DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH 



he will be willing to take less on any other grade. 

 He can pay one dollar and twenty cents for the 

 amount of 5th grade land on which the same out- 

 lay is made as on the acre of the F grade land, 

 and retain a net return equal the gross return on 

 the no-rent land. But the F grade farmer can 

 bid no more than one dollar for the use of this 

 land, and so far as he is concerned, the E grade 

 farmer can have the 5th grade land for anything 

 over one dollar, and to give a small balance let 

 us say he will offer one dollar and five cents. 



If the E grade farmer can secure the use of 5th 

 grade land for one dollar and five cents per unit 

 (thinking of the amount of land on which the 

 given amount of labor and capital is expended on 

 the various grades of land as a unit of land power) 

 leaving him a net return of six dollars and fifteen 

 cents, he will certainly not take less on 4th grade 

 land. He will cease to bid for the 4th grade 

 land, therefore, when the rent rises above two dol- 

 lars and twenty-five cents. When the rent of 5th 

 grade land is one dollar and five cents the D grade 

 farmer could secure a net return of seven dollars 

 and thirty-five cents on that grade of land, and 

 he could as well pay two dollars and forty-five 

 cents for 4th grade land, for this would leave him 

 the same net return as he could win on 5th grade 

 land, but so far as the competition of his inferiors 

 is concerned any amount over two dollars and 

 twenty-five cents, let us say two dollars and thirty 



175 



