AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



live better than they do at present, that is the 

 most powerful dynamic factor in industrial 

 society. 



The population of the United States has in- 

 creased very rapidly in the last hundred years. 

 The population was 5,308,483 in 1800, and in 

 1900 it was 76,303,378. The territory of the 

 United States expanded in the mean time it is 

 true, but not so rapidly as did the population. 

 The number of inhabitants per square mile was 

 6.6 in 1800, and had risen to 25.6 in 1900. This 

 means that the land resource of the United States 

 is rapidly being occupied, and it is a fact often 

 commented upon in recent years that the best land 

 is now all in use, so that as the population in- 

 creases more and more ingenuity will be required 

 to make the soil provide sustenance for the in- 

 creasing numbers. This has already resulted in 

 efforts to increase the available area of agricul- 

 tural land by means of drainage and irrigation, 

 and in efforts to make each acre of land yield a 

 larger product by means of a more intensive cul- 

 ture. In general it would seem, therefore, that 

 the propensity on the part of human beings to 

 increase in numbers tends to be transmuted into 

 an improvement in the quality of the labor supply. 



The labor of all those who are engaged in agri- 

 culture is not equally productive. This is due to 

 variations in the efficiency of those engaged in this 

 industry. There are more than five million farm- 



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