The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1912-05-01
TALKS ABOUT $500 LAND.
Continued from Page One.)
PAGE TWELVE

happy exception of Ireland there is no
diminution of population at home.
They have all got to be fed and
clothed and housed and the cost of
food and clothing and shelter is large
and the supply of natural products. TO
the first settlers timber was an in
cumbrance to the ground; it was cut
down and burned to get rid of it or
girdled to save labor. Now timber
has become scarce, lumber for all its
multiplied uses is dear and that is one
item in the cost of living.
Until few years ago there has
always been an abundance of good
cheap lands further west, beyond the
settlements, to which our population
constantly overlooked. That time has
gone by. In this country the free
lands are gone; the cheap lands are
gone. The increased production of TIE
future must come from lands which
require a considerable expenditure,
either for irrigation or for drainage
or for clearing, and by improved meth
DDS of culture. The population of this
country increased 81 per cent in the
last ten years, and the acreage OF
nominally improved farm lands in
creased Is per cent, but large share
of that Is per Get is nowhere near as
productive or certain in crop as the
lands of Iowa and Illinois. 1t includes
are attempting to cultivate by dry
farming and by allowing them to lie
fallow every other year. and much OF
it is second and third class lands that
have been passed over heretofore
Moreover good share of the acreage
in the older states has lost the cream
of its fertility.
"1n competition with such lands the
average value per acre OF all the farm
ing lands in Iowa, exclusive of build
ings, increased in value between 1900
and 1910 by 1872 per cent, or an aver
age of more than IL per cent per an
mum. And even that is not SO remark
able as that the average value per
acre of all the farm lands in the Unit
ed States increased 1OS per cent
"The population of cities and towns
between the two censuses increased
IS per cent while the rural population
increased II per cent.
''The acreage of wheat was actually
Is per cent less as shown by the last
census than ten years before, and the
acreage in corn, our chief meat-pro-
ducing grain was only 81 per cent
greater fact that is the more signifi.
cant because the corn crop of the
United States is Is per cent of the
worlds crop. The number of cattle,
sheep and swine barely held it's own
during the ten years while population
was increasing 81 per cent.
rs it any wonder that food costs
more? And the same conditions that
have affected food supplies have at
fected cotton, wool and hides, which
are the materials for clothing; and
cost more, wages must inevitably go
up. And when wages and raw materi-
ais go up manufacturing costs and the
costs of doing every kind of business
must 60 up also, save as improved
methods of production and distribu-
ton may counteract the tendency.
And that, in fact, is what is occurring.
The price tables show that manufac-
tured goods have advanced less than
the raw materials and wages that Ell
ter into them.
mist. l think the Malthusian doctrine,
like mebody's doctrine for the recall
of judicial opinions, has been subject
ed to so many explanations and quail
fications that there is hardly enough
left of it to take into account But
l do believe that since about 1896 we