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AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



acre of land are measured on the line AB, commencing at A. 

 The line AI'B represents the increasing and diminishing re- 

 turns per succeeding unit. Having in mind land with a given 

 degree of productivity, the distance between the lines AB and 

 AI'B will depend upon the degree of efficiency possessed by 

 the farmer, and also upon the character of the laborers and 

 capital-goods which he employs. For this reason it will be 

 necessary to keep in mind a given farmer employing a given 

 grade of laborers and capital-goods, as well as a given piece of 

 land. With these conditions in mind we may speak of the area 



AC'C (Fig. 7) as representing the product which would result 

 if but one unit were employed per acre, and of the area CC'D'D 

 as representing the increase in the product due to the addi- 

 tion of the second unit and so on for the succeeding units. As 

 illustrated in Fig. 7, the product of each succeeding unit is 

 greater than the one preceding it until six units have been ex- 

 pended, after which each succeeding unit may be said to yield 

 a smaller product than the one immediately preceding it. 



It may be true that the law operates to give stationary 

 returns per succeeding unit during the application of a few 

 units, after the final point of increasing return has been reached 

 and before the starting point of diminishing returns per succeed- 

 ing unit has been reached. It may be true also, that the line 

 AT in Fig. 7, should rise rapidly with the application of one 

 particular unit, say the fourth, and then remain stationary or 

 even fall with the application of the fifth, and then rise very 

 rapidly again with the application of the sixth. The introduc- 

 tion of drainage or the use of commercial fertilizers might bring 



