62 OUTLINES OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



and thus the rent theory breaks down." Is this view correct? If 

 the fact is as stated, does it constitute an impeachment of the doctrine 

 of rent or of the farmer's economic intelligence ? 



5. "Under conditions of free competition the landlord cannot get 

 a penny more than the economic rent of his land. Likewise, if com- 

 petition is free and active, the tenant cannot get the land for a penny 

 less than the amount of its economic rent." Show carefully, step by 

 step, how this process of adjustment would be worked out. Is com- 

 petition of this sort the rule in American farming communities? 

 What is the long-run tendency ? 



6. A Congressional committee reports: "One of the many causes 

 contributing to the advance in prices is the increased cost of produc- 

 tion of farm products by reason of higher land values." Explain fully 

 how this operates from cause to effect or, if you think the statement 

 incorrect, explain fully your grounds for differing. 



7. "The profit required by the landlord is in proportion to his 

 risk and trouble. In Tompkins County, New York, the landlords who 

 rented for cash made an average of 5 .2 per cent; those who owned 

 part of the stock, paid part of the expenses, and received half of the 

 receipts made 9 per cent. The tenants who rented for cash made an 

 average of $604 for their labor; those who rented for a share made an 

 average of $342." Does this statement correspond with the facts in 

 your own community? Does this apply to economic rents or only 

 to contract payments from lessee to lessor ? If one rents bare land, 

 furnishing neither stock nor implements, is there likely to be a higher 

 average rental paid in the sharing of product than in cash renting ? 

 What risk is involved ? 



8. "The first settlers are seen to have established themselves on 

 the barren soil of Massachusetts. The whole continent was before 

 them, but, were the reader inclined to designate the soils of the Union 

 least calculated for the production of food, his choice would fall upon 

 the rocky lands first occupied by the hardy Puritans. Everywhere it 

 has been the lighter and poorer soils which have first been used." Is 

 this a refutation of the fundamental propositions upon which our rent 

 theory rests ? Explain fully. 



ADDITIONAL REFERENCES 



Standard texts in general economics. 



Special treatises on distribution, e.g., Carver, Distribution of Wealth. 



Johnson, "Rent in Modern Economic Theory/' Publications of the American 



Economic Association, 3d series, Vol. III. 

 Walker, Land and Its Rent. 

 George, Progress and Poverty. 

 Carver, Principles of Rural Economics, chap. v. 



