70 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



forces should ever be kept in mind in the discussion of the 

 movements of population from country to city, or vice versa. 



When the productive forces are properly distributed among 

 the various lines of production, and where the relative values 

 of products are not to be directly affected by public action, it 

 would seem that a just and practical ideal to be held in mind 

 by the statesman when passing judgment upon what crops 

 should be grown, the management of live stock, the intensity 

 of culture, the size of farms, and the laws which limit and define 

 farmers' rights in their relations to each other, to their land- 

 lords, to laborers which they employ, and to those to whom 

 they sell their products, would be the highest long-time average 

 value of the farm products of the country as a whole. 



We wish to mark out clearly the distinction between the social 

 ideal and the ideal of the individual. The individual seeks the 

 largest net profits. He desires to have that share of the product 

 which is left to him, after paying what is necessary to engage 

 the other factors of production, as large as possible. Where 

 the personal interest of the farmer does not extend to all of the 

 factors of production, conflicting interests are certain to arise, 

 as between the landlord and the tenant, or the employer and 

 the employee. While the farmer is interested, personally, in 

 having his own share of the produce large in proportion to the 

 efforts which he puts forth, the statesman should be interested 

 equally in having the returns to all the factors of production 

 as large as possible. 



The conflict between the national point of view and that of the 

 farm operator may relate to the choice of crops, the intensity of 

 culture, the character of the live stock industry, the control of weeds, 

 the control of disease, the quality of the products sold, and the 

 conservation of the land and the economic and social welfare of 

 all classes. When viewed from the national standpoint, it is 

 not the return to any one factor in particular, but the sum of 

 the returns to all the factors which should be of vital interest 

 to the statesman. With the limitations which have been suggested, 

 the highest long-time average value of the total product of the agri- 

 cultural industry may be looked upon as the goal, when agriculture 



