390 



SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 



August, 1922 



of farming by making greater certainty in 

 the enterprise. 



I have pointed out only a few of the econ- 

 omic questions which we should have in- 

 vestigated. It will be noted that for this 

 work a comprehensive knowledge of econ- 

 omic science must be a prerequisite. 



11. — The Proper Adjustment of Rural and 

 Urban Industry 



In all productive employment there is a 

 balancing of the productive factors which 

 will yield the largest results; that is, there 

 i.s a certain grouping of the labor and capital 

 with land which will produce the greatest 

 amount of product. To reach that point 

 .should be the aim of tlie manager of the en- 

 terprise and he is continually experimenting 

 to find out under what conditions he is likely 

 to attain that stage. Economic life seeks to 

 establish such a balance of economic forces 

 as will give the largest measure of advan- 

 tages over disadvantages. To use an anal- 

 ogy from the domain of natural science: if 

 we suspend from the ceiling of a room by 

 means of strings a number of balls, in sucli 

 a M-ay that they form a row; and if we then 

 draw out the ball at one end of the row and 

 allow it to fall back and knock the one next 

 to it. we shall find that when this blow has 

 been communicated to each ball in turn the 

 last Uall will be knocked outward to the same 

 distance as the first ball was drawn out — 

 that is, supposing all the balls are alike. In 

 the language of science, action and reaction 

 are equal and opposite. But when this mo- 

 tion that has been imparted is allowed to 

 work itself out there will be reached again 

 a state of equilibrium under which the forces 

 will be in balance. Nor is this something 

 which lies within the realm of the abstract; 

 the truth is that these forces can be mea- 

 sured and we can set down by scientific 

 formula the conditions under which equili- 

 brium will be attained. So, too, in econ- 

 omics; the balancing of the forces is not 

 something which is merely concerned with 

 the philosophical discussion of the abstract. 

 The conditions under which this economic 

 balance may be attained can be definitely set 

 down and reduced to the reality of the con- 

 crete. We may go even further than this 

 and say that life itself is a balancing of the 

 great forces; for what is cliaracter except 

 the balancing of the elements of good against 



the elements of evil with the object of se- 

 curing the largest measure of the good? 



Naturally, then, since agriculture and 

 other enterprises compete for the available 

 supplies of labor and capital, and even in 

 some instances for the' land, it becomes an 

 important question to consider the circum- 

 stances under which these urban and rural 

 enterprises are in the proper adjustment with 

 each other. Now it may be laid down as 

 axiomatic that so long as labor and capital 

 move away from agriculture and find their 

 employment in urban industries, and so long 

 as this process takes place continuously, the 

 agricultural enterprise is not in a proper ad- 

 justment with the industrial and commercial 

 pursuits. It is evident that where labor and 

 capital turn away from agriculture and seek 

 employment in towns and cities, the im- 

 portant reason for this is that the reward 

 of labor and capital in agriculture is lower 

 than in other kinds of employment. 



In the case of urban industry capital is 

 free to move from one etnployment to an- 

 other according to the relative advantage. If 

 capital invested, say, in shoe manufacture is 

 vielding a lower rate of return than capital 

 invested in textiles, the capital in the former 

 may be transferred year by year from it to 

 the textile industry. This is accomplished 

 by means of the replacement fund. The 

 shoe manufacturer must set aside each year 

 out of his earnings a certain sum so that 

 when his machinery is worn out or becomes 

 obsolete he will have enough in this replace- 

 ment fund with which to purchase new ma- 

 chinery. But if the return on capital is 

 lower in shoe manufacture than in textiles 

 this man may invest each year's replace- 

 ment fund in the textile industries, so that 

 by the time his .shoe machinery is no longer 

 useful he has all his capital in the more 

 highly remunerative em))loyment. Ca{)ital is 

 free to move from one such enterprise into 

 another which is more profitable. 



But we cannot say the same thing of agri- 

 culture. Land is not like the machinery of a 

 factory, it is not being worn out and sent to 

 the sera)) heaj). Caj)ital. when once invested 

 in land, is there to stay. The land may 

 change ownership, but the capital cannot be 

 withdrawn from it in the same way as in 

 manufacturing. The land will be there after 

 generations of workers have passed away. 

 And when the return on agricultural capital 

 has become reduced it is almost inij)ossible 

 to transfer the land bv sale from one to an- 



