330 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



quarter sold a year and a half ago for $75 an acre. The farm which 

 you sold at $30 an acre would now easily sell for $135, and I doubt 

 whether the owner would give you a pleasant look for an offer at that 

 price." 



Another subscriber who happened to overhear this conversation here 

 broke in with the remark: "It beats all about the price of land. We 

 have had it very dry in our county ever since the first of July, and I 

 suppose our corn will make about a half a crop, taking the county over, 

 but the price of land keeps going up, and more farms have changed 

 hands during the past month or six weeks than at any time during 

 the past year. There is less speculation in land, but more of it is being 

 bought by the farmers in the neighborhood. If a man wants to sell out, 

 he will find someone within two or three miles of him who will pay 

 all the way from $150 to $200 an acre for land that ten years ago could 

 be purchased for not to exceed $75 an acre, and some of it as low as 

 $50. Our people seem to have gotten over the craze for land in new 

 countries, and the farmer who has a boy old enough to start out for 

 himself will help him buy right around in the home neighborhood." 



"What about the demand for a better system of farm credits?" was 

 the question we put to as many people as possible. "Does the farmer 

 who needs to borrow^ some money to carry him through the season have 

 any trouble in getting it at a reasonable rate?" The invariahle answer 

 was, "Not a bit. Any man who has a good reputation for industry, 

 whether he has much money or not, can borrow whatever he may need 

 for carrying on his work, at from seven to eight per cent." 



"What about the rates on farm mortgages, and where does the money 

 come from?" 



"Five and five and one-half per cent. Some of it is insurance com- 

 pany money, handled by the local bankers, but a lot of it is home money. 

 Any amount of farmers' money is being loaned to the neighbors on 

 mortgages and for short time loans as well." 



"Then there isn't any particular demand in your neighborhood for 

 the government to work out some system which will enable the farmers 

 to borrow money easier?" 



"Never heard such a thing suggested in our neighborhood. We have 

 all the money we need. In fact, sometimes I think it is too easy to 

 borrow money because it has encouraged some of our people to speculate 

 in outside land and schemes of one sort or another, where they have 

 lost considerable." 



In some of the counties south of the Rock Island, the corn crop was 

 reported badly damaged by dry weather, but the lowest estimate , made 

 was half a crop, and if there are any farmers who feel discouraged, they 

 did not come to the fair. From all of the iimtlicni part of the state, 

 reports indicate a very heavy corn croj). 



