y price for wheat,--unwisely,
probably,--through the limited range of possibilities in wheat raising. The
introduction of labor-saving machinery enables enterprising farmers to
greatly increase their product for the same number of acres, and still
further to increase the range of management so as to make larger farms a
possibility. The rapid advance of means of transportation has so widened
the range of competition as to make the farmer in one part of the world
compete with the farmers of every other part. The staple products,
especially wheat, being so easily adapted to new countries, are constantly
liable to over-production. At the same time the effects of a bad season in
any particular region, while reducing the crop, are not likely to advance
the price to the same extent as formerly. The opening of vast regions once
considered deserts to a rapid settlement by farmers for the sake of the
profits in land speculation has again and again wrought changes in the
entire business of agriculture. Similar effects may be expected still with
the development of South America, South Africa and Siberia.

All these facts tend now to make the profits in agriculture decline, and
the fact that farm life has certain attractions in establishing permanent
homes for families and life-time associations, contributes to this
tendency by holding people to their place as farmers for at least a
generation. The possibility of independent enterprise, even with small
profit, and the freedom of family life from interference of neighbors make
large numbers of farmers willing to continue their business in spite of
the reduced earnings.

_Fluctuation in profits._--It is proper to call attention to the rapid
effects of any change in market upon the profits of any enterprise. Wages
are in large measure an anticipation of profits, and so far as they are
affected by changes in market prices, it is largely through estimates upon
averages. Custom has much to do with wages demanded and paid, but profits
are fluctuating constantly with the fluctuation of prices, with every
change of methods affecting competition, with every introduction of
improved machinery and with every accident of fortune.

No better illustration of this fact can be given than is familiar to every
farmer in comparison of results from the work of different seasons. With
the same outgo for labor he may find the profits of two successive years
wide apart. One year has granted the fortune of