930 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



and is even beset by them ; he is a shrewd observer, a ready 

 innovator. With the transition from pioneer farming, the agri- 

 cultural methods of the central region have been revolutionized 

 during the past generation. If beet culture were really so ad- 

 vantageous a part of the general change, we might expect its 

 speedy and wide-spread adoption. The advocates of beet growing 

 have simply accepted the common and fallacious notion that the 

 highest cultivation is necessarily the most advantageous cultiva- 

 tion. The agricultural expert is apt to be intent on the gross 

 product, on the largest yield per acre. But the best agriculture 

 is that which secures the largest yield not per unit of area but 

 per unit of labor. Minute cultivation means a large product per 

 acre but by no means necessarily a large product per man. 



The only solid ground for maintaining that protection for beet 

 sugar has been of advantage to agriculture is that of the young- 

 industries argument. Ignorance, settled habits and prejudices, 

 unaccustomed methods, the inevitable failures in first trials, all 

 these obstacles may have stood in the way of the beet-sugar 

 industry in its first stages. It is true that the argument for 

 protection to young industries was not supposed to apply to 

 agriculture by List and his followers, since unalterable conditions 

 of soil and climate were thought to determine once for all the 

 geographical distribution of the extractive industries. It would, 

 perhaps, be hazardous to lay down an unqualified proposition of 

 this sort. The course of industry may conceivably be guided 

 and diverted to advantage in agriculture as well as in manufac- 

 tures. The difference between the two cases would seem to be 

 simply one of probability, of degree. None the less, an impor- 

 tant difference in degree remains. It is more likely that industry 

 will pursue its "natural" course in agriculture than in manu- 

 factures ; since agriculture is affected much more by the physical 

 factors of soil and climate and much less by acquired skill. 



There are still other grounds for questioning the applicability 

 to agriculture of the young industries-argument. There is not 

 in agriculture that close contact between different producers or 

 that stress of competition between them which is most likely to 

 lead to improvements ; and a stimulus to improvement is the 



