AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



ent time, yield the same income, is the belief that 

 with the progress of society the competition for 

 the use of land will result in a rise in rents, that, 

 while there is a tendency for the annual income 

 which can be derived by lending a given amount 

 of money to decline, there is at the same time and 

 under like conditions a tendency for the income of 

 a given amount of land to increase. 



The available land supply of a country usually 

 increases less rapidly than the population, so that 

 it becomes necessary to resort to land which is 

 either less fertile, less favorably situated, or more 

 difficult to bring under cultivation ; and as a result 

 of keener competition for the better grades of land 

 the amount which will be offered for the use of 

 such land will rise. While this is what usually 

 happens in the long run, it sometimes happens that 

 the discovery of great quantities of very fertile 

 land, and the invention of better means of trans- 

 portation making this new land more accessible, 

 will for a time reduce the competition for the 

 land which was already under cultivation, and the 

 rent of such land may, for a time, be reduced; 

 but it is believed that the occasional reactions of 

 this kind cannot permanently counteract the tend- 

 ency for the price of land to rise. 



The land which yields the highest rent at one 

 time may be surpassed in the amount of rent 

 which it will yield at another time, by land which 

 was formerly let for a smaller rent. This may be 



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