430 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



of course." "But," he said, "there has not been a cattle buyer in this 

 neighborhood for three months." 



One can, therefore, readily see that where the eastern farmer has to 

 compete with the farmer on level virgin lands with large fields in the 

 west, with cheap long distance freights, and where he is not the influential 

 man in the community; in other words, where the social and religious 

 life is in the cities, and where cattle feeding is not profitable, land can 

 i!Ot retain its price. It must continually fall until the reflex move sets 

 in from the west, which can only be when western lands become too high, 

 which they are likely to do in the near future. 



We are speaking now only of general conditions. While the general 

 run of farm lands have been falling in price until in a great many cases, 

 and perhaps generally, they are not more than half as high as twenty 

 years ago, there has been a very rapid advance in the price of such of 

 these lands as were adapted to special styles of farming. Lands that 

 will grow first-class tobacco, and especially under improved conditions, 

 have advanced in value. The sandy lands of the Atlantic coast that are 

 available for trucking have advanced in many cases five times as much 

 as general farm lands have declined. The eastern farmer is obliged to 

 become a specialist and do something in which his western neighbor can 

 not beat him in the race. Land, however, will always be low the world 

 over whenever it ceases to be fashionable to farm, or rather wherever 

 the social drift is away from the farm instead of to it. 



Two or three years ago the Maryland Experiment Station sent out one 

 of its professors to investigate this question. He happened in our office 

 at the same time with Mr. David Rankin, of Tarkio, Missouri. We told 

 him here was a man who could throw more light on the subject than 

 any man whom we knew, and asked Mr. Rankin to explain his operations. 

 When he had finished, our eastern friend said: "What shall we eastern 

 people do?" Mr. Rankin turned on his heel, and said: "Raise berries." 



To illustrate further the social element in the thrift of farmers, we 

 might refer to Mr. Whitney's testimony before the Industrial Commission, 

 in which he goes on to state that in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, lands 

 that will grow wheat, corn, and tobacco are selling at from $125 to $250 

 per acre, while directly south there are two counties in Maryland that 

 have exactly the same soil which sells at from $1 to $3 per acre in the 

 forest and for $10 per acre cleared. These three counties were all surveyed 

 by the government last year and the result of the survey was that the 

 . soils were as nearly as possible exactly alike. 



Why this difference? Altogether a social one. A Lancaster county 

 farmer farms his own land and lives off the farm, buying only his tea, 

 coffee, sugar, salt, pepper, and clothing. The families are large and the 

 boys and girls are all brought up to work on the farm. He sells nothing 

 except tobacco and live stock. In that community enough men feed stock 

 to enable a man to buy it by the car load and ship it to the cities. In 

 Maryland, on the other hand, the farmer does not work the land. He 

 would lose social standing if he did. He employs all the labor, has a 

 superintendent, and lives in town; possibly has a tenant and gets a share 

 of the crops. His corn is mainly fed to his work stock. His wheat is 



