170 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



Capital in Agricultural Land. 



Capital in agricultural land has always been considered in 

 a different light from capital employed in other industries. 

 It certainly bears a very different relation to national pros- 

 perity. It is the most stable of all kinds of property, and 

 least liable to be totally lost. It belongs to its own country, 

 and to no other. Capital invested in trade, even in manu- 

 factures, may, in times of danger, be transferred to other 

 and more peaceful or more prosperous countries. Land in 

 cities has its value entirely in the prosperity of the city 

 itself; but agricultural land has a peculiar value of its own, 

 and is related to the community as no other property is. It 

 cannot be carried away in times of trouble, nor hidden out of 

 sight from the tax gatherer. It is capital that must remain in 

 its own country ; it can neither be carried away nor entirely 

 destroyed, nor can it be brought into the country from else- 

 where. Like all other forms of capital, its money value 

 fluctuates according to the vicissitudes of the business ; but it 

 is never entirely lost, so long as the nation endures or peo- 

 ple are left to be fed. Hence the agricultural land of a 

 country, as representing invested capital and national wealth, 

 has always borne a somewhat different relation to the gov- 

 ernment than capital invested in any other way. 



Curious and fallacious doctrines are now being preached 

 regarding the source of the value of land. Men preach that 

 it is the community and not the occupant that gives value to 

 land, and even that land has an inherent money value of it- 

 self. This is practically untrue. As a rule, land has no 

 value of itself. Agricultural land derives its value in part 

 from the labor done on it, in part from the density of popu- 

 lation, in part from the stability of government, in part from 

 the character of the neighbors, in part from the nature of the 

 market for its product, and in part from several other 

 causes. 



Private ownership of land appears to lie at the foundation 

 of. all civilization. The native American Indian had no idea 

 of })rivate property in land, in the sense of having the land 

 divided up into parcels, each with an owner. He might 

 indeed have his small corn patch, but the land as a wdiole 



