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soil in our scientific wonderland is of four 
different qualities, viz., A, B, C, and D, 
and that A produce 60 bushels an acre, and 
B, C, and D, 50, 35, and 15 bushels respec 
tively. Under these conditions, were popula 
tion very scanty, only a part of land A would 
be cultivated, and no land of a lower quality, 
since a sufficiency of food could be obtained 
without recourse to any inferior land. It 
goes without saying that, other things being 
equal, the best land would be occupied first, 
providing it was known to be the best. In 
these circumstances no rent, or no appreciable 
rent, would be paid for land, on the assumption 
that the whole of the land, or at any rate 
the whole of the best land, was not in the 
hands of a monopolist person or group. 
If it were in the hands of a monopolist, he 
could insist on some payment for its use, 
and possibly a high payment, inasmuch as 
people deprived of all fruits of the earth 
would be unable to get satisfactory sustenance. 
In the absence of monopoly, however, no 
appreciable rent would be possible, if we mean 
by rent a payment for land and nothing but 
land. The competition of the owners of 
plots still untouched, though equal in fertility 
to those already ministering to the wants 
of man, would prevent the owners of the