AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



time make large profits; and, finally, it is hoped 

 that by this time it has become quite clear that it 

 is to the interest of each farmer to select that 

 grade of land which corresponds to his degree of 

 qualitative efficiency. 



In this illustration we have considered compe^ 

 tition in but one kind of agriculture. The more 

 efficient farmer in one branch of agriculture may 

 be the less efficient in another. The best shep- 

 herd may be a poor market gardener and vice 

 versa. The shepherd will be able to win his larg- 

 est net profit on cheap land, while the market 

 gardener can do best on expensive lands near the 

 great cities. Yet the general principle holds that 

 the best shepherd can win the largest net profit 

 on the best sheep land, and the best market 

 gardener on the land best suited to his particular 

 line of production. 



There is also a differential paid for the use of 

 the more productive forms of capital-goods. 

 This is usually hidden behind the fact that the 

 return to capital-goods is usually thought of in 

 terms of a rate per cent, upon the capital value of 

 the capital-goods. It might be satisfactory to 

 think of the returns to capital goods in this way 

 were it true that the valuations of the different 

 grades of capital-goods varied exactly as the pro- 

 ductivity of these capital-goods; but, because of 

 the variations in the qualitative efficiency of the 

 farmers, the variations in the values of these goods 



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