FACTORS OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION 193 



This illustration will serve, however, to show the folly of 

 striving for a large product per acre, regardless of the product 

 per man, as is so often advocated by shortsighted writers on agri- 

 cultural topics. But the principal purpose is to show how im- 

 portant it is that each unit of labor be supplied with an adequate 

 amount of land if we are to continue to secure a large product 

 per man in agriculture, and how difficult it will be to do this if 



2000 BUSHELS 

 Pi oduct per man when 

 there is one man to 



every 40 acres 



1200 BUSHELS 

 Additional product, pro- 

 duced by each addi- 

 tional man when there 

 is one man to every 

 30 acres 



900 BUSHELS 



Additional product of 



each additional man 



when there is one man 



to every 20 acres 



500 BUSHELS 



Additional product of 



each additional man 



when there is one man 



to every 10 acres 



our agricultural population should continue to increase without 

 a proportional increase in the area of cultivated land. 



This will also serve to point out the error of trying to base 

 too many conclusions upon the comparative yield of crops per 

 acre in different countries, without trying to find -out the com- 

 parative yield per man. As frequently happens, the actual 

 workers are, in this case, much wiser than some of the sophisti- 

 cated writers about the work. The farmers of the Middle West 

 are spreading out, enlarging their farms, and the surplus 

 numbers are moving to places where an adequate supply of land 

 is to be had, and they know what they are doing. 



