Agricultural Economics in Europe

Abstract

It has been my privilege during the past five years to visit a major portion of the institutions of higher education and other organizations in Europe actively engaged in developing the field of agricultural economics-teaching, research, or extension. These visits have afforded an opportunity for meeting and conferring with many of the leaders. It is to be expected that since the economic interests of agriculture differ in various countries, the emphasis placed upon teaching, research and extension projects would reflect these differences. Nevertheless, the observer attempting to appraise the situation is struck rather forcibly by the wide variations in keystone activities. In certain countries attention is centered on one phase to the exclusion of all others. In England the work had its origin largely in detailed cost accounting. Costings still receive the lion's share of attention. In Denmark, Switzerland, Czecho-Slovakia, Sweden and Norway, farm accounting in its simpler forms with a wide-spread application serves as a basis for research studies. Germany is noted for its development of the field of agrarian policies (Agrarpolitik). In this country farm management and farm labor also claim the attention of a goodly number of workers. The agricultural economists of France, in a large measure, confine their attention to the philosophy of the subject. Rural Law and Legislation is a basic course. Political events in central Europe, especially in Poland, Czecho-Slovakia, and Roumania have centered attention upon problems connected with the transformation of large estates into smaller properties--land reform. The work in Italy owes its beginnings to questions of farm valuation for taxation purposes. Since the productive capacity of the land is an important consideration in matters of taxation, Italy has developed to a high degree the technique of land valuation. The American observer is struck with the general absence