ORGANIZATION OF THE AGRICULTURAL ENTERPRISE 341 



to pay the labor; in the other, because the fertilizers are so costly as 

 to swallow all the profits. The problem of the farmer, therefore, is to 

 determine at what point between these extreme yields he must aim to 

 fix his average yield, and in determining this point he must take 

 into consideration the value of his land, the cost of labor, the cost of 

 fertilizer, and the probable price he will receive for his product. 



From this we see the impossibility of "doubling yields without 

 increased expense," and also that when prices drop the income of 

 even the best farmers must decline, for extreme yields are profitable 

 only with high prices. It must be clear that we cannot recklessly 

 increase the yield per acre. 



On the other hand, we cannot continue the old-time wasteful 

 methods of soil exhaustion, cheap and effective though they were in 

 their day, because they are resulting in decreasing yields in the face 

 of increasing demands. If our declining yields due to soil exhaustion 

 are to be arrested and turned into even a slight increase to meet the 

 growing demands, it is clear that new methods must be employed, but 

 the object must be a moderate increase in yield by economic methods, 

 and not extreme yields, which are bound to result in loss to the farmer 

 or in prohibitive prices for food or both. 



Our farming is now in a transition stage between the " extensive 

 agriculture" of the pioneer, in which fertility is disregarded and there 

 is no investment but labor, and the "intensive agriculture" of old and 

 densely populated countries, in which the main question is yield per 

 acre, resulting either in high cost of food or in poorly paid labor. 

 (China produces the most per acre but pays its laborers the least.) 



Our present yields are below what the climate and the general 

 situation ought to produce, owing mainly to certain adverse condi- 

 tions that can be cheaply and easily corrected, and money put into 

 this channel will well repay the investment because it will increase 

 the yield without being subject to the law of diminishing returns. 

 This is where our present duty and opportunity lie in establishing the 

 foundations of a permanent agriculture. It must be remembered that 

 we have not yet reached the intensive stage, where it will pay either 

 the producer or the consumer to attempt maximum yields on American 

 land. 



In the transitional stage, in which our yields are kept down by 

 certain adverse conditions, the first step in a rational procedure is the 

 correction of these conditions by relatively inexpensive methods, such 

 as the use of lime to correct acidity, the application of cheap forms of 



