FACTORS OF PRODUCTION 



factors of production. These factors being the 

 basis of agricultural production, we shall first 

 consider the abundance and economic character 

 of the land and the capital-goods employed in ag- 

 riculture, and the number and economic character 

 of the men engaged in this industry, in the United 

 States, and then attempt to lay down the princi- 

 ples in accordance with which these factors should 

 be organized. 



Section L Land. The land area of the 

 United States, exclusive of Alaska and the insular 

 possessions, was given, in 1900, as 2,970,230 

 square miles, or 1,900,947,200 acres. The acre- 

 age in farms was given, as 838,591,774, which is 

 about forty- four (44.1) per cent, of the total land 

 surface of the country. 1 Of the total area in- 

 cluded in farms, however, only about half (414,- 

 498,487 acres, or 49.4 per cent.) is given as im- 

 proved land. 2 Hence only about twenty-two per 

 cent. (21.8) of the land area of the United States 

 is improved farm land. It is interesting and 

 helpful to compare the United States with some 

 of the European countries in this regard. In 

 England seventy-six per cent, of the total area is 



twelfth- Census of the United States, Statistical Atlas, 

 pp. 25 and 70. 



2 Under the total area in farms is included "all outlying or 

 separate meadows, pastures, woodlots, marshes, etc." Under 

 "unimproved land" is included all "land which has never been 

 plowed, mowed, or cropped, including land once cultivated 

 but now grown up to trees and shrubs." Under "Improved 

 land" is "included all land not reported as unimproved." 

 (Twelfth Census of the United States, Vol. V, p. 758.) 



II 



