132 PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



either raw or finished, for whose production its own land is not 

 so well fitted. Under this situation the wealth and population 

 which the country can maintain are, it is true, limited by the 

 amount which it can produce from its land ; but this is a much 

 safer situation than the one described above. How much such 

 a country will have, either for consumption or for exchange, will 

 depend upon how well it has economized its natural resources. 

 In most countries, especially in the United States, the soil 

 itself is by far the greatest physical resource. The products of 

 the soil exceed in value many times over those of the mines 

 and the fisheries, and many more people are supported by agri- 

 culture than by all these other extractive industries. Again, 

 whereas the working of the mines tends necessarily to exhaust 

 them, no such condition exists in the case of agriculture. Prop- 

 erly treated, the soil may continue producing its wealth and main- 

 taining its population over indefinite periods of time. Therefore 

 we see why it is that the question of economizing the land is of 

 such transcendent importance to every growing country. Let us 

 consider, then, the methods by which the land of a country can 

 be economized and made to support a growing population. 



f a. Too stony 



f i . Bad physical conditions \ b. Too wet 

 [ c. Too dry 



CAUSES OF 

 WASTE LAND 



2. Bad chemical conditions ( 

 I 



f a. Too much acid 



b. Too much alkali 



( a. Bad taxation 

 3. Bad social conditions . _ 



L b. Too much speculation 



Causes of waste land. If all the land of a country were once 

 brought under cultivation, there would then be no way of econo- 

 mizing it except by making each acre produce more. But this 

 is a condition which has probably never been reached in any 



