fht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1313 
A Primer of Economics 
By John J. Dillon 
Part XLIX 
TAXATION' OF LAND 
The principal contention of the advo¬ 
cates of land taxation is fairly expressed 
in the following propositions: 
What is land? 
In common nse, land means the hard 
surface of the earth. In the economic 
sense, land is not only the whole surface, 
but. everything in the bosom of the earth, 
as well as the materials and natural 
forces surrounding it. It includes the 
hard surface, minerals, oil and coal lands, 
water, air, sunlight, heat, gravitation, 
electric energy and countless other ma¬ 
terials and forces, known or yet unknown 
to man. 
Who owns the earth? 
The earth, with all i;s natural materi¬ 
als and forces, is a free gift of God to 
mankind. In the scheme of.creation, land 
is essential to human existence. For the 
briefest existence, man must have at 
least standing room, and to sustain life 
he must have access to land and its pro¬ 
ducts. If all men were created with equal 
opportunities, it follows that every person 
is entitled to a share of the earth, and 
consequently, land belongs to all the peo¬ 
ple as a whole. If this were not so, 
those privileged to own land would have 
the power of life and death over those 
who had no intrinsic or moral right, to a 
portion of land. Since land is essential 
to life, to deprive a person of the use of 
land is to deprive that person of the right 
to live. 
Why is private ownership of land per¬ 
mitted? 
Since land belongs to the people as a 
whole, to the community, the community 
has a right to say how it shall be used. 
The cultivation of the land by the com¬ 
munity as a unit does not i-esult in suffi¬ 
cient production to feed a growing popu¬ 
lation. Production sufficient to supply the 
needs of a large and growing population 
requires the clearing of the land, cultiva¬ 
tion of the soil, building of fences, houses 
and barns, planting of trees and vines, 
drainage, supply of water, the building of 
roads, a supply of tools, machinery and 
equipments generally to conduct the busi¬ 
ness of production. Some of these im¬ 
provements become identified with the 
land and cannot be separated from it. No 
one would take trouble and spend the 
energy to acquire these equipments and 
make these improvements on land that be¬ 
longs to the community and from which 
lie may be at any time removed. To en¬ 
courage these developments and improve¬ 
ments, and by so doing increase the sup¬ 
ply of food and other products of the land, 
society has adopted the plan of making 
grants of land to individuals in perpetual 
tenure. This grant is formally expressed 
and publicly acknowledged in a contract 
called a deed in fee simple, and carries 
with it the exclusive use of the land, and 
the right to transfer the title to others by 
contract, gift or bequest, reserving, how¬ 
ever, under the right of eminent domain, 
the privilege of taking it away in whole 
or in part, through taxation or otherwise, 
for public purposes. This is our system 
of private ownership in land. This policy 
is adopted by society in its discretion for 
the individual and collective welfare of its 
members. The title, however, is a v< lun- 
tary grant by society, and not a right to 
be demanded by the individual. 
How is title to ownership of artificial 
wealth and improvement secured? 
Before wealth of any kind can be cre¬ 
ated, the producer must have access to 
land and the other pre-existing natural 
products or raw materials of the earth. 
Given these, labor is applied to them and 
the materials are converted to a form 
more useful to the people. The econo¬ 
mists say labor creates utilities in the ma¬ 
terials. This utility gives them exchange 
value, and we call the product wealth. 
Primarily the land and all its natural 
gifts in materials and forces, belong to 
the community, but the community as a 
unit cannot produce wealth economically. 
To allow individuals to take what they 
want of the natural gifts would result in 
waste and extravagance and chaos. The 
weak would ever be at the mercy of the 
strong. Hence society makes provision 
for access to land and raw materials 1 
through the grant of private ownership of 
« # I 
land. This puts individuals in possession 
of land and raw materials by consent of 
the community and, as the best means of 
stimulating production and the creation 
of wealth, the producer who acquires law¬ 
ful possession of raw materials is recog¬ 
nized as the rightful owner of the things 
created or produced, with right to nego¬ 
tiate tlie title to it to others. As in case | 
of land, society reserves to itself the right, 
when occasion requires, to take this arti¬ 
ficial property for public use, to regulate 
the private use of it, and to direct the dis¬ 
position of it. 
Value of Horse Chestnuts 
I have two barrels of horse chestnuts. 
Is it possible to use them for any pur¬ 
pose- ? W. s. 
Paterson, N. J. 
So far as we can find- out there is no 
commercial value to the horse chestnut, 
except in the sale of a few bushels of 
seeds for planting. The dealers in drugs 
and roots in this city say that they buy 
a few pounds every year, but there is no 
demand worth considering, as the horse 
chestnut, does not appear to have any 
great medicinal value. During the war 
it is said that in Germany and some parts 
of England fair success was obtained in 
using the horse chestnut as a stock feed. 
The nuts were dried and crushed, then 
thoroughly mixed with lime water for a 
time. The lime seemed to neutralize 
most of the acid principle in the nuts. 
After being soaked in the lime water the 
nuts were pressed, then ground up and 
dried. They were mixed with cornmeal, 
bran and other feeds, and in this way a 
fair quantity of the horse chestnuts could 
be used for feeding purposes. This was 
only a war measure, however, and prob¬ 
ably would not pay under ordinary con¬ 
ditions. 
Rations for Cows 
Will you give me a balanced ration for 
.ny cow's? I have 25 Ilolsteins averag¬ 
ing 1,000 in weight. Some are fresh 
and others will freshen from now until 
Spring. I have plenty of good rich si¬ 
lage and hay well mixed with clover, 
also I can buy any of the following 
grain: wheat, bran, middlings, cornmeal. 
ground oats, cottonseed meal, oil meal, 
gluten. How much would you feed these 
cows, basing the amount on the weight 
of cow and milk produced? What would 
you feed dry cows? Give me a ration 
for heifers from one to two years of 
age and about six months in calf. 
Pennsylvania. W. C. T. 
Taking into consideration the rough- 
ages you have available the following 
ration" seems best adapted to present 
prices: 400 lbs. cornmeal, 200 lbs. wheat 
bran, 100 lbs. ground oats, 200 lbs. cot¬ 
tonseed meal. 100 lbs. oilmeal. You 
should feed this ration at the rate of one 
lb. of grain to each 314 lbs. of milk pro¬ 
duced per cow daily. For your dry cows 
and heifers, feed a mixture of 200 lbs. 
cornmeal, 100 lbs. oats, 100 lbs. bran, 
100 lbs. oilmdal. Give each animal 
enough of this mixture to keep them 
steadily gaining in flesh. F. C. M. 
Hard-milking Cow 
We have a cross-bred cow (Holstein- 
Guernsey) which holds her milk and is in 
pasture. Is there any remedy or treat¬ 
ment to outwit the cow? We have milked 
sometimes half an hour at her, at morn¬ 
ing and evening, A. n. M. 
Palmyra, Pa. 
I should make it a practice to permit 
this cow that holds up her milk to con¬ 
sume her grain at regular periods, morn¬ 
ing and night, and then I should milk her 
simultaneously. If necessary, provide a 
mixture that is bulky, and I should mois¬ 
ten the combination with warm water, 
and make it of such a consistency that 
she would have to eat the mess, rather 
than dilute it so that she could drink it. 
Kindness as well as regularity in the 
time of feeding and the time of milking 
will undoubtedly solve tins problem. She 
might not respond to this treatment at 
once, but if you persist you will win out. 
F. C. M. 
I’M sorry, young man.” said the drug¬ 
gist, as he eyed the small boy over the 
counter, “but'I can only give you half as 
much castor oil for a dime as I used to.” 
The boy blithely handed him the coin. 
“I’m not kicking.” he remarked. “The 
stuff’s for me.”—The Watchman Ex¬ 
aminer. 
ELECTwr*^ 1 
MILKER 
The Biggest Improvement 
Yet Made In Milking Machines 
That is the opinion of hundreds of expert 
dairymen who saw the Perfection Electric at 
the Dairy Show. Breeders and dealers alike were 
unanimous in their verdict that it is a big im¬ 
provement over anything ever before seen. Even 
competitors admitted it was a “mighty slick 
little machine” and others called it the “Sensa¬ 
tion of the Diary Show.” 
The gear-driven pulsator appealed especially 
to those who have had milking experience. The 
teat cups, the quality aluminum pail and the 
“Nature’s Way” milking action are the same in 
the Perfection Electric as in the original Per¬ 
fection—so popular on thousands of the best 
dairy farms in America and Europe. 
For compactness, simplicity and reliability it 
has no equal. You can install it in an hour. Any 
farm electric light plant runs it. And the price 
puts it within reach of every farmer who milks 
cows. No piping to buy or install, no gas engine 
to bother with, no line shaft to put up, no belts 
to buy. Just stretch the wire cable over the 
cows for the power unit to run on, fasten up the 
reel for the extension cord, plug into a lamp 
socket, turn the button and milk. Nothing to 
get out of order. 
The Perfection Electric will save money for 
any farmer who has six or more cows to milk if 
he has electricity. See your dealer or write 
direct for complete facts. 
Perfection Manufacturing Co. 
211S Hennepin Avenue Minneapolis, Minnesota 
Eastern Branch Office: 
464 South Clinton St. Syracuse, New York 
* 250 = 
for a double unit outfit 
or $290.00 for a 2 single- 
unitoutfit. F.O.B. Min¬ 
neapolis, Minn., or Syra¬ 
cuse, N. Y. 
Why Milk by Hand? 
The Perfection way ia the 
better way. 
THE STORY OF “LOUISE 
99 
“There is one story in this book which is 
worth double the price of the entire book” 
This is the opinion expressed by a business 
man who was in our office a week or more ago. 
He referred to the story of “Louise,” and 
said he considered it the greatest story lie hod 
ever had the pleasure of reading. 
You, too, will enjoy the story of “Louise” 
as well as the 25 other stories of farm life which are contained 
in this book. All these stories are filled with the subtle humor, 
the sound philosophy and sympathetic understanding of human 
nature which has endeared the I lope Farm man to thousands of 
people all over the country. 
The hook is well printed, cloth bound, and makes a most 
desirable present to a friend or to your Grange or town library. 
The price is $1.50 a copy, postpaid. Just fill out the coupon below 
and enclose with check or money order. 
RURAL NEW-YORKER, 333 West 30th St., New York 
Gentlemen—Enclosed find remittance of $1.50 for which send me 
postpaid a copy of “Hope Farm Notes.” 
Name. 
Town. 
State. R. F. D. or Street No. 
