FACTORS OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION 189 



factor. This is a dilemma from which there is no possible 

 escape. It furnishes a perennial problem in agricultural man- 

 agement and calls for perpetual recalculation a*nd readjustment. 

 To put so much labor into the cultivation of a given piece of 

 land as to secure the maximum product per acre will give a 

 relatively small product per unit of labor, whereas to use so 

 much land in connection with each unit of labor as to give the 

 maximum product per unit will yield a relatively small product 

 per acre. 



How the alternative presents itself. Let us assume that one 

 man could, by putting all his labor (with the appropriate tools) 

 into the cultivation of I o acres of corn, secure a product of I ooo 

 bushels, or 100 bushels per acre; whereas by putting the same 

 amount of labor into the cultivation of 20 acres he could secure 

 a product of 1 500 bushels, or 75 bushels per acre ; by spreading 

 his labor over 30 acres he could get a product of only 1800 

 bushels, or 60 bushels per acre ; by cultivating 40 acres he 

 could get 2 ooo bushels, or 50 bushels per acre ; and from 50 

 acres he could get no more than from 40 acres, namely 2000 

 bushels, or 40 bushels per acre. Under these assumptions the 

 result of the different experiments could be represented in the 

 diagram on page 190. 



Thus it is obvious that the farmer gets the largest total 

 product for his year's work, namely 2000 bushels, from the 

 use of either 40 or 50 acres. But since he is able to produce 

 no more on 50 than on 40 acres, it is evident that this is a 

 wasteful use of land. The last 10 acres are entirely wasted and 

 might as well have been allowed to lie idle. Again, the use of 

 40 acres gives him a slightly larger crop for his year's work 

 than 30 acres, that is, 2000 bushels as against 1800. Yet this 

 is, from one point of view, a somewhat wasteful use of land, 

 since the use of the last 10 acres results in only 200 bushels. 

 Furthermore, while 30 acres gives him 300 bushels more than 



