LINE OF LEAST RESISTANCE 45 



in another two or three years hunger got ahead 

 of the food supply and stayed there. 



Then the farmer who had stayed on the 

 farm, who had refused to heed the call of the 

 cities, began to come into his own again. His 

 acre which had paid him only $7.94 for a given 

 amount of labor in 1896 suddenly began to 

 pay better dividends. It touched the pros- 

 perous figure of $16.42 in 1909 higher even 

 than inflated Civil War figures and con- 

 tinued on up the scale, though a too-bountiful 

 crop in 1910 caused it to pause for a few brief 

 months. 



What about the price of land, the value of 

 land, during this fifty years of the ups and 

 downs of the American farmer ? Land is valu- 

 able in proportion to the demand for its prod- 

 ucts. If this is true, then the acre that paid 

 its husbandman $15.74 in 1871 and the acre 

 that returned $15.49 in 1910 should have pos- 

 sessed the same selling value. 



Yet what is the fact when we come to look 

 at the figures ? The fact is that the acre which 

 exacted a definite amount of labor and paid 

 a definite return could be had for fifteen dol- 

 lars in 1871, while it sold at $32.40 in 1910. 



