200 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



On the other hand, the call of patriotism and high prices may 

 stimulate men to utilize more completely their maximum po- 

 tential capacity for farm work. This will tend to overcome the 

 tendency for rents to fall, for increasing the capacity of men 

 means that each man will demand more land, which will in 

 turn tend to increase rent or at least retard its fall. 



The increase in the efficiency of men, which results in more 

 produce from the same amount of land and labor, will, other 

 things being the same, tend to reduce rents for, with the demand 

 for produce remaining the same, increased supply will tend to 

 lower the prices of produce. While this would be the first 

 effect, lower prices would tend to stimulate population and in 

 the long run increased efficiency will enable a growing popula- 

 tion to encroach farther and farther down the scale to less and 

 less productive land and bid higher and higher for the good 

 land, driving rents higher than they could have been without 

 the increased human efficiency. 



The accumulation of capital may result in the increase of rents, 

 and the reduction in the supply of capital available for agricul- 

 ture may reduce rents. The growth of the capital supply 

 normally tends to reduce the rate of interest, and the price of 

 equipments, and for these two reasons stimulate the buying 

 of farm equipments, which not only tends to increase the total 

 product of the land but to give a larger proportion of the 

 produce to the owner. 



Any improvement in the type of farming in a given locality 

 which will give more nearly continuous profitable employment 

 throughout the year, either by using more land or by providing 

 more profitable labor on a given piece of land, will tend to give 

 an increased proportion of the produce to the owner of the 

 land. 



Tnus while it is true that differences exist among men 

 as well as among the different grades of land, which give basis 

 for a special differential return in the form of profits to men, 

 it is true also that competition may result in the decrease of 

 one of these surpluses to the advantage of the other. If farmers 

 and workmen and equipments increase more rapidly than land 



