LABOR COST OF PRODUCING A BUSHEL OF GRAIN Not counting rent of land or interest on capital invested in equipment, nor depreciation of soil fertility, it has been shown that under favorable conditions, the labor cost of growing and harvesting an acre of wheat or oats may be as low as $4.50, and that of maize as low as $5 per acre. Assuming the average labor cost of producing an acre of wheat or oats at $5.50 and of maize at $6 per acre, and taking the average yields per acre for a series of years to be 13.8 for wheat, 30.9 bushels for oats and 24.9 bushels for maize, the average labor cost per bushel will be: Wheat, 40 cents; oats, 17-1/2 cents; and maize, 28 cents. The data given in this chapter are to be accepted as suggestive rather than as determinative. The chief purpose in presenting them is to place before the young farmer an appreciation of some of the problems involved in the production of the chief and basic agricultural commodities. The young farmer's success will be modified by the role which they occupy in his farming system and by his ability to adjust them to the economic conditions in which he may find himself placed. A thorough understanding of the principle underlying the data submitted will go far toward enabling him to make this adjustment, although none of the illustrations given may have been obtained under conditions identical to his own. CHAPTER XIV THE PLACE OF INTENSIVE FARMING The doctrine of the survival of the most fit applies equally to the field of biology and to the field of economics. The general introduction of vegetables and fruits into the human dietary has, by banishing the loathsome diseases of the Middle Ages, greatly increased human efficiency. It follows that those peoples or nations who employ vegetables and fruits in abundance, other things being equal, will be most fit to survive and must outstrip others less fortunately situated. We may for this reason alone look forward to the increasing importance of vegetable growing and fruit raising; but there is a more obvious and perhaps more direct reason. There is in the production of vegetables, at least, a method of satisfying the dietetic needs of an increasing population. The employment of a part of the area now in cereals and forage crops for the production of potatoes, cabbages, legumes, roots and tomatoes is one of the most ready means of increasing the food supply. Whether such substitution will be advantageous to the human race depends, however, not so much upon the food returns from a given area of land as upon the products from a given amount or unit of labor. KINDS OF HORTICULTURE