CROP ROTATION AND IRRIGATION 109 



is augmented by the fact that the pioneer usually is farming 

 a soil of such virgin fertility that for a number of years it will 

 produce large crops in spite of extensive culture. Often, as has 

 been the case in the United States from the very beginning, when 

 the soil Has lost its fertility so that it will no longer yield 

 standard crops, the farmer leaves the solution of the problem 

 of its further profitable culture to others than himself by re- 

 moving away from it to settle again upon virgin soil, and to re- 

 peat there his previous operations. While labor and all capi- 

 tal except land are higher in price in a new farming country, 

 so little capital is required that its cost is usually below the 

 cost of that required in the older country. In 1860 the United 

 States was a half century behind England in intensive methods 

 of farming, yet the cost of production was much lower for the 

 American farmers than for the most scientific farmer of Eng- 

 land, even if the latter paid nothing for the use of his land. 1 

 If most of the members of a community are engaged in agri- 

 culture, the supply of agricultural products is not apt to fall 

 below the home demand. Where such a large proportion of the 

 people have an opportunity of producing at cost, home demand 

 is not apt to raise the price greatly above the cost of produc- 

 tion of older countries, and exportation is possible. Exporta- 

 tion involves the cost of transportation. Under normal con- 

 ditions then, prices must always be lower at home than abroad 

 before it will be profitable to export. As long as these condi- 

 tions obtain, it will be impossible for prices of agricultural 

 products in a new country (generally an exporting country) to 

 be as high as those of an older country. High farming involves 

 more expense than extensive farming, and consequently a 

 larger capital is essential. But as prices cannot be so high in 

 the newer community, and as capital is not so abundant, it 

 follows directly and imperatively that farming cannot be of 

 such a high and intensive grade. Unfortunately, however, as 

 is so frequently the case with the recklessness of plenty, the 

 most loose and careless methods of farming come in vogue, 

 methods that are certain to exhaust the soil to such a degree 

 within a limited number of years as to necessitate either im- 

 proved methods of culture or its abandonment. While there 

 may be extenuating circumstances in pioneer times which will 

 1 8th U. S. Census, Agriculture, p. viii. 



