DISTRIBUTION OF AGRICULTURAL INCOME 



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farmers would want to hire still more men, and there would not 

 be enough men to go around. This would again force up wages 

 approximately to the average marginal productivity of labor. 



Of course no farmer can tell in advance just what the mar- 

 ginal product of labor is going to be, because he cannot tell what 

 the season is going to be like. Nevertheless, they who show the 

 best judgment in the matter will, other things being equal, suc- 

 ceed best, and they who show the poorest judgment will succeed 

 least, or become bankrupt most frequently. In the long run, the 

 farrrs will get into the hands of those who succeed best, and 

 thus it will happen, eventually, that those farmers who remain 

 in business will actually be hiring as many men as will, on the 

 average, one season with another, produce a marginal product 

 approximately equal to their wages. To hire more or fewer 

 men would be to lose profits. 



There are very definite mathematical laws, for example, de- 

 termining the course of a rifle bullet. A good marksman may 

 not know anything about these laws. He merely aims at the 

 mark, gauging his sights on the basis of his experience. Never- 

 theless, whether the theory of projectiles be understood or not, 

 the best marksmen will actually conform their practice, knowingly 

 or unknowingly, to that theory. If we could imagine a compe- 

 tition in which there were a limited number of rifles and a great 

 many men seeking to own them, and where ownership was to 

 be secured only by showing superior marksmanship, then it would 

 happen that the rifles would fall into the hands of men who con- 

 formed most closely, knowingly or unknowingly, to the theory 

 of projectiles. Under such conditions one could safely say that, 

 in actual practice, the rifles were being used in accordance with 

 the theory of projectiles. Since there is just such a competition 

 for the ownership or possession of farms, and since they who 

 conform most closely to the laws of economics will succeed best 

 in that competition, it will happen that farms will be managed 



