INCREASE OF AMERICAN LAND VALUES 497 



accurate a measure as may be of the extent to which farm land, irre- 

 spective of improvements, is increasing in value. 



During the decade between 1900 and 1910, the value of all farm 

 lands in the United States increased from $13,058,000,000 to $28,476,- 

 000,000 — equivalent of 118.1 per cent.'' Not one of the nine geograph- 

 ical divisions covered by the census shows any decrease in farm land 

 values. The increases, however, vary extremely. The least increase 

 (19.1 per cent.) is shown in the Middle Atlantic States; the greatest 

 increase (313 per cent.) is in the Mountain States. The largest total 

 increase (slightly more than six billions of dollars) occurred in the 

 Middle Western States, which gave a percentage increase of one hun- 

 dred and fifty-eight. 



A further inspection of the figures by states shows that tlie farm 

 land increases are sectionally rather uniform. For example, in New 

 England three of the states (New Hampshire, Vermont and Massa- 

 chusetts) have increased between twenty and thirty per cent. ; for Con- 

 necticut the increase was 37 per cent.; for Rhode Island it was 12 per 

 cent.; and for Maine, 75 per cent. In the Middle Atlantic States, 

 New York shows an increase of 28 per cent. ; New Jersey, of 33 per 

 cent. ; and Pennsylvania, of 9 per cent. The increase for Pennsylvania 

 is the smallest increase in agricultural land values shown by any state 

 in the country between 1900 and 1910. The increases among the 

 East North Central States vary from 45 per cent. (Michigan) to 104 

 per cent. (Illinois). In the West North Central States, however, the 

 variation is considerably greater — from 82 per cent. (Minnesota) to 

 377 per cent. (South Dakota). Of the South Atlantic States, four 

 (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia) show increases of 

 less than one hundred per cent. In this same class fall Kentucky and 

 Tennessee from the East South Central Group, and Louisiana from the 

 West South Central Group. All of the other Southern States have 

 increases of over one hundred per cent., and Florida (204 per cent.) 

 and Oklahoma (334 per cent.) lead all of the others in their ratios of 

 increase. Among the Mountain and Pacific States, only three show 

 increases in land values of less than two hundred per cent. They were 

 Utah (147 per cent.), Nevada (165 per cent.) and California (108 per 

 cent.). The increase in Montana was 130 per cent.; in Idaho, 319 per 

 cent. ; in Colorado, 301 per cent. ; in New Mexico, 470 per cent. ; and in 

 Washington, 421 per cent. 



The total increase in the value of farm land from 1900 to 1910 for 

 the whole United States was fifteen and a half billions of dollars, more 

 than thirteen billions of which is credited to the territory lying west of 

 Pennsylvania, north of the Mason and Dixon Line and west of the 



^All of the figures in this section are taken from the abstract of the 1910 

 census. 



VOL. LXXXIII.— 34, 



