324 READINGS IN Rl RAL ECONOMICS 



farmers have been placed in a more or less advantageous position 

 because of their ability to force up land values and take advan- 

 tage of the increased pressure. This is true, however, only of 

 those farmers who have become landowners. There are at the 

 present time about 6,362,000 farmers in the United States. 

 Only about 4,000,000 of these own all or a part of their farms, 

 and many of those who own their farms have not paid the en- 

 tire purchase price. The point that I wish to make is that those 

 who have title to their land, whether they have the land en- 

 tirely paid for or not, are being placed more and more in ad- 

 vantageous positions. Land values during the next half century 

 will change greatly. Though in many districts doubtless the 

 values are at the present time too high, generally speaking they 

 will advance. The movement will be in two directions. One of 

 these will be a readjustment downward to a reasonable level, and 

 the other will be a readjustment upward to conform to average 

 values in other parts of the country. 



I have outlined above briefly the characteristics of the move- 

 ment during the nineteenth century and the characteristics of 

 the movement which is likely to take place during the first half 

 of the twentieth century, and have quoted some statistics to sub- 

 stantiate the conclusions. In order to show the extent to which 

 this movement actually is taking place, it is worth while to quote 

 more of the results of the census of 1900 as compared with 

 those of the census of 1910. In 1900 the average value of all 

 farm property per acre of land in farms was $24.37 I m 1910 

 it was $46.64. This is an increase of 91.4 per cent during 

 the decade, an increase almost equal to the total increase of 

 all past time. This large increase was due more to change in 

 the value of land than to change in value of buildings, imple- 

 ments and machinery, or live stock. The average value of land 

 per acre (without buildings or equipment), for the United States 

 as a whole, was $15.57 m 1900 as compared with $32.40 in 

 1910, an increase of 108.1 per cent. Land is, therefore, 

 clearly the most important factor. In contrast, the average value 

 of buildings per acre of land in farms increased from $4.24 to 



