Defenseless Trade Position of Agriculture. 95 



table gardening wlio often lectured before farmers' clubs 

 and granges. He was regarded as one of the best 

 informed men in the state in this line. He got to talking 

 about corn and maintained that Xew England farmers 

 could afford to raise it. He had tested the matter and 

 proved that corn could be raised in Massachusetts for 

 fifty cents a bushel. AVhat gave a false impression here? 

 In the experiment he used his gardening land, made 

 exceedingly rich by constant application of manure. No 

 allowance was made for this totally unfair condition. 

 The crop was charged only with a few dollars' worth of 

 fertilizers. Of course, the yield was phenomenal, two or 

 three times the usual. This gave a very low cost per 

 bushel. 



An account was seen in an agricultural paper of a 

 farmer who did most all of his own work, claiming his 

 farm paid him 20%. Several items of cost were not 

 entered ; the most important was he charged nothing for 

 his own services. 



In manufacture cost can be measured, and this knowl- 

 edge goes far to hold price at a fair level. In agriculture 

 cost cannot be ascertained; price is determined solely by 

 degree of competition. How vitally this affects the in- 

 dustrial situation has been shown in preceding chapters. 

 That in agriculture competition will be most intense, and 

 in consequence that price is likely to fall far below cost, 

 will be evident from a discussion of the next proposition, 

 which is that — 



Agkiculture is Not Divided into Non-co:mpetixg Groups 



If, like manufacture, agriculture was divided into hun- 

 dreds of non-competing groups, and farmers generally 

 confined attention to single specialties, the degree of com- 



