Chapter 18 Chapter II The Fertility of the Land

Section 1 Land is a gift of nature, and the product of land is the result of human work. This concept is not entirely correct, but it contains truth. We usually say that there are three types of production factors: land, labor, and capital: all tangible things that rely on human labor to become useful are classified into the category of capital, and tangible things that do not rely on human labor to become useful are classified into the category of land.This distinction is obviously imprecise: for bricks are nothing more than lightly worked soil; and the soil of long-inhabited places has been cultivated for the most part by human beings many times, and owes its present state to human labor.This distinction, however, involves scientific principles.Human beings do not have the power to create matter, but only change things into useful forms to create utility; if the demand for this utility increases, the supply of utility created by humans can also increase: this utility has a supply price .

But there is another utility, QI2 supply, which is beyond human control; this utility is supplied by nature in fixed quantities, and therefore has no supply price. The term "land" has been extended by economists to include permanent sources of this utility,2 whether arising in land, in the sense in which the term is commonly used, or in seas and rivers, Sun and rain and wind and waterfalls. If we study the difference between what is land and those tangible things that we regard as its products, we can see that the basic property of land is its extensiveness.The right to use a piece of land is the right to dominate a certain space—a certain part of the ground.The area of ​​the earth is fixed: the geometric relationship between any part of the earth and other parts is also fixed.Humans have no control over this relationship, and it is in no way affected by need, it has no cost of production, no supply price at which it can be produced.

The use of a certain area of ​​the earth is the first condition of everything that man can do; this use gives him a place of his own activities, enjoys the heat and light, air and rain that nature gives to this place, and determines his life. His distance from other things and other people largely determines his relationship to other things and other people.As we shall see, this property of land, though not very much appreciated, is the last reason why all writers of economics have had to distinguish land from other things.This property underlies many of the most interesting and difficult problems in economics.

Some parts of the surface are useful for production chiefly because of the services they render to the navigator; some are of chief value to the miner; — of primary value to builders.But when we speak of the productiveness of land, it is its use in agriculture that first comes to mind. Section 2. The mechanical and chemical conditions of soil fertility. From the agriculturist's point of view, a given area of ​​land is a means of sustaining a given amount of plant life, and perhaps eventually animal life.For this purpose the soil must have certain mechanical and chemical properties. Mechanically speaking, the soil must be so soft that the fine roots of the plant can run freely through it; yet it must be firm enough to support the plant well.It must not be too loose, like sand, which will cause the water to flow through the soil too quickly, because then the soil tends to dry out, and the food for the plants, as soon as it is formed or thrown into the soil, is lost almost immediately. Went with the water.The soil must not be too hard, like hard clay, so that the water cannot run quite freely through it.For the continual flow of fresh water into the soil, and the continual infusion of air, by the extension of the water in the soil, are indispensable: water and air transform minerals and gases into food for plants, which would otherwise become Useless, even poisonous.The actions of fresh air, water, and frost, are nature's plowings of the soil; and without any other assistance, they may in time render any part of the ground reasonably fertile, if the soil which they form would remain where it was, and not once Formation is immediately washed downwards by heavy rains and floods.But in this mechanical formation of the soil, man has given a great deal of assistance.The main purpose of human cultivation is to help nature to make the soil soft and firm to support the roots of plants, and to allow air and water to extend freely in the soil.Green manure breaks down cohesive soils into soft ones. For sandy soils, green manures give it a much-needed structural firmness and help it mechanically and chemically hold substances that serve as plant nutrients that would otherwise rot. quickly flow out of the soil.

Chemically speaking, the soil must have the inorganic components required by the plant, and in a state suitable for its assimilation; and in some cases, a little labor by man can change the soil a great deal.For man can make a barren land very fertile by adding a little of what it needs; in most cases he either uses lime in some of its many forms, or Even barren land can be fertilized by the use of all kinds of artificial fertilizers that modern chemistry has provided: humans still use bacteria to aid in agricultural work. The third section discusses the power of human beings to change the nature of soil.

By all these means the fertility of the soil can be brought under human control.With sufficient labor, man can make almost any land grow a great deal of crops.Humans can mechanically and chemically make the soil suitable for whatever crop is to be planted next.Man, too, can adapt crops to the nature of the soil, and to each other; choosing such a method of rotation that each plowing will bring the land to such a state and such a season that it can be easily cultivated into the next A suitable seedbed for a crop.Humans can even change the nature of soil forever by draining it, or by mixing two types of soil to supplement deficiencies.Hitherto this has been done only on a small scale; chalk and lime, clay and marl are only thinly sprinkled over the fields; except in garden beds and other favored places, entirely new soil is seldom made.But it will be possible in the future, and some even think it will be, to mix two kinds of poor soil with opposite disadvantages to make fertile soil by applying the mechanical action used in the construction of railways and other large civil works on a large scale .

All these changes may be carried out more generally and thoroughly in the future than in the past.But, even at present, the nature of the greater part of the soil in the old country is very much due to human activity; and in all the soil just below the surface there is a great element of capital in it—the product of past labor of man.Those gifts of nature which Ricardo classifies as the "inherent" and "immortal" properties of the soil have been greatly altered; some have been made barren by successive generations of human manipulation, and some have thus been fertilized.

However, things on the ground are not the same.Nature has annually given heat and light, air and moisture to the surface of the acre of land, over which man has little control.It is true that humans can slightly change the climate by means of large-scale drainage projects, or by afforestation, or deforestation.But, in the main, the action of the sun and the wind and rain is determined by nature for each land year by year.Land ownership is the yearly granting of the land for this activity, and for providing the necessary place for the life and activity of plants and animals; the value of this place is greatly affected by its geographical position.

We may, therefore, continue to use this common distinction between the original or inherent properties of the land, which it acquires from nature, and the artificial properties of the land, which are the result of human activity, so long as we remember the following: The spatial relations of the place, and the sunlight, air, and rain which nature annually gives it; and in many cases these are chief among the inherent properties of the land.The special significance of land ownership and the characteristics of the theory of land rent are mainly derived from these things. Section 4. In every case, the increased remuneration due to the increase of capital and labor will sooner or later decrease.

As to the extent to which the fertility of any soil is due to inherent properties which nature has given, and to the changes which man has wrought upon it, if we do not consider what kind of produce is obtained from the land, , cannot be fully studied.Human power can do much more to promote the growth of some crops than others.Man is most powerless over the trees that grow into forests; the oak, if well planted and of a spacious place, benefits little from human assistance: there is no recourse to employ labor upon it to obtain a great harvest.Much the same is true of the grass that grows in some fertile riverine lowlands, with rich soil and good natural drainage; wild animals feed on this untended grass, and tend it almost as much as man tends it. and so much of the most fertile land in England (which pays a rent of six pounds and more an acre) that the unaided character of the land yields nearly as great a return as is now obtained from such a field. .Next, lands which, though not quite as fertile as those mentioned above, can still serve as permanent pastures.Thirdly, it is arable land. Human beings do not rely on natural sowing on this kind of land, but prepare seedbeds for various crops to suit their special needs. Human beings sow seeds themselves and remove things that are harmful to the seeds.The seeds which man sows are selected so as to have the property of ripening rapidly and fully developing the parts most useful to man.Although this habit of carefully selecting species is only a modern one, even if it is not common now, thousands of years of continuous manipulation have given humans plants that are not quite the same as the original wild plants.Lastly, that produce which owes most to human labor and care, are the superior breeds of fruit, flowers, vegetables, and livestock, especially as improved breeds.For, if man were left alone, nature would select those breeds which would best take care of herself and her produce, and man would select those breeds which would most rapidly supply in large quantities what he most wanted; and of the best produce, There are many that are completely incapable of surviving on their own without human care.

Thus, the role of humans in helping nature grow a variety of agricultural products is varied.In each case, man continues to operate until the increase in returns produced by increases in capital and labor becomes diminishing, and no further increases in capital and labor increase returns.Where this limit is quickly reached, man has left almost all his work to nature; and where he has done so much to produce it, it is because he can work long without reaching this limit.Therefore, we will further study the law of diminishing returns. It is important to note that the return of capital and labour, which we are now dealing with, is measured in terms of the quantity of product acquired, independently of any contemporaneous changes in the exchange-value or price of the product; e.g., Such a change would take place if a new railroad were built in the vicinity, or if a town had a great increase in population and agricultural produce could not be easily imported.This change will be of great importance when we reason from the law of diminishing returns, especially when we study the pressure of increasing population on the means of subsistence.But this change has nothing to do with the law of diminishing returns itself, since the law of diminishing returns does not concern the value of the product obtained, but only its quantity.