f the Suez canal, are begun in view of attracting floating
capital. Borrowers generally look to such accumulations for their supply
of funds.

_Capital in farming._--A clear view of the uses of capital may be gained
from estimating the needs of a young farmer just starting out for himself.
For all his equipments he must depend upon the time and effort of somebody
embodied in form of tools, material and sustenance, for capital in any
form is simply this. A farm of 160 acres improved, or already out of the
crude pioneer stage, represents about ten years of one man's time, say
$3,000. A house suitably furnished for himself and his young wife means
three years of time, $1,000. His barns and corrals and intersecting fences
cost two years of time, $600. His team and stock and the necessary tools
make nearly three years of time again, $900. Seed, feed, provisions,
clothing, insurance and wages for help, all to be used before his first
year's crop is sold, require at least $500 worth of time, or nearly two
years more. The needed capital for such a farm thus represents full
eighteen years of the time of an able-bodied man, or $6,000. If we add to
this the cost of bringing to mature age and intelligence the three able
and efficient workers needed to manage and work that farm, we shall credit
the past, without counting the time and energy of the young people
themselves in growing and learning and gaining their skill, with thirty
years of labor; $10,000, put into the farm and its occupants as they stand
ready for a year's work. This accumulation is likely to show all the forms
of capital described.

_Capital conservative._--Capital, especially in fixed forms, being in its
nature the conserving of energy, is necessarily an incentive to
conservatism in society, since any great and sudden changes in the habits
of a community involve rapid consumption or destruction of capital.
Capital is said to be "timid." This statement means simply that all owners
and users of capital who realize the time required for accumulating it
hesitate to risk its destruction in doubtful enterprises, uncertain
confidence or venturesome experiments in government or financiering. War,
riots, or even revenue laws, may destroy fixed capital that has been the
growth of a century. A small change in tariff laws has rendered useless
immense factories. For the same reason farmers, having so large a fixed
capital in farms and farm machinery, do not take kindly to poli