FACTORS OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION 191 



bushels, it is obvious that the second man has added only 500 

 bushels to the product obtained by the first man. That is all 

 thcit is added to the corn crop of that area by having two men 

 instead of one. This is a relatively wasteful application of labor, 

 at least as compared with the results of having 40 acres to each 

 man, under which he gets, in the illustration, 2000 bushels. 



To carry the analysis further, let us assume a community 

 where all the land is equally fertile, and where all the farmers 

 are equally skillful and industrious, and all supplied with equally 

 good tools, and where, moreover, the conditions of the forego- 

 ing illustration prevail with respect to the productivity of labor 

 applied to land. Let us assume further that there is at first one 

 man to every 40 acres. Each man would then be able to pro- 

 duce 2000 bushels of corn. Later the number of men increases 

 until there is one man to every 30 acres. Each man would 

 then be able to produce, on the average, only 1800 bushels. 

 But and this is very significant these additional men would 

 be able to add only 1200 bushels apiece to what the smaller 

 number could produce without them. One man to every 30 

 acres is equal to one and one-third men to every 40 acres, or 

 one man putting in full time and another a third of his time. 

 One man on 30 acres could, under the illustration, produce 

 1800 bushels of corn. At that rate one and one-third men on 

 40 acres could produce one and a third times as much as one 

 man on 30 acres, or 2400 bushels. Since one man on 40 acres 

 could produce 2000 bushels, and one and one-third men on 

 the same land could produce 2400 bushels, the difference, 400 

 bushels, must be attributed to the third of a man, or one third 

 of ;i man's labor. If one third of a man's time produces 400 

 bushels, his whole time would produce 1200 bushels. This 

 quantity per man, therefore, is all that can be attributed to the 

 additional force of men. That is all they add to the product 

 over and above what was produced before they came. 



