96 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



space and modify their diet so that their demand for food can be satis- 

 fied upon the smaller tract to which they are now limited. 



For this reason the laws of consumption are of prime importance 

 in studying the direction along which the pressure of population forces 

 the development of mankind. Those individuals or races who have 

 an abnormal desire for the rare kinds of food must give way to their 

 competitors, who can satisfy their appetites with articles of which 

 nature grants a more abundant supply. Those families whose habits, 

 tastes, or fancies cause them to reject a large portion of the food supply 

 are surpassed by others who, through a better adjustment to the con- 

 ditions of nature, have a love for all that variety which nature can 

 provide. Strong appetites limit the diet to those articles which can 

 best satisfy an intense desire for food. Weak appetites are so easily 

 satiated with any one kind of food that many articles must form a 

 part of the regular diet in order that enough may be eaten to meet 

 the demands of the system. Families of weaker appetites are thus 

 better adjusted to the conditions which increase production and create 

 that variety in demand which allows the best use of all the land. As 

 any tract of land can produce a variety of articles at less cost than it 

 can the same quantity of some one or any few articles, the struggle 

 for existence favors those who can get pleasure from all kinds of food 

 more than those who have an intense desire for a few of the rarer kinds. 



The facts which have been presented will, if properly correlated, 

 furnish the key to the present misuse of land and the high price of 

 food. Cheap men, who have inherited the strong appetites of their 

 primitive ancestors, are yet so numerous that they create a large 

 demand for land through their love of rare foods .and stimulating 

 drinks. The same causes retard the accumulation of capital, through 

 which, alone, the inferior land can be changed into good land. As a 

 result, a much larger area of land must be cultivated than would other- 

 wise be necessary, and the higher price of food needed to cultivate so 

 much inferior land without the use of the necessary capital takes a 

 large part of the product of industry from the producers to go as rent 

 to the owners of the better land. Dear food means a poor use of 

 much land, while cheap food means a good use of a little land. 



For this reason the public has the paramount interest in the use 

 made of the land, and a right to restrain those forms of consumption 

 which create a larger demand for land and destroy its fertility. The 

 use of liquor and tobacco causes the land of whole states to be diverted 

 from its best use, and its soil made valueless through the loss of its 



