astronomy

Henry Charles Taylor

Henry Charles Taylor is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Henry Charles Taylor rather than just read about it. In short: Henry Charles Taylor (April 16, 1873 – April 28, 1969) was an American agricultural economist. As an early pioneer in the field, he has been called the "father of agricultural economics" in the United States.

Key takeaways

Henry Charles Taylor belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Henry Charles Taylor to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Henry Charles Taylor from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Henry Charles Taylor (April 16, 1873 – April 28, 1969) was an American agricultural economist. As an early pioneer in the field, he has been called the "father of agricultural economics" in the United States. Taylor established the first university department dedicated to agricultural economics in the United States in 1909 during his time at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He also had a brief but very influential career in the United States Department of Agriculture from 1919 to 1925, where he helped reorganize its offices and became head of the new Bureau of Agricultural Economics. Coming from a rural farm community himself, Taylor's foremost goal was always to try to improve the living conditions of farmers.

Early life Taylor was born in Iowa on a farm near Stockport. Growing up, he witnessed his father, Tarpley Taylor, expand his farm from about 60 acres (240,000 m2) to 600 acres (2.4 km2) by buying small farms from early settlers. From an early age he was able to see how proper land and economic management reinforced each other. Additionally, Taylor had been impacted by the depressions of the late 19th century, especially that of the 1890s, and what devastating effects they had on farmers. He entered Drake University to do two years of preparatory work, then went on to Iowa State College, where he received his B.S. in agriculture in 1896, then his M.S. in agriculture in 1898. He then joined the University of Wisconsin–Madison to earn his Ph.D. Taylor's original intention upon going to Wisconsin was to take up a career as a statesman in order to represent farmers. However he soon realized that his economics study offered more than he was expecting. Later in his career, he stated that "90 per cent of what could be done for the farmers was what they could do for themselves by adjusting production." Inspired by economics professor Richard T. Ely, he left in 1899 to travel through Europe, briefly studying economics at the London School of Economics in Britain and at the University of Halle-Wittenberg and the University of Berlin in Germany. His doctoral dissertation was on "The Decline of Land Owners Farmers in England," which had him traveling by bicycle to visit more than a hundred farms. Taylor returned to Wisconsin in 1901 to complete his degree in economics in 1902.

Career at the University of Wisconsin–Madison He stayed on at the faculty of the University of Wisconsin until 1919. Room was made for him in the Department of General Economics and the School of Commerce to teach economic geography and economic history. However, as he later noted there was nothing in the budget to provide for his area of interest, agricultural economics. Ely suggested that he simply teach the given courses and slowly develop work on agricultural economics. Upon approaching the dean with the idea, he was told there would be no place for such courses for the next ten years. Nevertheless, by the winter of 1902–03, Ely had arranged for fourteen lectures to be given to agricultural students on the economics of farm management. The dean was impressed by the prepared syllabus and eventually Taylor set up an agricultural economics course for four-year students. He devoted himself by 1903 to founding a Department of Agricultural Economics at the university for both research and teaching. Taylor wrote the first agricultural economics textbook in the United States in 1905. He also adapted a dot map system with William J. Spillman to show historical shifts in agricultural production. By 1909 he was successful in creating the new department, the first devoted to agricultural economics in the United States. By this time he had also broadened the scope of the field to include rural sociology. In 1910 he authored the first Wisconsin Experiment Station bulletin on agricultural economics, on the Methods of Renting Farm Lands in Wisconsin. Taylor also worked with the Wisconsin state government after being spurred on by Charles McCarthy, an advocate of cooperation between the government, farmers, and universities. Wisconsin's new Department of Agriculture was asked to provide leadership in improving the marketing of dairy as the state was seeing a recent shift toward greater milk production. Taylor used this as an opportunity to secure funding from the government to create a new faculty position for marketing. For this, he invited his long-time friend and head of the Department of Economics at Iowa State College Benjamin Horace Hibbard. He joined the department in 1913 to become its second faculty member. Taylor was also a founding member of the Farm Management Association, which later became the American Farm Economic Association. He served as its president in 1920.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Henry Charles Taylor

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Henry Charles Taylor claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Henry Charles Taylor before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Henry Charles Taylor ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Henry Charles Taylor

In research: Henry Charles Taylor appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Henry Charles Taylor in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Henry Charles Taylor is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1873 births, 1969 deaths, Agriculture educators, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Henry Charles Taylor outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Henry Charles Taylor in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Henry Charles Taylor means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Henry Charles Taylor out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Henry Charles Taylor in simple terms?

Why does Henry Charles Taylor matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Henry Charles Taylor?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Henry Charles Taylor.