1 1 



CHAPTEE I. 



THE CRITERION OF AGRICULTURAL PROGRESS. 



The progress which any country may be making is 

 not, of course, the same thing as its prosperity. The 

 former term denotes the movement that is taking 

 place at the present time, the latter term the state of 

 advancement that has been achieved by past effort. 

 It is true that we often talk of a country as progressive, 

 meaning thereby that it has reached a high state of 

 development ; and so far as the unchanging physical 

 conditions of the country are concerned, the fact that 

 progress has been good in the past may lead us to be- 

 lieve that such progress is continuing and will con- 

 tinue. But there are other factors to be considered 

 besides physical conditions ; and we know that a 

 country will often make a spurt forward, and then for 

 a period stand still or fall back. When we are com- 

 paring the state of a single country at two different 

 periods there is little fear of confusion in this respect, 

 since the essence of the comparison is to show what 

 movement has taken place ; but when we are compar- 

 ing one country with another, the basis of comparison 



is usually between the general level of advancement 



1 



