Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 60.djvu/558

550 and his status in the community; whether it is advisable in the general interest of the state, to encourage the development of large or small farms; whether the methods in vogue in some other industries, the combinations of resources and capital sometimes developing into 'trusts' can be successfully adapted and applied to agricultural pursuits; the building up of infant agricultural industries, by government aid, or the extension of the principle of protection to agricultural productions, and dependent industries; whether, on the whole, it would be better to make for a complete specialization, or whether it would be more advisable for each farming community to raise its own necessities—these are but some of the problems which are directly connected with the soil and the soil management, and are also social and economic questions. It therefore seems appropriate to those of us who are interested in this study from the point of view of the natural sciences, or applied science, as it is the fashion to call it now-a-days, to enter a strong plea that our efforts should be seconded by a more serious attention to this same subject from the professional economist and sociologist.