Basic Groups in Agricultural Economics

Abstract

The question of what should be included as in irreducible minimum of agricultural economics work for the agricultural college student raises at once the question of who and what is the student in our agricultural colleges today. What is he there for? For what range of vocations is he training himself? Is he in an agricultural course in order to learn to farm? It is gratifying to know that at least some of our students have this objective. Let us hope that a higher proportion may be with us for that purpose as time goes on. Is the agricultural student in college to become a professional man in teaching, research, extension, and other fields of activity connected more or less closely with agricultural education? Certainly many of them are with us for that purpose if we judge by the vocational destination of the students who have gone through our colleges in the last few years. Are many of them taking agricultural courses in order to equip themselves for business vocations in fields closely allied to agriculture such as co-operative marketing, real estate, and the like Adequate statistics as to the employment of agricultural college graduates would probably show that there is a growing proportion seeking employment in this field. Doubtless all of these motives and many others are responsible for the present enrollment in agricultural colleges. The fact that we have such a wide range of interests and prospective occupations on the part of our present agricultural student body makes the task of selecting the proper amount and kind of agricultural economics instruction an extremely difficult one. In the first place, it would seem, in view of the wide diversity of interests on the part of the student, any closely prescribed body of subject matter in agricultural economics to be taken by all, or practically all agricultural students, should consist of such material as will be of general enough interest and vital enough to warrant its inclusion in the curriculum of any student inter-