AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



tition for its use and the higher will be the rent 

 which the farmers will offer for it. In a progres- 

 sive society the least productive land which is re- 

 quired for supplying the market at a given time 

 will command rent enough to pay for bringing it 

 under cultivation ; but this rent is, in reality, paid 

 for the use of capital-goods. Such land is called 

 marginal land. It has often been called no-rent 

 land, because no differential rent is paid for its 

 use, and the differential rent is the only distinct- 

 ively land rent. All land which is more produc- 

 tive than the marginal, will have a rent paid for 

 its use. Because it is more desirable, the farmers 

 will compete for the more productive land until 

 the rent rises to a point where they find it equally 

 desirable to take the less productive land at a lower 

 rent. 



If land were the only factor which varies in 

 productivity, it would be a very easy matter to 

 state the law of rent ; for then all of the farmers 

 and all of the capital-goods would tend to receive 

 the minimum, which is just enough to enlist in 

 the industry the least productive grades of these 

 factors. Under these conditions the total return 

 minus the necessary minimum to labor and capital- 

 goods would be credited to land. 



This may be illustrated by means of a diagram. 



In Figure 4, the line A B represents the various 



grades of land arranged in accordance with their 



degrees of productivity, the most productive being 



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