APPENDIX C 
171 
and sense will appear in place of what may have been pro 
nounced foolishness. 
C 
THE DISPROPORTIONATE TREATMENT OF AGRICULTURAL RENTS 
BY ECONOMISTS 
Has not agricultural rent, as a somewhat natural result of 
the fact that Ricardo’s law of rent was specifically expressed 
and illustrated in agricultural terms, received undue attention 
from the schools, to the neglect of urban or city rent in its 
more acute forms ? 
Out of a curiosity to ascertain the actual preponderance 
accorded to agricultural over urban rent in standard economic 
treatises, the writer has instituted careful comparisons of the 
space devoted by the authorities to agricultural land and to 
urban land respectively in treating questions bearing on land 
values and land rent. The result shows that in thirty-four 
leading works of thirty authors, 42,094 lines were given to 
agricultural rents, and 2,919 lines to urban rent,* a ratio of 
fourteen to one. 
Following is the list complete: 
Author and Work At 
Text 
lines 
Adams, H. C., The Science of 
Finance, 1887 803 
Andrews, E. B., Institutes of Econo 
mics, 1889 3° 
Bullock, C. J., Introduction to the 
Study of Economics, 1897 . . - 57° 
Cairnes, J. E., Some Leading Prin 
ciples of Political Economy, 1874 • *35 
♦Where agriculture has been considered for other purposes than value 
and rent of land, it has been omitted from the comparison. The line of 
distinction is sometimes drawn with difficulty, and in one or two cases, where 
the argument has seemed to bear equally on agricultural and urban land, it 
has been included under both heads. In view of the liability to error in such 
a comparison, this list is circulated in the hope that interested parties may 
supply any authorities which ought not to be omitted, and note any corrections 
in the readings for future publication and reference. 
ICULTURAD 
Notes Total 
lines lines 
Urban 
Text Notes 
lines lines 
Total 
lines 
6 
809 
36 
36 
26 
5 6 
is 
24 
39 
3 
573 
81 
7 
88 
26 
161