46 THE NEW BUSINESS OF FARMING 



of saying that the poorer farmers are lagging 

 behind the economical unit of yield. 



In China land is high and labor low, so we 

 have the extreme case of transplanting separate 

 plants of wheat so as to get the highest possible 

 yield from the acre, a practice that is beyond 

 the conception of the American mind. 



No rule, save the general one that 125% of 

 the average yield of this country is usually de- 

 sirable, can be given for the amount of crops 

 which land in the United States should produce. 

 Each farmer must work out the profit and loss 

 account for himself. His job is to make the 

 largest possible difference between cost of pro- 

 duction and selling price for his farm products. 

 If a special market raises the selling price, the 

 cost of production may rise correspondingly 

 and yet the producer not lose money despite his 

 uneconomic handling of his field costs. The law 

 of compensation is pretty certain to care for 

 most discrepancies, and the man who can sell to 

 the best advantage seldom has the ability to 

 produce in the most economical way. 



A logical deduction is that in an era of high 



