FACTORS OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION 171 



of hired laborers in any of the older states, though it would 

 tend to increase the product per acre, would tend to reduce the 

 product per man. Under the great law of agricultural produc- 

 tion known as the law of diminishing returns, two men of equal 

 ability will not produce twice as much as one man on a farm 

 which was of a proper size to yield the maximum product to 

 one man's work. Under the operation of this law, the more 

 laborers you put upon such a farm the less will be the product 

 per laborer (though the larger will be the yield per acre), unless 

 the increase in the number of laborers is accompanied by an in- 

 crease in the capital, an improvement in the quality of the tools 

 and machinery, or an improvement in the methods of farming. 

 This is not saying that a small increase in the number of hired 

 men in some farming sections would not be desirable. Farm 

 owners are sometimes incapacitated for farm work by sickness, 

 accident, or age. In such cases they are sometimes under great 

 disadvantage because of the scarcity of hired help ; but it is not 

 necessary to have a large and permanent class of agricultural 

 laborers in order to remove this difficulty. On the whole, it is 

 a better agricultural system where each farm owner normally 

 expects to do his own work, than it is where he normally 

 expects to hire all his work done. 



More capital. An increase in the supply of capital to be used 

 in conjunction with the labor of the farmers in the cultivation of 

 their farms is another possibility. By this method a given sup- 

 ply of labor on a fixed quantity of land can cultivate that land 

 more effectively, and thus increase not only the product per 

 acre but the product per man as well. This capital is usually 

 expressed in dollars, and may at first consist in money or gen- 

 eral purchasing power in the hands of the farmer. But it even- 

 tually takes the form of, or is paid out for, buildings, tools, 

 machinery, draft animals and other live stock, fences, drains, 

 pumping and irrigation works, fertilizers, seed, feed, fuel, etc. 



