188 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



teresting study, and because of its vitality and its adaptabil- 

 ity is always intimately related to the history of the nation 

 itself. It is always changing as the conditions change, and 

 the present agricultural depression is because the conditions 

 of business in the civilized world have changed more rapidly 

 than this conservative industry could follow. The introduc- 

 tion of steam for the transportation, the buihling of railroads 

 and the changes in land transportation which have followed, 

 have been the greatest factors in the change demanded of 

 agriculture. Until within the memory of many of my 

 hearers nearly all the food of the world had to be grown 

 within twenty miles of the place where it was consumed. 

 Only grain and such kinds of food as could l)e transported 

 dried or salted could be shipped any considerable distance, 

 and these at a considerable loss as to their value as food. 

 Consequently, great cities could not be fed ; moreover, un- 

 der the conditions of life in great cities, pestilences were 

 frequent and life much more uncertain than in the country. 

 Consequently, there was not a city of a million of inhabitants 

 anywhere in Christendom at the beginning of this century. 

 The ffreat arowtli of modern cities and the great drain of the 

 rural population to large' manufacturing towns has come about 

 since the use of steam as a power for manufacturing instead 

 of water power, and with modern means of transporting 

 food and products of manufacture, and with the greater 

 healthfulness of cities made possible by the application of 

 sanitary science. 



These great economical chansfes have aifected a<jriculture 

 everywhere, as they have no other industry or vocation ; not 

 only affected its methods and its products, but also its 

 capital. Less than fifty years ago, three-fourths, if not more, 

 of the capital of the civilized world was invested in agricult- 

 ure or in the commerce of its products. Moreover, in most 

 countries and emi)haticallv*in this, the vast majority of the 

 inhabitants devoted to it at least a part of their daily toil. 

 Now there are so many other ways of investing capital, some 

 of them absorbing such vast amounts, that the value of agri- 

 cultural land has declined. Once land was considered the 

 only safe investment ; this gave it a fictitious value above 

 that which it would have merely for agricultural uses. This 



