136 RESOURCES OF SOUTHERN ALABAMA. 



The simplest explanation of the correlation of high crop 

 yields with dense population is that (other things being 

 equal) land in a thickly settled region is worth more than 

 where people are fewer, and farmers working such land, in 

 order to pay the higher taxes or rent, naturally have to 

 produce more per acre, by selecting prolific varieties or 

 spending more for labor or fertilizers, or both. In any 

 part of the United States the yield of any common crop, 

 such as corn, can easily be ascertained from census reports 

 to be generally greater in thickly settled regions than else- 

 where, though of course there are other factors that enter 

 into the problem, such as its relative importance compared 

 with other crops; and soil fertility is not without some 

 influence. (Many or most crops that are raised in both 

 hemispheres have a larger yield in Europe than with us, for 

 similar reasons.) 



The race of the farmer seems to have little to do with 

 crop yields, as can be seen in the case of cotton and corn in 

 Table 37. But it should be borne in mind that for any 

 given crop the yield per acre probably varies much like the 

 size of farms discussed a few pages back ; namely, in every 

 region there must be many farmers whose yield is below 

 the average, and a few far above. However, those who get 

 the largest yields do not necessarily make the most profit, 

 for according to the economic law of diminishing returns 

 there is always a point beyond which further efforts or ex- 

 penditures do not pay. 



ANIMAL PRODUCTS. 



In the foregoing regional descriptions and general agri- 

 cultural tables there has been given the number of useful 

 animals of various kinds per farm, but nothing about the 

 meat, milk, eggs, wool, honey, etc., produced by them, except 

 for the lime-sink region. Such information is needed to com- 

 plete the account of agricultural operations. It was gath- 

 ered more completely by the 13th census (1910) than by any 

 previous one, but that still leaves much to be desired. In 

 the case of crops the aim seems to have been to return the 

 total yield, without deducting the portion consumed on the 

 farms, but for animal products sometimes the total produc- 

 tion, sometimes the surplus sold, and sometimes both are 

 given. 



