Some Recent Changes in Agriculture, with Particular Reference to the Southwest.

This article discusses some recent changes in agriculture, with particular reference to the Southwest in the U.S. The federal Census and special research studies. The first supplies us with information concerning conditions existing at a given point in time. By comparing conditions at one specified time with those existing at prior or subsequent periods it is possible to gain some understanding of what may be called underlying or long-time trends. Notwithstanding its limitations the Census provides a variety of rough indexes of the changes that are taking place. These indexes may, to some extent, be interpreted in terms of their deeper social meaning. A change of major importance in the Southwest as in the rest of the Nation is the declining proportion of the population engaged directly in agriculture and the corresponding increase in the proportion in industrial occupations or a unemployed. The basis of the problem is the high birth rate of the farm population in comparison with that of non-farm areas.