1890.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 189 



is shown on a stupendous scale in England, where land had 

 also a political and a social value. The various causes 

 which enhanced the money value of land above its mere 

 agricultural value have greatly changed within the last few 

 years. 



Bear in mind that the money value of land depends upon 

 a variety of considerations ; partly on the density of the 

 population, partly on the desirability of location for business 

 purposes, partly on the markets, partly upon fertility, 

 partly upon the character of one's neighbors ; and so on 

 through a variety of conditions, its agricultural capacity 

 being but one factor. 



In the new order of things, land is becoming relatively 

 much more valuable in cities and less valuable in the country. 

 Many kinds of business formerly carried on in the country 

 have left the country, and the land of the country is rapidly 

 becoming mere agricultural capital, and subject to the laws 

 of capital invested in other kinds of business. Keep in mind 

 that farming is the most adaptive as well as the most con- 

 servative of all industries. It can and will change to meet 

 any required condition or pressure, l)ut it cannot change 

 rapidly. 



As in all other kinds of business, change means a re-ad- 

 justment of the money values of the fixed capital used in the 

 business. In some places land must and does rise in value ; 

 in another, sink, in accordance with the new conditions 

 under which each farm is placed. 



We hear much of the decadence of New England farming, 

 and all the great city newspapers are just now speaking of it. 

 They treat it as if it w^ere an independent economical fact, 

 and this decline of farmino; in New England has been the 

 subject of many a pathetic article. But is it a fact that New 

 England farming is declining, in any other sense than that 

 which applies to agriculture all' over Christendom ? If so, 

 in what sense is it declining ? It is changing unquestionably ; 

 so is the farming of every civilized region that is reached by 

 railroads and telegraph. New England farming is certainly 

 changing, but I question very much if it is declining ; I mean 

 declining in the amount of its pixiductions, declining in the 

 value of its productions, or declining in its relative profits as 



