As supplier of most of the food we eat and of raw materials for many industrial processes, agriculture is clearly an important area of the economy. But the industrial performance of agriculture is even more important than this. For in nations where the productivity of farmers is low, most of the working population is needed to raise food and few people are available for production of investment goods or for other activities required for economic growth. Indeed, one of the factors related most closely to the per capital income of a nation is the fraction of its population engaged in farming. In the poorest nations of the world more than half of the population lives on farms. This compares sharply with less than 10 per cent in Western Europe and less than 4 per cent in the United States.
作为我们所吃的大多数食物和很多工业过程原材料的供应商，农业显然是经济的一个重要领域。但农业的工业表现甚至比这更重要。因为在农民生产力较低的国家，大多数劳动人口都需要用来生产粮食，很少有人能够生产投资品或从事经济增长所需的其他活动。事实上，与一个国家的人均收入最密切相关的因素之一是其从事农业的人口比例。在世界上最贫穷的国家，超过一半的人口生活在农场。相比之下，西欧不到10%，美国不到4%。
In short, the course of economic development in general depends in a fundamental way on the performance of farmers. This performance in turn, depends on how agriculture is organized and on the economic environment, or market structure, within which it function. In the following pages the performance of American agriculture is examined. It is appropriate to begin with a conversation of its market structure.
简言之，经济发展的进程在很大程度上取决于农民的表现。这种表现反过来取决于农业的组织方式以及农业运作的经济环境或市场结构。在接下来的几页中，我们将考察美国农业的表现，从它的市场结构论述开始。
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