THE PROPORTIONS OF THE FACTORS OF PRODUCTION 149 



by expansion to a greater area. Intensity of culture and the 

 area of the farm are in a real sense reciprocals. 



Standpoint 4. Intensity of culture may be viewed from the 

 standpoint of the entire agriculture of a country. When 

 viewed in a given year there is found a very wide range in the 

 degrees of intensity in the different parts of the country. On 

 the cheap marginal lands the expenditure per acre is small and 

 the farming is said to be extensive, while on the high-priced 

 lands near the markets, the expenditure per acre is large and 

 the farming is said to be intensive. This difference may be due 

 to the application of more labor and capital to a given kind of 

 production or to the production on the higher-priced land of 

 crops which require (under any condition) very much more 

 labor and capital per acre. For example, market gardening is 

 much more intensive than wheat growing and is usually found 

 on higher-priced land near the market. 



Likewise, when the whole country is viewed geographically 

 it is found that certain kinds of land are farmed more intensively 

 than others because of the character of the soil, more labor and 

 capital being required to yield optimum results on certain kinds 

 of land than on other kinds of land. This simply means that 

 the capacity of certain kinds of land is higher than that of other 

 land, due to differences in the physical properties of the land. 



Viewed historically, an increase in intensity in the utiliza- 

 tion of land is the result of a relative increase in the popula- 

 tion. On the other hand, a decrease in population or an in- 

 crease in the available agricultural land supply will make a more 

 extensive culture desirable, unless improvements in equipments 

 are such as to make possible the greater use of machinery, so 

 that, while the application of human labor is less per acre, this 

 may be counteracted by the use of more capital per acre, and 

 in this way maintain or increase the intensity of culture as a 

 basis of a greater per capita consumption. 



The proportions of laborers and equipments. In farm organi- 

 zation it often happens that a fixed number of laborers must be 

 combined with certain equipments; for example, one man is 

 required for each self-binder; but in many cases it may be a 



