188 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



or secure his services at a less per cent, on the amount bought 

 or sold. 



As capital increases, all the aid that is incidentally necessary 

 to the manufacture can be commanded. Skilled machinists will 

 be found at hand, so that if any portion of the machinery is 

 broken, it can be easily repaired. But if the establishment is a 

 small one, at a distance from the centres of production, it may 

 be days before such a difficulty can be remedied. 



For these and other reasons, it appears that the law of manu- 

 factures is, that as the capital increases, not merely the profits, 

 but the ratio of profits to capital, increases. 



When we come to agriculture, we meet very different results. 

 The law of agricultural labor is the reverse of this ; that as 

 labor and capital increase, the profits tend to diminish. Bear 

 in mind, that, with this growth of capital, there is no growth of 

 skill contemplated, and no new methods are mtroduced. If, 

 then, we go on to enlarge our capital, on the old basis of skill, 

 our retvirns tend to diminish : the ratio becomes more unfavor- 

 able between returns and expenditure. 



First, suppose we are working upon twenty acres of land, and 

 employing the methods of cultivation at the time common. We 

 may, for a grain crop, plough twice, if that is deemed best, and 

 harrow three times. If, now, we increase our labor, and plough 

 three and harrow four times, we may enlarge our returns, but 

 not as rapidly as we have enlarged our toil. If we could thus 

 secure our gains, we might go on and plough four and five, and 

 harrow six and seven times. But though our profits may thus 

 grow, they will certainly not grow as rapidly as our labor. 



Suppose, then, we add to our twenty acres twenty more, and 

 apply our culture to these also. We then work with no new 

 advantage, and with this disadvantage, that our field of labor is 

 more distant, our manure to be carried farther, and our returns 

 to be brought farther — a small matter on so small a farm, but 

 one of great importance on one of two or three hundred acres. 



If a farmer increases the size of his farm to any great extent, 

 he establishes, in fact, two farms, as these large operations can- 

 not be carried on with ease from one centre. The difficulties of 

 extended agriculture, maintained from one point, with one set of 

 buildings, so increase, that inevitably the area under cultivation 

 is divided and sub-divided into convenient farms, a division 



