AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



value. Economic goods have weight and bulk, it 

 is true, but these properties they share in common 

 with free goods. ,We need therefore some term 

 which will express the relative capacity of dif- 

 ferent pieces of land to produce values, and since 

 it is bad economy to use two words for one idea 

 and leave another idea without any word with 

 which it may be expressed, it is desirable that a 

 more equitable distribution of words should be 

 made. Fertility refers to the quality of the land. 

 Variation in fertility is measured in terms of the 

 pounds or bushels of the product. Instead of 

 using the word productivity to designate this 

 same idea we propose to use this term to desig- 

 nate the relative value-producing-power of the 

 land. The productivity of land may, and usually 

 does, vary from place to place because of varia- 

 tions in the fertility of the land and because of 

 differences in location with respect to the central 

 market. Differences in the productivity of land 

 due to location may be expressed in terms of vari- 

 ations in the local market prices of the products. 

 Because of the fact that land is limited in 

 quantity, some economists have said that land 

 partakes of the character of a monopoly. This 

 statement is rather misleading, however, for the 

 essential element in a monopoly is unity of con- 

 trol, and land does not lend itself readily to unity 

 of control. What these economists have in mind 

 is that land usually commands a price which is 



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