Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1882-02-15

The blue sky sthe temples arch,
Its transept earth and ari
The music Of Its starry march,
The chorus Of prayer.
So nature keeps the reverent frame
with which her years began,
And all her signs and voices shame
The prayerless heart of man. -Hhtttter.
The Price of Land and the Value Of Land.
A good many farmers have been philoso-
pliers, but not many farmers study the
philosophy of their own business. One of
the starting points in that is the enquiry
HAS land, of itself, any money value y
and, when this is answered in the negative,
as we think it must be, then comes the
question "What gives to land money
value ?" Still further in the investigation
arises the query, "What is the relation be-
tween the money price and the money value
OF land ?"
It is impossible to discuss even one Of
these questions fully in newspaper article.
In propounding them we merely wish to
suggest them to our thinking readers as
subjects for reflection, and we propose only,
in addition, to give few Of the results OF
our own thinking upon them.
1t seems to us that land has no money
value except as the result of human labor.
But all human labor that is spent upon land
does not impart value to it, and not many
kinds of human labor impart more than
temporary value to it. Further, in order
to impart value to land the labor of men
need not necessarily be expended upon the
land itself.
When the United States government
offers and sells its wild land, say in Dakota
for $1.25 an acre, this price represents the
protection the government extends to the
settler, and the costs attending the survey
and sale When the same government sell'
its alternate sections of land in railroad
grant for $3.50 per acre, the extra price
represents the labor expended in the con
struction of the road, which has been pai'
for with the alternate sections reserved Il
the railroad company. When settler OF
these public lands re-sells his claim TO
$500 an acre, the price in excess of cos
represents either his own labor expended o
the land, or the labor of others expended il
| the vicinity, or both. When a village o
city springs up near farm, and the valu
of the land goes up to, say, $4,000 per acr'
that price represents labor done and capiti
expended in and about that village or cit,
The capital there expended represented an
was the product of labor done elsewher
And when a man buys tract OF land nea
a proposed town site and waits until th
value goes up from $500 to 10000 per acr
the last price represents partly the labc
and capital expended in the town, an
partly interest on the capital invested in tn
purchase of the tract.
When in Vermont township half Of IL
people conclude to emigrate to Dakota, ar
take what they possess of movable proper
and the money price OF their land vii
them, the value of land in that township
deprecated by the withdrawal of so mu'
labor, and of so much money representa-
: the savings of previous labor. Value hi
been transferred from Vermont to Dakot
but in neither place is there any more
any less land, nor is the land any better
|: worse, or any more or less valuable, exec
4 as the result of the transfer OF labor and t
: savings of labor.
So far in regard to the value of Ian
| Ettla ahOut tha tNrica
land. When country becomes fully pc
ulated, like England or France, for instan'
and indeed over-populated so far as its 70
products are concerned, new elements col
in to increase the price of land. There
competition between buyers until the pri
goes up TO the point where even the mi
skilful farmer does not believe he can ma
any money at any higher price for the la'
IT, This is the condition of things in Fran
where the land is mostly owned by
farmers. The land is divided up into sm
farms, each one highly cultivated. ]
laws in France do not favor the engrossm
of land in few hands,--a benefcent res
's' of the French revolution. But in Engla
where the pressure of aristocracy has b.
less, and where industrial progress has
nished food to large part of the pee
outside of the products of the home s
there never has been revolution in
interest of the common people, and the Il
has accumulated in few hands. Ne'
theless there, as everywhere, the value of
land has rested on the value of what it |
duces. The social and political importa
he. which, in England, is attached to the
session of land (membership of the lane
aristocracy' has put up the price OF Ii
80 that even in good times practical farm
could not hire it at rent much exceed
three per cent on the cost. The aristocr
on and the would.be aristocracy bid aga
each other for any land that came
market, until the price was 80 great
other investments offered a much larger
come But the loss of increase was COM
sated to the buyer by the increase OF SC
''h' and political consequence that came to
as a land owner, in country where TO
land owner ID 10 be great man.
This land, when attained, is rented
practical farmers. The practical farm
.,. like the rest of the population, incl
ing in each generation while there
no increase in the number of farms,
to bid against each other to get farms
could not bid above what they c
make on the land without loss lea
nny. to bankruptcy. But this competition
urally led to great improvement in T
ing. The best farmer could afford to
aud the highest rent, because he knew no
get the most out of the farm Thus
increased, doubling and even quadruI
in the last forty years, yet such was tn
portance attached to land-owning tina
CO price of land went up even faster thai
w. rental.
a. l.. A .I.l.. La.