THE FARMER OF TO-MORROW 



reason that the abandoned areas of the East 

 have suddenly come into economic importance 

 in the last ten years. Only the tremendous 

 stress of the westward movement of the last 

 fifty years can account for the gross in- 

 equalities in the prices at which acres of the 

 East and acres of the West find purchasers. 

 Two hundred dollar land, whose products re- 

 quire a thousand mile haul to be brought to 

 the door of the consumer, is not a rarity in 

 the Middle West. Just so, twenty-five dollar 

 land, with markets at its front gate, is not a 

 rarity in the East. Such a lack of balance can 

 only be explained as a peculiar feature of 

 the period of transition in a rapidly develop- 

 ing industry. It is probable that the greater 

 share of this region east of the Alleghanies will 

 be devoted to growing fruits and vegetables 

 for the city markets. It is here that we find 

 the better class of the recent emigration from 

 southern Europe, seeking to reestablish 

 themselves in their long-forgotten estate of 

 land owners. Italians, Poles, natives of the 

 Balkans, people who have known land for 

 centuries only as a privileged possession de- 

 nied to them and valued to its last square 

 meter at the mountain tops, find nothing to 



