114 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



such as to cause a great deal of misery. He later recognized 

 various checks on population other than poverty, and it is now 

 recognized that the standard of living desired by a people will 

 determine how much the population will increase as a result of a 

 given increase in the production of economic goods. Further- 

 more, the Darwinian idea of evolution through the struggle for 

 existence and the survival of the fittest when viewed in the 

 light of our present knowledge of the variations in the economic 

 productivity of men leads to the view that it is those who are 

 less capable as producers who are in danger of not being able 

 to make a living in normal times. This means that there is a 

 process of natural selection going on which tends to eliminate 

 the less efficient, and thus lift the average of human efficiency. 

 The ultimate good resulting from this evolution should not lead 

 to ignoring the suffering of these who are on the lower margin. 

 Society should care for them in a humane way which will not 

 encourage their reproduction. 



Whatever else may be true, the population of the United 

 States has increased more rapidly than has the land basis of 

 agriculture, and it is a matter of common belief that such 

 an increase will continue, and that workers in agriculture will 

 probably increase more rapidly than the land basis. 



It has been seen that the new increments of land will probably 

 be less and less desirable as more and more must be brought 

 under cultivation to supply the needs of man. It has been 

 noted that farm equipments may ever be replaced by those of 

 the better quality. The quality of the new increments of supply 

 of farm workers may be improving from generation to genera- 

 tion not because of control, as is true of farm' equipment, but 

 because of the existence and improvement of our educational 

 systems. It would seem at times that the inefficient have 

 large families and the efficient small families, and that this 

 militates against progress in the average intelligence of the 

 farming population. It is often said, also, that education is a 

 stepping stone from the farm and tends to sort out the best 

 and take them from the country. These are the pessimistic 

 points of view. The few data available tend to show that the 



