INTENSIVE AND EXTENSIVE FARMING 811 



much lower in the Old World countries. What we really desire to know 

 is how to increase the productivity of our land per acre without reducing 

 the productivity per farmer. Productivity is increased by the substitution 

 of more productive crops and by the more intensive cultivation of each crop. 

 Increase in productivity of crops has been gradually brought about by 

 plant selection and breeding. The more usual method, however, is to 

 substitute a more productive crop for a less productive one. Such an 

 example would be the substitution of corn for oats, or potatoes for corn. 



Economizing Labor. — The prosperity of agriculture and the standard 

 of rural life depends more on the character of labor than upon the character 

 of land, although fertile land makes easier a high standard of living. 

 History shows that nations have declined in the midst of fertile lands and 

 favorable surroundings. This has been due to the human factor, and 

 especially to the fact that labor has been allowed to run to waste. Other 

 nations have grown rich and powerful in spite of sterile soil and poor 

 surroundings. Such people were intelligent, industrious and painstaking. 

 The natural conditions of New England were far inferior to those of other 

 portions of North America more recently settled, and yet the early people 

 of New England prospered in the absence of transportation facilities and 

 inventions that are so abundant today. 



Economizing labor means a larger product per man. A large product 

 per acre is desirable only when it means a large product per man. An 

 abundance of cheap labor sometimes facilitates securing a large product 

 per acre, but this means large numbers of families to be supported on very 

 low wages. It gives rise to widespread poverty, a condition which true 

 political economy aims to avoid. 



Labor is economized by the introduction of scientific methods and the 

 utilization of the most modern labor-saving implements. These include 

 all the best agricultural machines and the use of large teams and mechanical 

 power. 



Increasing, Stationary and Diminishing Returns. — The niggardly 

 application of labor and capital to a piece of land in the cultivation 'of 

 any crop is little better than wasted. It generally produces very little 

 in proportion to itself. With a more generous application a much larger 

 crop yield is secured. One day's labor with man and team on ten acres 

 of land would give no crop at all. Five days' labor on the same area might 

 produce a veiy poor crop. Ten days of labor would certainly produce 

 more than twice as much as five days of labor, and twenty days of labor 

 might produce a good crop and one more than twice as large as that pro- 

 duced with ten days of labor. Up to this point we have what is known 

 as increasing returns. The addition of another ten days of labor might 

 result in an increase just sufficient to pay for the increased labor. This 

 would give us what is known as stationary returns. To go beyond this 

 the returns for additional labor would not be equal to the added cost of 

 labor, and would give us diminishing returns. The point of stationary 



