TWENTIETH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 585 



It should "be noted that a farm owner is a bull on the market. Altho 

 his farm may not be for sale he is generally optimistic that the price 

 v/ill maintain or go higher. The county agent put speculation as the 

 first cause for the advance in the price of land, the farmers placed five 

 other causes as more important. 



A typical farmer's report. Reasons given for land selling at present 

 prices. 



J. C. T., age 25, inheritance nothing, net worth March 1st, $25,000. 



"1. Farmers are paying present prices for land because money has 

 been piling up at tremendous rate during the past four years, with corn 

 at approximately $1.50 per bushel and hogs at 15 cents per pound, while 

 all the land advance has come in one year. 



"2. I believe 25 per cent of the advance in land prices was due to 

 speculation. 



"3. A good farmer can buy this land at $350 (present market 

 price) and pay for it with $1 corn and 10-cent hogs. 



"4. Farmer will pay more to get farm for son or son-in-law. 



"5. One must figure that the farmer gets a home as well as a place 

 of business. 



"6. As farm equipment and labor advance in price the better land 

 is worth relatively more. Except for husking it is not more expensive 

 to produce sixty bushels of corn per acre than to produce thirty bushels. 



"7. More food produced per man now than formerly. The three-bot- 

 tom plow has replaced the one-bottom plow. Pork is produced more eco- 

 nomically with scientific rations, self-feeders and hogging down. Beef 

 is produced more economically with ensilage and protein supplement, 

 oil meal or cotton seed with it. 



"8. Farmers have made money in this neighborhood and would 

 rather put it in farms than in oil stock or other similar investments. 



"9. More than one-half of those who bought farms in this commu- 

 nity are between 25 and 40, who have made good money the last four 

 years and have bought farms to keep them. 



"10. Advantage from boom is that men have been able to sell and 

 buy where they liked the neighborhood and farm better." 



Note: Last May he shipped ten loads of cattle and hogs. The year 

 before he shipped eight loads of cattle and seven loads of hogs. 



(c) Bankers. 



Generally speaking, bankers were optimistic that the price of land 

 would be maintained or would advance. They believed the present price 

 for farm products will continue for a few years. They thought it unwise, 

 however, for an average man to buy a farm at present prices unless he 

 had approximately one-third or more of the purchase price. 



A typical banker's reply concerning land prices: 



"1. Prices of farm products will not go back to former levels. Pop- 

 ulation will increase faster than production. 



"2. Only one Iowa or one corn belt. 



"3. Land will advance sooner or later, some day to $700 or $800 

 per acre for best farm land. 



