1 66 PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



for one or the other is merely a matter of cheapness on the 

 one hand or of fashion on the other. It is not improbable that 

 fashions will eventually, though rather slowly, change in the 

 direction of cheapness. However, it is altogether probable that 

 the substitution of cotton for wool as stuff for clothing will re- 

 sult in more clothing and in greater variety, rather than in the 

 use of less land. This, however, would be economical of land 

 in the sense of permitting a higher standard of living in the 

 matter of clothing without requiring any more land. On the 

 other hand, wool is easily transportable, and may therefore be 

 grown in new countries at great distance from centers of con- 

 sumption, that is, where land is abundant and does not yet 

 need to be severely economized. Cotton, on the other hand, 

 requires considerable labor for its cultivation, and can only be 

 grown where there is population enough to furnish a supply of 

 labor, that is, it is less suited to frontier production. Again, 

 wherever mutton is relished and commands a good price, a cer- 

 tain amount of wool can be grown as a by-product and the 

 cost of production of wool thereby reduced. It is a question, 

 however, whether wool is a by-product of mutton, or mutton 

 a by-product of wool. Where the former is the case, there is 

 not yet such pressure in favor of cotton clothing as will 

 come sometime unless some other fiber, such as ramie, should 

 displace cotton. 



Intensive cultivation. How to make each acre produce more 

 of the crops which are now grown is a 'question of more im- 

 mediate importance. This is what is commonly meant by in- 

 tensive farming, though that term is sometimes applied also 

 to the substitution of heavy-yielding for light-yielding crops. 

 Intensive farming in the strict sense may mean any or all of 

 the following methods : 



i. The simple application of more labor in the preparation 

 of the soil and the handling of the crop. 



