The Deserted Buildings 25 



the eastern question is only a phase of con- 

 tinental or even world-wide questions. The 

 farming in the great agricultural West has 

 been easy, and it has therefore risen with 

 phenomenal rapidity. The greatest skill in the 

 end develops under the greatest difficulty. The 

 West has set the East many good examples of 

 agricultural practice. It will not be surprising 

 if the East works out some of the difficult 

 social problems, and makes a close adjustment 

 of agricultural practice to local conditions. 



The illusion of old buildings. 



A common measure of the supposed decline 

 of farming is the fact that many farms can 

 now be purchased for less than the buildings 

 cost. This statement of itself does not appeal 

 to me as having any special significance. A 

 property is likely to sell for what it is worth, 

 and this worth depends on its effectiveness as 

 an economic unit or enterprise. Most of the 

 buildings on these farms were erected a gener- 

 ation or more ago, when the ideas of farming 

 were radically different from those of the pres- 



