_The sources of land values._—The value of land, like every other value, is the result of comparisons. Whatever advantage is given to a producer by his possession of land is likely to form his estimate of its value. In the comparison of two farms of equal dimensions every difference in fertility, location as to drainage, exposure, or convenience to market or social advantages, adaptability to improved methods in agriculture and convenience of arrangement, will enter into the estimate of worth. If one of the farms can be had for the asking, the other will be worth just what its advantages will add to the power of the owner in the production of wealth, provided both are considered alike as simply machines for producing food. Usually, however, economy in the consumption of wealth is considered also. In a new country lands most easily accessible and readily tillable are chosen first. With added demand for food, less accessible or less easily tillable lands are occupied. At once the more accessible have a value equal to the greater ease with which the same product can be offered in market. If the difference were only a mile of hauling all produce and all commodities for which produce is exchanged, that cost of transportation would make the value of the nearest land. If the difference is simply in yield for a given amount of labor, the land which yields thirty bushels of wheat to the acre, when land which yields twenty bushels can be had for the taking, will be worth ten bushels of wheat a year, and its value will be estimated in dollars at a sum which securely at interest will bring a similar return. If, by and by, the demand for food or improvement in transportation or an easier method makes it worth while to cultivate land yielding only ten bushels of wheat to the acre, the annual value of land yielding twenty bushels will be ten bushels, and that of the land yielding thirty bushels will have become twenty bushels.