The National View. 99 



First a backward glance at the general situation of 

 agriculture for the last fifty years. 



In 1850 the value of agricultural property exceeded 

 the wealth owned by the rest of the nation. In ten 

 years the value of the former had doubled, while non- 

 agricultural wealth had much more than doubled. In 

 forty years more, 1860-1900, the value respectively was 

 about twenty and one half billions, and nearly seventy- 

 four billions of dollars. This for the nation. The 

 agricultural gain for the forty years was chiefly 

 caused by the addition of millions of new farms 

 at the West and Southwest where land was for- 

 merly almost valueless. In the North Atlantic divi- 

 sion of states, where new land has not been a factor, 

 from 1850-60, ten years, agricultural property increased 

 in value $769,000,000; in the next forty years under high 

 duties the increase was but $496,000,000. And in the 

 last twenty years, from 1880-1900, the value fell off 

 $246,000,000. In this same division of states, the total 

 value of all property rose from $3,131,000,000 in 1850 

 to $38,301,000,000 in 1904. Leaving out the Wall Street 

 state, and the round figures are $2,050,000,000 in 1850, 

 and $23,532,000,000 in 1904. About a ten-fold increase. 



We claim that this section of the Union gives a fairer 

 criterion of the agricultural situation than where many 

 new states, each with a vast acreage of land, have in- 

 creased by billions of dollars the value of agricultural 

 property. 



Now it is not at all strange, with the rapid growth of 

 the manufacturing centres, and the vast extension of the 

 railroad system, that the wealth of the non-agricultural 

 portion should multiply faster than that of the agricul- 

 tural community. What is most surprising is the fact 



