REPORT OF THE STATISTICIAN. 



471 



OTHER INDUSTRIES INCREASE FARM VALUES. 



The settler in new communities, the pioneer in cultivation of wild 

 areas, who avails himself of his opportunity to select the choicest lands, 

 naturally and rightfully expects to be benefited in the future by in- 

 crease of values. 1 [c may hope that his children will derive further ad- 

 vantage. His reasonable expectations are sometimes fulfilled; often 

 they are disappointed. If the soil proves to be less fertile than more 

 favored regions, or railway facilities are denied, settlement will be slow, 

 roads poor, schools half supported ; with such conditions prices of lands 

 will advance with provoking tardiness. If the soil is rich and settle- 

 ment rapid, till all the land is occupied, while there are no industries 

 beyond the line of agriculture, no families dependent on their neighbors 

 for food supplies, no mines or mills, a certain level of moderate values 

 may be reached, but no high prices of land or products will result. This 

 is proved by the census and other reliable facts on which the figures of 

 Diagram IV are based, and by similar facts in the history of every 

 country in which varied industries flourish. The statement that " other 

 industries increase farm values" is, therefore, axiomatic rather than 

 theoretical. The same facts, and similar data in all industrial history, show 

 that mere increase of population does not produce the highest values. 

 Industry, not population, creates wealth. Prices are not enhanced by the 

 presence of paupers. Increase of farmers advances prices in new set- 

 tlements; beyond a certain limit numbers may diminish prices, as in 

 parts of India and other countries. Dense population, all employed in 

 agriculture, can never raise prices or produce prosperity as the same 

 population judiciously proportioned among productive industries. The 

 increment will ever be " proportionate, not to numbers, but to produc- 

 tive forces in action, degree in skill, persistence in labor." 



The diagram establishes this hypothesis : u Values in agriculture are 

 enhanced by increase of non-agricultural population." 



It includes three similar figures, each outlining a pyramid, the base 

 of which represents the sum of human labor in the United States, in the 

 aggregate numbers reported by the census as employed in all occupa- 

 tions. Each pyramid in its structure includes four, the base of each 

 being the percentage proportion of those engaged in agriculture to the 

 aggregate in all occupations. 



The broadest base includes all the farm lands in those States in 

 which 70 per cent, or more are employed in agriculture; the next, all 

 farm lands in States where 50 to 70 per cent." are so employed. The 

 other two refer to lands of States where less than half of the labor is 

 agricultural, 30 per cent, being the dividing line between them. The 

 elevation represents comparative value of farm lands from one dollar 

 upwards. All the farm lands in each of these four classes are aggre- 

 gated, and an exact average of all obtained. The apex ot each part of 

 this composite pyramid indicates the average value of each class of 

 lands. The result is striking — $5.18 per acre for States averaging 77 

 per cent, in agriculture, $13.53 where 58 per cent, are in agriculture, 

 $30.55 for 42 per cent., and $38.05 for 18 per cent, employed in agri- 

 culture. 



