310 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [Vov. VIII. 
maintenance of the people therein. He represented the cattle supplied 
to the city of London in a year as a vast procession ten abreast extending 
to a length of seventy-two miles. The sheep would form a similar pro- 
cession winding its way one hundred and twenty miles. The calves and 
hogs would form a third pageant of twenty miles, while the bread would 
cover an acre to the height of a quarter of a mile. This estimate was 
made at the time when the population was two and a half millions. 
The aggregate value of these vast supplies would amount to hundreds 
of millions of dollars every vear, a value of extension. 
But when we examine the value of the land we find the widest 
possible contrast. Do we ever hear of vast streams of land conveyed 
from the places where it is abundant and cheap to the places where it 
is scarce and dear? Do the market reports tell of the abundant produc- 
tion of town lots raised on the farm or produced in the factory, to be 
shipped to the city, to replace those that are consumed or worn out? Do 
land-speculators increase the utility of the land and thus increase its 
value, as mechanics turn the crude valueless ore into the locomotive 
worth its thousands? 
These queries at once call attention to the wide contrast between 
the value of labour products and the value of the land. This difference 
is so far reaching, and a proper knowledge of these differences is so impor- 
tant to the success of our civilization, that it cannot be too carefully in- 
vestigated. 
Whence come the vast streams of commodities that supply the wants 
of the city? Let industry stay its hand, let it cease to sow in the spring, 
let it refuse to attend the mines, the railroads, the factories, the preparation 
of the food, clothing and a thousand other necessities, and at once we 
would learn the origin of these values. We can see the men who do the 
work, and we can tabulate their names and their time. 
But to what name shall we credit the value of the lots in the centre 
of the large city? A certain number of men are necessary every year to 
produce the buildings and the crops, but how many men are assigned 
to the production of land-values? Which set of men can say, ‘‘ We have 
toiled at these lots till we have changed their value from nothing till 
now they are worth five millions per acre?”’ How is it that the land 
has no value beyond the margin of settlement, a small value in rural 
districts, more value in the village, greater value still in the towns and 
then rising till in the largest cities, it will sell at a price of millions of 
dollars per acre? 
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