AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



with the amount of the fixed rent which is paid 

 for its use, the greater the amount of rent, the 

 higher the degree of intensity, for when a higher 

 rent must be paid for the use of the land a more 

 intensive culture is necessary if the highest aver- 

 age net return is to be secured. 



If the proposition is reversed and we think of 

 successive increments of land being brought 

 under a given number of composite units of the 

 other factors, the simple statement will suffice 

 that the amount of land should be increased until 

 the final increment of land adds just enough to 

 the total product to pay the cost of securing the 

 use of the land. 1 It will readily be seen that this 

 would result in the degree of intensity of culture 

 which will yield the largest net return per com- 

 posite unit of the other factors. On the assump- 

 tion, therefore, that one farmer can manage a 

 given number of the composite units of labor and 

 capital-goods without regard to the area on 

 which it is expended, the same conclusion will be 

 arrived at with regard to the proper degree of 

 intensity of culture where land can be had free or 

 where a fixed rent must be paid for its use, 

 whether one adds successive units of the other 

 factors to a given area of land until the average 

 net return per unit reaches the maximum, or 

 whether one adds successive acres of land to a 



1 See The Distribution of Wealth, by T. N. Carver, pp. 

 80-83. 



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