FACTORS OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION 179 



returns. This law of diminishing returns is simply a part of the 

 general observation that the product of any given piece of land 

 does not, even under the same conditions of soil and season, 

 bear a constant ratio to the amount of labor and capital used in 

 producing it. That is to say, the product does not vary in the 

 same proportion as the labor and capital, increasing in propor- 

 tion as they increase and decreasing in proportion as they de- 

 crease, but rather that the product increases and decreases less 

 rapidly than these factors of production when the quantity of the 

 factor, land, remains constant. This simply means that there are 

 several factors in the production of any crop, including labor, 

 capital, and land ; and that the amount of the crop is not deter- 

 mined by any one or any two of these factors, but by all of them 

 combined. Labor and capital, being only a part of the factors, 

 cannot alone determine the crop. 



It is well known to practical men that a niggardly application 

 of labor and capital to a piece of land in the cultivation of- any 

 crop is little better than wasted, because it will produce so little 

 in proportion to itself ; whereas a more generous application 

 will yield a crop not only larger, but larger in proportion to the 

 amount of labor and capital employed. Up to this point the 

 land is said to yield increasing returns to the labor and capital 

 employed in its cultivation. But if the amount of these factors 

 used in cultivating a given piece of land is still further in- 

 creased, a point will eventually be reached where the product 

 will no longer increase as fast as these factors are increased. 

 Be) ond this point the land is said to yield diminishing returns 

 to the labor and capital employed. Though larger applications 

 of labor and capital may continue to produce larger crops per 

 acre, the crops will not be so large per unit of labor and capital. 



la growing such a specific crop as corn, for example, a sin- 

 gle day's labor of a man and team with the appropriate tools, 

 if spread over a whole ten-acre field, would be thrown away 



