96 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pul). Doc. 



These figures indicate tliat, wliile land has slightly 

 decreased in value, there has been a substantial increase in 

 buildings, machinery, implements and all the equipment 

 convenient to a more advanced, more intensive, more 

 specialized and more refined system of farming. 



The general principle which we have in view is even 

 more clearly brought out when we consider the increase (or 

 decrease) in the value of various agricultural products in 

 Massachusetts during ten years. Taking the same period 

 as before, namely, from 1885 to 1895, we have these 



These figures arc almost self-explanatory, in the light of 

 the foregoing discussion. The figures for fruits and berries 

 are disappointingly low, but that is merely a local excep- 

 tion. 



The two groups of statistics just given in exemplification 

 of the law of unequal development are both very partial, 

 and therefore in some degree subject to error. It will be 

 more convincing to turn to another statistical comparison 

 from an altogether different source, and covering a much 

 Avider range of time. These figures were originally com- 

 piled by Pres. George T. Fairchild for his " Rural Wealth 

 and Welfare,"* which is the standard work of the time on 

 rural economics. 



These figures show the increase in population compared 

 with the increase in the total production of the staple agri- 

 cultural crops in the United States during the period 

 between 1850 and 1897, — almost half a century. These 

 figures are as accurate and reliable as statistics can ever be. 



* Fairchild, Rural Wealth and Welfare, p. 11. New York, 1900. 



