154 PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



forms of property, including improvements on land as well as 

 the land itself, equally. If improved and unimproved land were 

 all taxed alike, or according to its natural or unimproved value, 

 it would seldom be found profitable to hold any piece of valuable 

 land idle and unimproved. The taxes would eat up the antici- 

 pated rise in price, and the owner would find that the only way 

 to make anything out of his land would be to use it as it ought 

 to be used. This would also relieve somewhat the tax on improve- 

 ments or the fruits of labor, thrift, and enterprise, and thus en- 

 courage men to make such improvements or to exercise the virtues 

 of labor, thrift, and enterprise. Such an improvement in politi- 

 cal conditions would eliminate a- great deal of waste in the form 

 of idle land. The seriousness of this waste is not to be measured 

 in acres alone. Land which goes to waste in this way is usually 

 the most valuable in the country, one acre of it frequently being 

 worth a hundred of that which goes to waste in the region of 

 dry farming. 



Much has been said and written about the waste of land in 

 parks, pleasure grounds, game preserves, etc., especially in Euro- 

 pean countries. Where there is a real waste, that is, where the 

 land is so valuable for other purposes as to make its use for these 

 purposes uneconomical, the evil could be cured in most cases by 

 the simple device of taxing it according to its value for those 

 other purposes. But it will be found that the evil has been 

 greatly exaggerated. It is certainly true in many cases, and 

 probably in most cases, that land devoted to these uses would 

 have little value as agricultural land. It is usually the most 

 broken, stony, or sterile land which is so used. In such cases 

 the obvious thing to do with the land, if it cannot be profitably 

 cleared for the plow, is to allow it to grow up to forest. If it 

 can be made to yield a small profit in the production of game 

 and to give pleasure as a park or hunting ground, in addition to 

 its production of timber, so much the better. But where good 



