24 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



movement followed but slowly the path of the pioneer farmer, 

 yet in the course of time the older parts of the North became 

 noted for their manufactures. With the development of 

 manufactures, a market has grown up for the ordinary forms of 

 farm produce, such as wheat, oats, pork, beef, and dairy prod- 

 ucts. As markets have developed and the means of transpor- 

 tation have been improved, the old self-sufficient farming has 

 been changed into a commercial economy, until the remnants 

 only, of the old system, are now to be found. This change has 

 come about because men have found that a given amount of 

 economic activity will produce the means of satisfying a greater 

 number of wants when each man devotes himself more or less 

 exclusively to some one line of production. This specializa- 

 tion in production brings larger returns because (i) some parts 

 of the world are especially well suited for the production of cer- 

 tain products, (2) some men are especially well fitted for per- 

 forming one kind of work while others can best do something 

 else, and (3) since the invention of power machines in manu- 

 factures large scale specialized production is much cheaper 

 than the old handicraft system. 



As a result of the development of commerce in the products 

 of agriculture, the modern farmer has found it profitable to 

 look primarily to the production of a few staples which can be 

 put upon the market in exchange for the great variety of things 

 which he desires to use. Incidentally many modern farmers 

 produce certain articles, such as fruits and vegetables, primarily 

 for the use of their own households, and here they are free to 

 follow their own instincts, as did the self-sufficing farmers of 

 olden times, and produce those things which they like best to 

 consume ; but in the production of the staples of commerce 

 they must, if they would best succeed, produce those things 

 which will enable them to obtain upon the market the largest 

 possible means of supplying their wants, in return for the effort 

 which they expend upon their farms. 



From the point of view of the farmer, then, the first problem 

 before us in the economics of agriculture pertains to the selec- 

 tion of land and the management of a farm in such a manner as 



