364 PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



destined to remain ultimately in the possession of a poorer type 

 of man. A selective process seems to be going on, which tends 

 to bring about such a result. Where the land is fertile and the 

 opportunities for agricultural enterprise are good, the intelligent 

 and progressive youths are induced to remain on the farm. 

 They will be able to beat the less intelligent in competition and 

 to buy the land away from them. At the same time, such lands 

 attract the more intelligent and progressive farmers who are 

 looking for a place in which to locate. An unintelligent and 

 unprogressive farmer stands a poor show in such a place. The 

 other class will offer so much for land that he will not be able to 

 buy it. If he owns it already, they will offer him so much for 

 it that he will generally yield to the pressure sooner or later, 

 and sell out. On the other hand, where the land is poor and 

 .opportunities meager, the more capable of the growing youths 

 tend to move away, so long at least as there are better oppor- 

 tunities to be found elsewhere. Again, the men who are crowded 

 off the richer lands will sometimes drift toward those cheaper 

 lands where they do not have to bid against competent, but 

 only against incompetent, farmers. Eventually, however, it is 

 possible that the competition even here may become so severe 

 as to drive out the undesirable element. 



The standard of living. The suggestion that the best lands 

 tend to get into the hands of the best farmers needs qualifi- 

 cation. It sometimes looks as though they tended to get into 

 the hands of the farmers with the cheapest standard of living. 

 It has often been noticed and remarked upon that foreign-born 

 farmers are buying out our native American farmers, not be- 

 cause the foreigners are better farmers, but because they can live 

 more cheaply and thus accumulate capital for investment more 

 rapidly. This, it is claimed, is merely a triumph of a lower over 

 a higher standard of living, and indicates a tendency toward 

 keeping farm life on a low level. 



