296 PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



in the end or in the long run in accordance with economic 

 laws. It is for this reason that one may feel safe in saying that 

 wages will actually tend to conform to the principle of marginal 

 productivity. Those farmers who depart most widely from this 

 principle will fail, and those who conform most closely will 

 succeed and remain in control of the business of farming. 



II. RENT 



The law of demand and supply, which in its application to 

 productive agents is, as we have just seen, based upon the law 

 of marginal productivity, applies as well to the rent of land as 

 to the wages of labor. But there are certain peculiarities in the 

 supply of land which need to be taken into account. In the first 

 place, the supply of any particular kind of land is almost a fixed 

 quantity, whereas the supply of any kind of labor is variable. In 

 the second place, land is immovable, whereas labor is movable 

 and can be brought from places where it is less wanted to 

 places where it is more wanted. The fixity and immobility of 

 land make it more difficult to adjust the supply to the demand 

 than is the case with an agent of production whose supply 

 may increase or diminish, and which may be moved from one 

 place to another in response to changes in demand. 



By reason of the first of these peculiarities it happens that 

 certain tracts of land, possessing special qualities which cannot 

 be reproduced, acquire a sheer scarcity value. Again, since the 

 supply of land is always a fixed quantity, its value always tends 

 to rise higher and higher as the population increases more and 

 more. But the second of these two peculiarities is by far the 

 more important of the two. By reason of the immobility of 

 land, a tract which is favorably located may acquire a pure site 

 or situation value, independently of its physical or chemical fer- 

 tility. Two laborers of equal energy, intelligence, and skill will 



