46 THE FARMER OF TO-MORROW 



And, furthermore, this same acre which 

 yielded only fifty cents on the dollar in 1896 

 was still considered worth about fifteen dollars 

 by its owner in that depressing year. 



These figures are not as paradoxical as they 

 seem. The United States had, in the begin- 

 ning, nearly one billion acres of fertile arable 

 land to give away. Land that is to be had 

 for the asking is not worth anything in dol- 

 lars and cents for itself. The only value home- 

 stead land possessed in the early days of farm- 

 ing was due to the amount of labor expended 

 on it to subdue it for the plow. The home- 

 steaders believed that about $15 worth of 

 labor must be expended on the average acre, 

 and so long as there was free land to be had 

 for the asking the owner could not exact a 

 higher price. Land was not capital, although 

 it frequently returned to labor over one hun- 

 dred per cent, gross on its market valuation. 

 From the Civil War on until 1900 the census 

 returns report the value of farm land as hover- 

 ing about fifteen dollars an acre. But with 

 the beginning of the new century there comes 

 a change. There is no more land to give away. 



The price of food is too high. We have 

 solved this problem more than once before in 



