BY E. M. JOHNSTON, F.L.S. 



17 



inevitable effects due to the thing -per se, and not to the 

 name applied to it. This is the fault of all visionary 

 theorists. Let us brush away the thimble-rig of words 

 and terms, and come at once to plain practical issues. No 

 person can become a successful primary producer among 

 other primary producer-competitors, unless he possesses the 

 necessary capital and speculative skill. There is no business 

 so uncertain in its results as farming, both as regards total 

 income and total expenditure. More especially do these 

 uncertainties apply to the enterprising farmer, who 

 ventures into the speculation of entering upon virgin bush 

 land with the view of earning a living for himself and his : 

 family ultimately from the profits derived from the sales of 

 cultivated products. This profit consists entirely of the 

 margin which the aggregate of his yearly revenue from sale 

 of products shows above the aggregate of his yearly expendi- 

 ture. It is the amount of the several items of revenue and ' 

 expenditure which determines his profit or his loss, and not 

 the specific nature of the various items of revenue and 

 expenditure. 



All items of expense, including profit, must come out of 

 products, or he will speedily become bankrupt and cease to be 

 a producer. Consequently, all products embody all charges, 

 whether interest, mortgage, rent, tax, wages, other working 

 expenses, and cost of farmer's own services as director and 

 speculator, viz., profit. 



Rent Vebsus Single Tax. 



Rent adjusts itself to the producing capabilities of the land, 

 ■out a single national tax upon the land would be likely to 

 prove a more formidable check to the cultivation of the soil 

 or local production than the most heavy form of rent. 



Rent is admittedly determined by the average margin left 

 worn the sale of products, after giving the working expenses 

 oi the farm plus the minimum profit to the working farmer. 

 it cannot seriously affect production without destroying itself, 

 a nd hence it must accommodate itself to the said margin, 

 even though it should fall to rent zero. The latter stage, if 

 reached, might check production, but so long as any margin 

 remained production would be determined by the capabilities 

 °t the land and the enterprise and skill of the farmer. There 

 is, therefore, no predetermined charge fixed in character, 

 torming a charge on production in the shape of rent. On 

 the contrary, it fluctuates in time in correspondence with the 

 revenue yielded from the sale of its products. Rent rising, 

 with relative improvement, either in price of products or with 

 relative decrease in the cost of working the farm, due to- 



