AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



with a given degree of productivity, the distance 

 between the lines A B and AT B will depend 

 upon the degree of qualitative efficiency possessed 

 by the farmer who operates the laborers and the 

 capital-goods, and also upon the character of the 

 laborers and capital-goods which he employs. 

 For this reason it will be necessary to keep in 

 mind a given farmer employing a given grade of 

 laborers and capital-goods, as well as a given 

 piece of land. With these conditions in mind we 

 may speak of the area AC' C (Fig. i) as repre- 

 senting the product which would result if but one 

 unit were employed per acre, and of the area C C' 

 D f D as representing the increase in the product 

 due to the addition of the second unit and so on for 

 the succeeding units. As illustrated in Fig. i, the 



Fig. i. 



product of each succeeding unit is greater than 

 the one preceding it until six units have been ex- 

 pended, after which each succeeding unit may be 

 said to yield a smaller product than the one im- 

 mediately preceding it. 



Indeed it may be true that a law of stationary 

 98 



