196 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



It is in the way described that Americans have dealt with the soil 

 opened to them by treaty or by purchase. And I have no hesitation 

 in saying that posterity will decide, 6rst, that it was both economically 

 justifiable and politically fortunate that this should be done; and, 

 secondly, that what has been done was accomplished with singular 

 enterprise, prudence, patience, intelligence, and skill. 



It will appear, from what has been said under the preceding titles, 

 that I entertain a somewhat exalted opinion concerning American 

 agriculture. Indeed, I do. To me the achievements of those who in 

 this new land have dealt with the soil, under the conditions so hurriedly 

 and imperfectly recited, surpass the achievements of mankind in any 

 other field of economic effort. With the labor power and capital 

 power which we have had to expend during the past one hundred 

 years, to have taken from the ground these hundreds, these thousands 

 of millions of tons of food, fiber, and fuel for man's uses, leaving the 

 soil no more exhausted than we find it today; and, meantime, to have 

 built up, out of the current profits of this primitive agriculture, such a 

 stupendous fund of permanent improvements, in provision for future 

 needs and in preparation for a more advanced industry and a higher 

 tillage this certainly seems to me not only beyond the achievement, 

 but beyond the power, of any other race of men. 



So much in retrospect. Let us now turn to the future. 



As we cast our eyes over the broad surface of the United States, 

 it might seem that our people had, as yet, little more than commenced 

 the occupation of their patrimonial estate. The wholly unsettled area 

 of the United States, as shown by the census of 1880, amounted to 

 about 1,400,000 square miles, being nearly one-half of the area of the 

 country. But, notwithstanding the imposing total of 1,400,000 

 square miles of still unsettled territory, the amount, of land available 

 for occupation for ordinary agriculture is not large. The Public Land 

 Commission, in its report of 1880, says: "It was estimated, June 30, 

 1879, that (exclusive of certain lands in southern states) of lands over 

 which the survey and disposition laws had been extended, lying in the 

 West, the United States did not own, of arable agricultural public 

 lands, which could be cultivated without irrigation or other artificial 

 appliances, more than the area of the present state of Ohio, viz., 

 25576,90o acres." 



It is, indeed, an astonishing announcement that the public land 

 system, so far as relates to agricultural settlers, has virtually come to 

 an end; that the homestead and pre-emption acts are practically 



