i8o 



PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



because it would produce no crop at all. Five days on the same 

 field might produce something of a crop, but it would be a poor 

 one. Ten days would certainly produce more than twice as large 

 a crop as five, and twenty days' labor might possibly produce 

 more than twice as much as ten. But forty days' labor would 

 hardly produce twice as much as twenty, eighty would certainly 

 not produce four times as much, and two hundred days' labor 

 would fall far short of producing ten times as much. If these 

 assumptions are true of the particular field in question, it could 

 be said to yield increasing returns up to the point where twenty 

 days' labor were expended. Beyond that point it would be said 

 to yield diminishing returns. 



This may be further illustrated by means of Table A, which 

 purports to show, in an assumed case, how much corn could be 

 produced on a ten-acre field by using different amounts of labor 

 and capital, the amounts being expressed in terms of days' labor 

 of a man and team with the appropriate tools. The ratio be- 

 tween the product on the one hand and the labor and capital on 

 the other is shown in the last column, which gives the amount 

 of product, or the number of bushels produced, per day's labor. 



TABLE A 



