AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



it will be assumed in this illustration, that the 

 same degree of intensity of culture exists through- 

 out the area under consideration.) The perpen- 

 dicular distances represent the value of the prod- 

 uct. The distance A C represents the value of 

 the product which the most efficient farmer can 

 produce upon the most productive land, the dis- 

 tance B C f represents the value of the product 

 which the same farmer could produce upon mar- 

 ginal land. The distance A D represents the 

 value of the product which the marginal farmer 

 could produce upon the most productive land, the 

 distance B D' represents the value of the product 

 which the marginal farmer can produce upon 

 marginal land. (To facilitate the discussion, we 

 shall call the former the C grade farmer and the 

 latter the D grade farmer.) 



Let it be supposed that the land which is neces- 

 sary to supply the demand for a certain class of 

 agricultural products, such, for example, as the 

 diversified agriculture of the corn belt, varies in 

 productivity from A to B, that A grade land is 

 twice as productive as B grade land, and that all 

 other land under consideration is more productive 

 than B and less productive than A grade land. 

 Let it be supposed, also, that all of the farmers 

 who are able to compete for the use of this land 

 at a given time vary in qualitative efficiency from 

 C to D (as represented in Fig. 6), that the farmer 

 who has C degrees of efficiency is qualitatively 



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