ORGANIZATION OF THE AGRICULTURAL ENTERPRISE 331 



relative profitableness of corn and beets, account must be taken of the 

 difference in the acreage of each crop a farmer can manage. It is well 

 known that a farmer can grow more acres of corn than of beets. It 

 is a mistake therefore to compare profits per acre and to stop there. 

 Profit per acre must be multiplied by the number of acres the farmer 

 can handle. Furthermore, the way in which the corn or the beets 

 complement the other crops with respect to utilization of labor and 

 equipment should be considered. It is always desirable to have an 

 even and continuous demand for man and horse labor. It is also 

 important to consider the profitableness of the other enterprises, such 

 as dairying, cattle feeding, or hog feeding, which may be based upon 

 the corn crop. 



Some crops can be grown over a wide area. Others are more 

 limited in area because of climatic and soil conditions. Where the 

 areas of two crops that hold the same place in a rotation and require 

 labor at the same time of year overlap, the crop with the more limited 

 area will be the strongest competitor for the use of the land especially 

 suited to its production. And the tendency is for the crop with the 

 wider area to be grown on land not required for the crop with the 

 limited area. 



This point can be made clear by reference to a concrete example. 

 A piece of land in France, said .to be as fine land as exists in. the world 

 for wheat production, is suited also to the production of grapes that 

 make a brand of wine very highly prized. The areas suited to the 

 production of this brand of wine are very limited, but the areas suited 

 to wheat production are abundant. To exclude wheat from the wine 

 land affects the supply of wheat but little, but to exclude the vine 

 from any appreciable portion of the limited area suited to its culture 

 for the manufacture of this special brand of wine would materially 

 reduce the supply and result in a rising price, which would give the 

 vine a greater power in competing for the use of the land. 



It happens that, while corn has more extended uses and more 

 exclusive uses than sugar beets, the world has a much greater area 

 physically suited to beet culture than to corn culture. It is hardly 

 probable, therefore, that the sugar beet will ever be able to compete 

 with corn on even terms in the corn belt of the United States. 



Wages and interest vary directly with the opportunity for the 

 profitable employment of labor and capital and inversely with the 

 supply of these factors. This is another economic law which has 

 received too little attention in the promotion of the sugaj* beet industry 



