LAND ECONOMICS 
121 
confiscation, in order to bring it into use. Yet we find that some 
kinds of land are being brought into use too rapidly, and par- 
ticularly is this true with respect to one kind of land, namely, 
privately owned forest land. Experts are in general agreement 
in their belief that taxation in the United States has brought 
forest land into use too rapidly and this has been contrary to the 
principles of conservation. But we need not continue; the reader 
can find many illustrations showing that one of the first steps 
In any scientific or practical treatment of the land is classifica- 
tion. 
Idea of Property Distinctive in Land Economics. Many 
sciences and arts deal with land; for example, geology and agri- 
culture and in certain aspects engineering, landscape gardening, 
and even architecture. What is it that marks out a field for land 
economics? It is the concepts, property and value. More than 
any others these two concepts distinguish economic inquiries con- 
cerning the land from other sciences and arts dealing with land. 
Property and value mark out the field of land economics and 
separate it from those sciences which treat of land with reference 
to its productive powers in agriculture or its geological content 
and formation. 
Let us then clearly grasp the property-idea as distinctive, giv- 
ing us property-relations. Economics in general is a science of 
human relationships, and so is land economics as one of the major 
divisions of economics. This becomes clear, if we consider the 
topics with which we deal in land economies. To mention only a 
few: tenancy in city and country, value and price of land, tax- 
ation of land, public ownership, community ownership, the open 
range, large landholdings, conservation, height of buildings, the 
congestion of urban population. 
Definition of Land Economics. We are now prepared to pro- 
ceed to definitions, and we offer the following as a broad general 
definition of land economics: Land Economics vs that division of 
economacs, theoretical and applied, which is concerned with the 
land as an economic concept and with the economic relations 
which grow out of the utilization of land as property. 
The older economists distinguished frequently between science 
and art. This distinction, which has generally fallen into disuse, 
may be helpful in giving us a fuller idea of the proper scope of 
land economics: As q science, land economics seeks the truth for