The Development of the American Farm Economic Association

Abstract

So far as I know the first meeting in the United States relating to agricultural economics was held in connection with the 9th annual meeting of the American Economic Association, at Johns Hopkins University, in 1897, the report of which was published by the American Economic Association.1 This meeting consisted of the discussion of seven economic questions propounded by L. H. Bailey of Cornell University; W. A. Scott, University of Wisconsin; C. S. Walker, Lester F. Ward, John F. Crowell, R. E. A. Seligman, M. W. Folwell, Walter F. Wilcox, E. R. Johnson, Thomas G. Sherman, and E. D. Peters. The general title was put in the form of Is there a distinct agricultural question? , but most of the discussion centered about problems of land tenure, mortgage indebtedness and credit, and the movement of population from country to city. While the questions stated by Professor Bailey, if followed out in detail, would have brought up questions of farm management, the interest of those participating in the discussion did not lead them to give any particular attention either to the economics of farm management or to the economics of marketing. is interesting to find the phrase, maladjustment of agriculture to other industries, which is the one we have heard so much of in recent months, and to find Professor Johnson saying: It is not national but international in its scope and it is to be settled only with reference to other nations. appears that the next important public meeting relating to economics and farm management was at St. Louis, December, 1903This was a joint session between Section I of the Association for the Advancement of Science and the Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science. The papers relating to agricultural economics were as follows: Fundamentals of Forestry of the New Agriculture by 1 Economic Studies, American Economic Association, vol. 2, No. I, pp. 5267. 92