ORGANIZATION OF THE FARM 



have only to prove more profitable than potatoes, 

 which are grown in large quantities for the distil- 

 leries, or turnips, and fodder beets, which are 

 grown for the feeding of cattle, in order to be 

 introduced with profit into the field-system. 

 Whereas in the "corn belt" of the United States, 

 sugar beets must prove as profitable as maize 

 before there is any economy in their introduction. 



Under these circumstances it might be true 

 that the facilities for producing sugar beets were 

 greater in the "corn belt" of the United States 

 than in Germany; and yet in case the maize, 

 which cannot be grown in Germany, should prove 

 more profitable than the beets there would be no 

 economy in producing beets in the United States, 

 while at the same time they might prove profitable 

 in Germany, in spite of the poorer facilities, be- 

 cause of the lack of a more profitable crop to take 

 their place in the field system. This example 

 illustrates the principle which was well under- 

 stood by the classical economists, namely, that: 

 "A thing may sometimes be sold cheapest, by 

 being produced in some other place than that at 

 which it can be produced with the smallest 

 amount of labor and abstinence." 1 



Section HI. The place of animal husbandry 

 in the economy of the farm. The importance of 

 live stock in the economy of the farm is shown 



*John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy, Book 

 III, Chapter XVII, i. 



77 



