The Private Ownership of Land [pp. 125-147]

THE PRIVA TE OWNERSHIP OF LAND.
It is also a truth which, tho it has been for the most part
quite overlooked in the discussion of this subject, is yet of
essential importance, that, whatever may be true in rare and
altogether exceptional cases, the general rule certainly is, that
he who expends upon land the labor necessary to bring it into
cultivation never does receive in the form of rent an amount
sufficient to reimburse him for his original investment with
current interest, together with what he is afterwards compelled
to expend in repairs and additional improvements. In respect
to those vast tracts of land which have been reclaimed from the
wilderness within the last century, it is easy to demonstrate
this by figures. For the illustration of the principle let us suppose that one of two capitalists had in the year I825, in the
fertile prairie region of Illinois, lent to a farmer at the then
current rate of interest the sum of $I6oo, to be employed by
him in procuring from the government a farm of I6o acres,
and preparing it for cultivation; and that he had kept his
money, both interest accrued and principal at interest, for fifty
years, or till the year I875; receiving of course the rates of interest which were from time to time current. Let us also suppose that at the same time another capitalist had himself bought
of the government a farm of I6o acres of equally fertile land,
and in the purchase and in preparing it for cultivation invested
the same sum of $I6oo, and had rented his farm at the highest
cash rates which the market would allow, till the same year
I875; and that he had availed himself of current rates of interest for investing his rents as fast as they were received.
Which of these two men would be found at the end of fifty
years to have made the most profitable investment?
Enough is known of the successive changes which have
taken place in rents, rates of interest, and prices of land since
I825 to enable us to answer this question with a very near approximation to accuracy. Probably few lands in the world
have required a less outlay to prepare them for cultivation than
the rich prairie lands of Illinois. It is perfectly easy to show,
by facts which are known with absolute certainty, that in that
State two experiments conducted in the manner suggested in
the preceding paragraph would have resulted immensely in
favor of the money-lender rather than of the land-owner. In,
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