350 Percy Wells Bidwell 



of our husbandry, or a horrid idea of our lands, when he shall be 

 informed that not more than eight or ten bushels is the yield of an 

 acre: but this low produce may be ascribed, .... to a cause 

 which I do not find touched by either of the gentlemen whose let- 

 ters are sent to you, namely that the aim of the farmers in this coun- 

 try (if they can be called farmers) is, not to make the most from the 

 land, which is or has been cheap, but the most of the labour, which 

 is dear: the consequence of which has been, much ground has been 

 scratched over, and none cultivated or improved as it ought to have 

 been; whereas a farmer in England, where land is dear and labour 

 cheap, finds it his interest to improve and cultivate highly that he 

 may reap large crops from a small quantity of land."^ 



Livingston wrote in much the same strain. Speaking of the 

 disparagements cast upon the agriculture of this country by foreigners, 

 he says: "To this we must add an erroneous idea, that most strangers 

 entertain of the perfection of agriculture: they presume, that it 

 consists in obtaining the greatest quantity of produce from a given 

 quantity of land; and when they find that the arable yield of our fields 

 is less than that of their native country, they at once pronounce us 

 miserable farmers; not considering, that agriculture is good, or bad, 

 in proportion to the return which it makes for the capital employed, 

 and that the capital consists not of land only, but of stock, land, and 

 labour. In countries in which a great population causes land to 

 be dear, and labour cheap, the farmer expends much labour on 

 little land, and renders that extremely productive, and the reverse 



where land is cheap, and labour dear Considered in 



this view, we are much inclined to think, that the agriculture of the 

 United States is at least equal to that of Europe; . . . ." ^ 



The Effect of Cheap Land — The Frontier. 



In an examination of the influence of the relative values of land 

 and labor on agricultural methods and progress, it seems to me that 



^ This letter of Dec. 5, 1791, addressed to Arthur Young, is quoted by Blod- 

 get, Samuel, Junior. Economica: A Statistical Manual for the United States 

 of America. Washington. 1806, p. 91. It is not, however, found in either Sparks' 

 or Ford's editions of Washington's works. It was supposed to have accompanied 

 a description of agriculture in the United States, which, in response to Young's 

 request, Washington had compiled from queries addressed to prominent men in 

 various states. 



2 American Agriculture, pp. 332-333. In a later passage, p. 341, the writer 

 admits that such a system may be disastrous for the community, even if it be 

 justified from the point of view of the individual's interest. 



