While the subsistence of a nomad requires 100 to 200 acres of land, for that of a skillful farmer from 1 to 2 acres suffice.[110] In contrast, the land of the Indians living in the Hudson Bay Territory in 1857 averaged 10 square miles per capita; that of the Indians in the United States in 1825, subsidized moreover by the government, 1-1/4 square miles.[111] [Sidenote: Land in relation to agriculture.] With transition to the sedentary life of agriculture, society makes a further gain over nomadism in the closer integration of its social units, due to permanent residence in larger and more complex groups; in the continuous release of labor from the task of mere food-getting for higher activities, resulting especially in the rapid evolution of the home; and finally in the more elaborate organization in the use of the land, leading to economic differentiation of different localities and to a rapid increase in the population supported by a given area, so that the land becomes the dominant cohesive force in society.

[See maps pages 8 and 9.] [Sidenote: Migratory agriculture] Agriculture is adopted at first on a small scale as an adjunct to the chase or herding.

It tends therefore to partake of the same extensive and nomadic character[112] as these other methods of gaining subsistence, and only gradually becomes sedentary and intensive.

Such was the superficial, migratory tillage of most American Indians, shifting with the village in the wake of the retreating game or in search of fresh unexhausted soil.

Such is the agriculture of the primitive Korkus in the Mahadeo Hills in Central India.