Experimental Method in Economic Research

Abstract

I shall undertake to explain the method which we are using in Virginia to combine economic experimentation and demonstration in farm business problems. Most of our experience in this matter in Virginia has been in connection with the reorganization of dark tobacco farms in Charlotte County. In the year 1922 a detailed cost route was established which was continued in that county for two years. At the end of the third year, twenty demonstration farmers were selected and a survey record was taken of each of these twenty farms for comparison with the financial returns revealed in the detailed cost studies of the two previous years. At the same time, a detailed set of recommendations was prepared for each of these twenty farmers based upon the preceding research. These recommendations took into account the natural limitations of the farms and the personal limitations of the farmers. They were prepared by the same man who had charge of the cost route, but with the advice of the county agent, the farm management demonstrator and the agronomy specialist. They were in detail but were not voluminous. For example, for one of the farmers whose volume of business was too small and whose quality of tobacco was low, the recommendations read as follows: