TWENTIETH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 577 



Thursday Afternoon. 



Convention reconvened at 1 :30 o'clock p. m. 



The Chairman : I am going to introduce to you Prof. O. G. 

 Lloyd, of our State College of Agriculture, at Ames, who is going 

 to talk to you on land values. 



FARM LAND VALUES IN IOWA.. 



By O. G. Lloyd. 



It is to the interest of all lowans, and especially the rural popula- 

 tion, to avoid unusual activity in the buying and selling of farm lands. 



Speculation is regarded generally as a bad word. It is probable that 

 very few people define it the same. There are, however, good speculators 

 and bad speculators, long-time speculators and short-time speculators, le- 

 gitimate speculators and illegitimate speculators. Those who are best 

 acquainted with land speculation in Iowa last year, know of some bad, 

 short-time, illegitimate speculation in farm lands. 



Nearly every year during the past decade it has cost approximately 

 one-half as much to rent land for cash as to own land and pay the mort- 

 gage rate of interest on its market price at the time. Those who bought 

 during this period took the risk of land increasing in price sufficiently to 

 make up the difference between the cash rental and mortgage rates and 

 they have received more than the difference from the advance in the 

 price of land. 



Those who held land for this ten-year period not only obtained the 

 benefits of the increase in the market price, but they planned for high 

 crop yields, efficient organization and operation of the farm. These long- 

 time plans resulted in larger annual returns than is possible where farms 

 are always on the market for the highest price per acre and plans for 

 the future are an impossibility. One class of farm owners may rightly 

 be called good, long-time, legitimate speculators; the other class are 

 bad, short-time speculators and often do an illegitimate business. 



The unusual activity in buying and selling Iowa farms in 1919 sug- 

 gested the importance of obtaining information relative to the extent of 

 the increase in the price of Iowa farm land, the terms of sale and the 

 persons engaged in buying and selling, the causes and effects of the in- 

 crease in price, and the agencies which would promote farm ownei'ship. 



I. Unusual activity in buying and selling farms in 1919. 



(A) Advance in price of land in 1919. 



Table 1 gives the price of 1,414 farm sales by months from January 

 to September, inclusive: 



Av. Price 



Month. No. of Cases. per Acre. 



January 21 231 



February 34 263 



March 72 226 



April 120 240 



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