then, not extend this principle a little further and grow trees 

 where they will produce the large return; and they will pro- 

 duce the larger returns on certain lands and under certain 

 conditions. 



This is sufficient evidence to show that there is a choice of 

 land and a choice of crops; but little use is ever made of the 

 knowledge. A man buys a piece of wild land and clears it 

 for a farm without once considering the capital he is invest- 

 ing or the probable returns. He, after he has eked out a 

 miserable existence for years, may begin to realize that the 

 timber he cut away and burned would have made him more 

 money than he will ever make out of his farm. In other 

 words, the farmer is groping blindly in the fog, a fog cast 

 about him by his own hopes and ignorance, by the real estate 

 men handling poor lands, and by the demagogues who are 

 feathering their own nests by promoting a false boom for the 

 country. 



The value of other kinds of property is based on the rev- 

 enue that they will produce. Even the rent of a farm land is 

 figured on a percentage of the value; but the value is a ficti- 

 tious one selected at random. Land is the only kind of prop- 

 erty which is valued independently of its productive capacity 

 the only true basis of valuation. 



Some day this fog will rise. The people will rebel against 

 the tyranny of the land speculators and demand that the land 

 be valued at its true worth. When they do, crop production 

 will take its proper place as a solid business transaction, farm 

 land will produce farm crops, forest land forests, iron 

 lands ore, and there will be no waste land. The economic con- 

 dition of the country as a whole, and more especially that of 

 the forested portion, will be tremendously improved.- The 

 sow's ear will be left where it will at least be of some value 

 to the sow and the farmer will be infinitely better off and hap- 

 pier with the more edible portions of the hog. 



12 



