The Connecticut labor press., 1919-04-12
LAND VALUE FIXED
Depends Altogether on Power of
 Giving Wealth.
That js Why the Fertile Acres of West ern Canada, With Adjacent Mar kets, Are So Attractive
 to Settlers.

Throughout every portion of the Western Empire lands that are capable Of producing are in great demand. We find that In the States of proved agricultural wealth, land prices have increased within the past three or four years to q degree that ten years ago would not have been thought to be possible. Land that sought buyers at $1OO an acre five years ago is changing hands at $20O an acre. The secret of this does not lie altogether in the higher prices of farm products, for the expense of production has frl- creased proportiOnately. The better methods of farming have had good deal to do with it, and the knowledge that demands for farm products will be sufficiently great for good many years to come to insure a continuation of the high prices that prevail at present. Then. again, improved ma- chfnary. the tractor and other means or economic power will tend to lessen tile cost.
 Governing land values. too, are eli mates, soil, moisture, settlement, rail- roads. markets. Without markets, no matter how much the other factors en- ter into it, the land is merely of speculative value.
 It is not more than a third of a century since ninety per cent. of the land in Western Canada, now, oc- cupied and tiled, and producing enough in one year to give a profit of from twenty-five to thirty dollars per acre, was unoccupied or used as grazing land. and worth very little. These lands today are valuable, and are being sought by settlers who real ize their present and future value. There is no portion of the world that Is attracting the same attention. The soil may have improved in the past centuries with the fertiIizing given it by nature the climate has not changed, and the moisture may De considered the same. These are three of the essentials of good land What they lacked third of century ago was n7arkets-a fourth essential. These they have now Thus provided 1t Is not to be wondered at that these millions of acres with their great wealth, which have so long been await Ing the awakening touch of mankind
 
 are now to be found adding to the available wealth of the world With the advent of railroads. throwing their great trunks of steel across the con, tinent and ovsr the surface of these boundless plains, spreading out theiI tentacles to remoter parts, the world at large has begun to realize that here was country possessing all the nat. ura1 advantages claimed by older com. munities that land here just as good or better. acre for acre, as their own could be had for almost the asking
 With the realization of the fore going facts came the people, who found that a railway had preceded them and markets already existed for anything that they snight care te raise These markets have greatly expanded and, are capable of still greater expansion, and assure to the agrfcultu-ist the prevailing prices o1 the world. An assured market means added value to every acre of land in Western Canada, and the near future will see lands that are now selling at exceptionally low prices begin to increase in value. just as they have tn Eastern Canada and the United States
 AdyertisemeDt.