In 1911 Harvard economics professor Thomas Nixon Carver published a textbook Principles of Rural Economics that undoubtedly encompassed the content of his course on agricutural economics first taught in 1903-04. Somewhat unusually his book is prefaced with an eight page bibliography.
________________________
Earlier material
ca. 1904 Problem set
1903-04 Final exam
1905-06 Final exam
1908-09 Description, enrollment, final exam
________________________
Course Announcement and Description
1910-11
[Economics] 23 2hf. Economics of Agriculture, with special reference to American conditions. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., at 2.30. Professor Carver.
A study of the relation of agriculture to the whole industrial system, the relative importance of rural and urban economics, the conditions of rural life in different parts of the United States, the forms of land tenure and methods of rent payment, the comparative merits of large and small holdings, the status and wages of farm labor, the influence of farm machinery, farmers’ organizations, the marketing and distribution of farm products, agricultural credit, the policy of the government toward agriculture, and the probable future of American agriculture
Source: History and Political Science, Comprising the Departments of History and Government, and Economics, 1910-11. Published in the Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. VII No. 23 (June 21, 1910), p. 60.
________________________
Course Enrollment
1910-11
Economics 23 2hf. Professor Carver. — Economics of Agriculture, with special reference to American conditions.
Total 73: 5 Graduates, 21 Seniors, 24 Juniors, 10 Sophomores, 5 Freshmen, 8 Others.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1910-1911, p. 50.
________________________
ECONOMICS 23
Year-end Examination, 1910-11
- and 2. What do you understand by small scale, medium scale, and large scale farming, and what are the chief advantages and disadvantages of each.
- What are the chief reasons for the decline of the rural population relatively to the urban population?
- and 5. What were the principal changes in American agriculture between 1830 and 1865, between 1865 and 1887, and since 1887?
- What were the principal contributions of each of the following countries to American agriculture: France, Spain, Holland, and Great Britain?
- It is stated that the average yield of corn per acre is higher in Massachusetts than in Iowa. Does this indicate better agriculture in Massachusetts? Explain your answer.
- Give a brief description of the Raiffeisen system of agricultural credit.
- What are the advantages of non-competing as compared with competing crops?
- How does the productivity of the farm labor of the United States compare with that of European countries, and how is the difference to be accounted for?
Source: Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, …, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College. June 1911, p. 59 In Harvard University Archives, Examination papers, 1873-1915 (HUC 7000.25). Box 9. Examination Papers, 1910-11.
Image Source: Udo J. Keppler “America’s Knight, the World’s Challenger” Published in Puck, v. 70, no. 1801 (6 September 1911). Illustration from Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.
Summary: A large knight sits on a horse, holding a lance with a banner that states “American Crops”; he has thrown a gauntlet to the ground before him. In the background, Uncle Sam and Columbia sit beneath a canopy in front of a building that appears to be the U.S. Capitol.