DIVISION AND SPECIALIZATION 143 



from a Board room. It is operated in small 

 units by millions of individuals, each of whom 

 must determine for himself what to sow and 

 reap, and stand or fall by his judgment. If 

 an inventive genius were to enable the Steel 

 Corporation to manufacture steel for fifty 

 cents on the dollar the Board of Directors 

 would not manufacture twice as much steel 

 as before on the theory that it cost no more 

 to produce. Instead, they would close down 

 one-half of their plant. Likewise, if an over- 

 night miracle should increase the productive- 

 ness of our acres one hundred per cent., one- 

 half of our acres would be forced to shut down 

 by the cataclysm of low prices. 



Efficiency of methods and expansion of 

 acreage must therefore follow, hand in hand, 

 the pressure gauge of hunger. The farther 

 we go the more difficult it becomes to expand 

 acreage, because the most refractory waste 

 land will be left to the last. The problem 

 is unique to each individual acre. The Far- 

 mer of To-morrow must ask himself, "Will it 

 be more profitable for me to drain a sour 

 swamp or to expend additional capital and 

 labor on land already under cultivation?" 



With the end of available arable land in 



