LARGER ASPECTS OF FARMING 99 



free from debt and is not thinking of selling; but it is also a fact 

 that in this country more than in any other, land is a merchantable 

 commodity, is frequently bought and sold, and when bought, is fre- 

 quently bought on credit. To buy on credit an object which is sub- 

 jected to such violent fluctuations in value is a rather hazardous 

 undertaking. You may gain very largely, and then again you may 

 lose very heavily. In other words, farm land is one of the most 

 uncertain and hazardous of all investments. 



I mention this for the reason that it has been frequently stated 

 in recent years that farm lands are the safest of all securities as a 

 basis for credit. That is a proposition which may sound well on 

 a political platform, but it is not true, in fact; and they who have 

 taken it literally, especially in the recent land boom in the corn belt, 

 have learned to their extreme sorrow that it is a dangerous fallacy. 



One of my colleagues, in a recent attempt to be facetious, has 

 remarked that agricultural economics is a kind of mental agriculture. 

 If so, that is not enough to condemn it. I believe that there are a 

 good many farmers scattered through the corn belt today who would 

 be materially better off at this moment if they had practised a little 

 more of this kind of mental agriculture, the kind that consists in 

 analyzing the basis of the value of farm land. 



"A GOOD LIVING AND TEN PER CENT" 



"A good living and ten per cent" has been adopted as a kind of 

 slogan for an agricultural campaign. This does not sound unreason- 

 able; that is to say, the conditions ought to be such as to make it 

 possible for any first-rate farmer to realize that or more. I wish to 

 contend, however, that for the inferior farmer, or the farmer who is 

 materially below the average, this is a goal that is forever unattain- 

 able, if the value of the land is considered a part of the investment 

 on which he is to realize ten per cent. No matter how good a farmer 

 he is, if he happens to be materially below the average of those who 

 are competing with him for land, labor, and equipment, he never will 

 be able to attain this goal while the world stands. As I suggested 

 earlier in this paper, his more efficient competitors will bid so high 

 for land as to make it impossible for this inferior farmer ever to 

 realize ten per cent on that high price. 



There is, however, one very important use that can be made of 

 this slogan, or one very similar to it. I will explain this use by first 

 mentioning what happens to a business corporation that fails to pay 

 all the expenses, including the salaries of its officers. In a case of this 



