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of the most effective causes of waste land. This is especially true of small holders, who could, if they were properly encouraged, grow a considerable proportion of their subsistence in their own gardens. If one's garden, however, is not safe and is liable to be despoiled, or its products stolen, the would-be gardener has little encouragement to maintain a garden. It is well understood that one of the greatest obstacles in the way of sheep husbandry in this country is the depredation of the town dog, which could easily be eliminated if the public had the intelligence to deal with it in a vigorous manner.

CHAPTER XVI

ECONOMIZING LAND

In a new country where land is abundant and labor scarce the problem of economizing land is never acute. The tendency is to economize labor to the maximum and to use land merely as a means to that end. This frequently results in a wasteful use of land. In old and thickly settled countries, however, the problem of economizing land tends to become almost as important as that of economizing labor. In fact, in densely overpopulated countries men are sometimes regarded as the cheapest and land as the most precious of national assets. Even where men are properly regarded as the greatest asset, the problem of conserving and economizing land or natural resources is a very serious one.

Land, however, has many properties, and some of these properties do not need to be economized, either because they cannot be exhausted or because they are not scarce. The following classification shows the properties that need to be economized.

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Some of the physical and

Noneconomic properties of land. geometric properties of land which are the most fundamental are not the most important from an economic point of view. The solidity of the earth which serves to support our weight, and that of the buildings which we erect and the plants which we grow, is of course essential to our very existence. It is not a matter of the greatest economic interest, however, because it is not so scarce as some other properties. Rocky or desert land, of which there is an abundance, furnishes support as well as

fertile land. The quality of extension (that is, superficial area) is also essential. It is this which enables us to catch and utilize the sun's rays, the rain, and the dew. It is this which provides room for plants to grow, to spread their roots to the soil and their leaves to the air. It is this which furnishes space for the erection of buildings and the carrying on of all activities. This quality of extension, however, is possessed by sterile as well as by fertile land, and by land which is badly located as well as by that which is well located.

Economic properties. Location may also be said to be a geometric property of land. It is a matter of great economic importance because there is such a scarcity of land in the best locations. By location is meant proximity and convenience of access to markets, roads, schools, scenery, and various other desirable things. Some land is greatly superior to other land in this respect, and this creates a great difference in the desirability of different lands. Location is the chief, almost the only factor in determining the value of urban land. In a place where multitudes of people desire to live, land is necessarily scarce, but the scarcity is that of land well located for urban purposes; that is, for business or for the dwellings of those who have to live within reach of the business establishments. Moreover, the differences in the value of lands within a city are due almost wholly to differences in location. In agricultural communities location is a factor, but not the only nor the most important factor, in determining land values. Nearness to markets or to railroads, the character of the wagon roads, accessibility to schools and other social advantages, count for much; but the character of the soil and the subsoil, the climate, the moisture, and the other factors which determine plant growth count far more. All these factors which promote plant growth may be grouped under the name "fertility." In that case we may say that from an economic point of view location and fertility are the most important properties of agricultural land. Good location saves transportation. When we look for the reason why location is a matter of such importance we must

recall the fact that man's chief work, on the physical side, is the moving of materials. It is this which requires power; and power is costly, whether it be generated in the human body and exercised through the muscles, or whether it be developed in the bodies of animals or through mechanical agents. One very important phase of the work of moving materials is that of marketing products. The nearer a body of land is to a market and the better the means of transportation, the less labor and power it takes to get its products to market. On land which is well located with respect to markets it is therefore possible to utilize labor more efficiently than on land which is badly located.

It is also costly to move man himself. It is therefore advantageous that he should live in close proximity to his work. If he lives far away the cost of transportation is greater and the labor force of the community is less efficiently applied than if he lives close by. Even though the trolley fare is the same for a long distance as for a short distance, transportation costs more over the long distance. In the first place, it takes a longer time and the passenger loses that time. In the second place, it costs the transportation company more, and that extra cost must ultimately reduce the total productive power of the community. The extra labor required to transport passengers a longer distance might otherwise be used in other lines of production. However, the sheer scarcity of land, both for business and for residence purposes, forces the population to spread and makes long-distance transportation necessary, however costly it may be.

In proportion as transportation can be cheapened, in that proportion will questions of location become of less importance from the standpoint of production. From the standpoint of consumption or direct enjoyment cheapened transportation would apparently make little difference. Certain neighborhoods, because of neighbors, scenery, fashion, and a variety of reasons, would still be preferred to others. If one could imagine costless transportation, such as is pictured in the Arabian Nights by the story of the magic rug, on which one could be

instantly transported to any distance, one location would be as desirable for production as another; that is to say, if there were no difference between two pieces of land in fertility or in anything else except location, they would be equally desirable. It would cost no more to transport products to market or men to and from their work in one case than in another. So far as location is concerned there would be no scarcity of land until all the unoccupied portions of the earth were occupied and utilized. In short, such a perfect system of transportation would vastly increase our available supply of unsalable land.

While it is obvious that no such instantaneous and costless system of transportation will ever be devised, it is equally obvious that the more nearly we can approach that system the more land we shall have available for all sorts of purposes. It is the superiority of modern as compared with earlier means of transportation which makes possible those vast aggregations of people known as cities. They can draw their supplies from greater distances and in greater abundance than would be possible with less efficient means of transportation. Ancient cities that were situated on navigable rivers or on the seashore had the advantage of water transportation, which, even before the days of steamships, was fairly cheap and efficient. Nonperishable products, such as wheat, could then and can still be transported long distances in sailing vessels at low cost. Consequently, where water transportation was possible, cities of considerable size grew up long before the days of steam railways. But inland cities, such as many of those which dot the maps of every progressive country, would have been an impossibility.

Access to food supplies. It seems to be a general rule, applying to all forms of life, that numbers depend upon food supply. Where food is abundant, numbers may be large. Since food comes ultimately from the soil, the capacity of the soil to produce food places a limit upon numbers. One of two things must, of course, follow: a large population must either spread over wide areas of land in order to find sufficient food, or it must

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