the producer 

 and the consumer are in reality very 

 close, but in practice the two are very 

 far apart at present. They are separ- 

 ated by various intermediate agencies 

 which they do not fully realise or un- 

 derstand, and which have the practical 

 effect of depressing prices at one end 

 and expanding them at the other, 



There is a nearly virgin field for econ- 

 omic inquiry into the disposal of farm 

 products from the producer to the con- 

 sumer. Between what the producer 

 receives and what the consumer pays 

 for products which are not manufac- 

 tured, but are merely handled, a wide 

 margin is nearly always apparent. The 

 question is as to whether the accrued 

 difference is a reasonable and necessary 

 one. And this cannot be fully and fairly 

 answered until the economics of the 

 production, transportation, and distri- 

 bution of various classes of products 

 have been worked out— a thing which 

 has not yet done for the disposal of 

 any class of farm products in a thorough 

 and scientific manner. Until the margin 

 of difference is satisfactorily accounted 

 for, the public and the farmers alike 

 will query whether they are not being 

 imposed on. 



The question as to what determines 

 prices at the farm and to the ultimate 

 consumer is still an open one. Dc the 

 supply and demand, considered in a 

 world sense, determine the price of a 

 given crop, or are there artificial agen- 

 cies which intervene to diminish or 

 eliminate competition and to set up 

 fictitious prices ? What are the factors 

 operative to account for the differences 

 uniformly observed between the prices 



at the farm and to the consumer, and is 

 this difference a reasonable one, or is 

 our industrial system unnecessarily cum- 

 bersome and expensive to both the pro- 

 ducer and the consumer ? Questions of 

 this sort are highly important, aud seem 

 eminently appropriate subjects of in- 

 vestigatiou. To be conclusive, such 

 investigations need to be made by men 

 competent to plan and conduct them in 

 a scientific manner, and to weigh the 

 data impartially in the light of existing 

 conditions. The public needs to have 

 this information from a source it can 

 rely upon, and it needs it net only for 

 its protection from imposition, but that 

 it may apply correctives intelligently 

 and possibly simplify and cheapen 

 the process of distribution. A great 

 deal has been done in the latter directiou 

 by private interests which have entered 

 into co-operation for that purpose. 



The lack of data and of knowledge of 

 the facts are at once conspicuous when 

 a question involving the economics of 

 agriculture is approached. In very few • 

 States and for very few branches of the 

 industry have there been anything 

 approaching systematic and thorough 

 economic duties on the extent and cost of 

 production, the machinery and expense 

 of distribution, and the effects of these 

 factors on the condition of the farming 

 industry, on the condition and opportu- 

 nities of the people engaged in it, and 

 the broader relations of these matters. 

 Such data as are to be had are fragment- 

 ary and incomplete, and are not satis- 

 fying to a thorough student. They do 

 not enable economics to be taught from 

 a rural point of view in any complete 

 way. 



Facts to be of value and a safe basis for 

 reasoning need to be correlated and 

 given their proper weight. Isolated 

 facts are dangerous things when con- 

 sidered out of their environment and 

 given undue proportion. Science is 

 knowledge classified, correlated, and 

 arranged in an orderly manner, aud 

 the office of science is to study the 

 sequence of phenomena. In agricultural 

 economics very little of the knowledge 

 on which to base a science is yet avail-, 

 able, and very little of the study of the 

 sequence and relations of phenomena or 

 facts to furnish a body of scientific 

 investigation is to be found. 



This constitutes one of the present 

 deficiencies in the rounding out of agri- 

 cultural science aud the fund of know- 

 ledge. The lack of this knowledge halts 

 the development of the condition of the 

 farmer, for it retards the day when 

 industry and ability on ^the farm yield 

 the return which they reasonably should, 



