8 The State and the Farmer 



ago. This decline seems to be expressed (i) 

 in migration of population to cities and to 

 other regions; (2) in lower birth-rate. 



Between the years 1880 and 1900 there was 

 an annual decrease in value of farm prop- 

 erty, if the census figures are comparable, 

 of seven and one-third millions of dollars. 

 For the same period there was an annual 

 decrease in the value of land and improve- 

 ments of nearly eight and one-half millions 

 of dollars. Similar apparent depreciation oc- 

 curred in other eastern states. In Ohio, for 

 example, the shrinkage of land values from 

 1880 to 1900 amounted to more than sixty 

 millions of dollars. 



The apparent reaction. 



It should be said, before passing this sub- 

 ject, that it may be a question whether the 

 census figures of the different years are in all 

 respects comparable. Conditions of money 

 and of values are not the same at any two 

 twenty-year periods. In 1880, we may not yet 

 have passed altogether the inflated values of 



