AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



tatively the more efficient can do more work of a 

 given quality. 



With respect to the efficiency of the farmers of 

 the United States we may say, from general ob- 

 servation, that they are more alert and do more 

 work than do the farmers of England, they are 

 quantitatively more efficient; but it seems true 

 also that they are not in the habit of doing their 

 work so carefully, they are qualitatively less effi- 

 cient. This difference is doubtless due in part at 

 least to the fact that extensive culture has gener- 

 ally been most profitable in America, while inten- 

 sive culture has long been necessary in Europe. In 

 England, keen competition for the use of land has 

 weeded out the farmers who could not produce a 

 large surplus over costs on each acre of land, 

 while in the United States this class has been able 

 to compete more successfully. At the present 

 time, however, the competition for the use of land 

 is becoming keen in this country, and in the 

 future the farmer who does not plan his work care- 

 fully and do it well, is sure to find it more and 

 more difficult to pay the price which his compete 

 tors are offering for the use of land. 



One element of our agricultural population is 

 markedly inefficient, both from the standpoint of 

 the quantity and the quality of their work. In 

 1900, thirteen per cent, of the farms of the United 

 States were operated by negroes. In the South 

 Atlantic States the percentage of negro farmers 



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