[Footnote 150-2: The English are very fond of assuming that the worst land for the time being under cultivation pays no rent. (_Ricardo_, Principles, II, 2.) This fact is frequently obscured by the aggregation into one economic whole of land that pays no rent and land that is able to pay rent. (_John Stuart Mill_, Principles, II, ch. 16, § 3.) True it is that there is a great deal of land which cannot be farmed out, but which can be used only by its owners. Compare _Salfeld_, in the Landwirthsch. Centralb., 1871, II, 182 ff. On land near Wetzlar which, notwithstanding the high price of land in the neighborhood, could not be farmed out at auction, because no one was desirous to lease it, and which was therefore turned over to the highest bidder for the preceding piece, see _Stöckhardt_, Zeitschr. für deutsche Landwirthe, 1861, 237. Where, however, all the land has its own proprietors, the competition of farmers may easily produce a rent for the worst land. It is a matter of complete indifference to the theory of rent, whether the worst land when possessed only by right of occupation or used as pasturage for cattle previous to its cultivation, had value or not. Compare _Nebenius_, Œff. Credit, I, 29; _Hermann_, Staatswirthsch. Unters., 170 seq.] [Footnote 150-3: The analogous gradation in mining may make this clearer.] [Footnote 150-4: _Ricardo_ illustrated this by the following example. An uncultivated tract of country is settled by a small colony. As long as there is here an excess of land of the best quality, and everyone may take possession of it without paying anything therefor, no rent of the land which is merely occupied is possible. But if all the first class land is under cultivation--land which perhaps with the employment of a small amount of capital yields 5 quarters an acre per annum; and the increasing population necessitates the cultivation of land of the second class, which with the same outlay of capital yields only 4 quarters an acre per annum, there arises a rent of 1 quarter an acre per annum for land of the first class. For the price, 4 quarters is now high enough to cover the cost of production per acre, and it must be a matter of complete indifference (complete indifference?) to a new comer whether he obtains 5 quarters from land of the first class as a farmer and pays out 1 quarter, or whether he harvests 4 quarters from second class land as proprietor. If there is a further increase of population, so that land of the third class also, which yields only 3 quarters per acre per annum, must be brought under cultivation, the price of corn rises again because the cost of production has now to be covered by three quarters. Land of the first class now pays a rent of 2 quarters and