500 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



period is really unfair, because up to 1890 the agricultural land of the 

 Far West was a negligible quantity in so far as its value was concerned. 

 These figures do show, however, the immense increase which has 

 occurred. 



The really important material on the increase in farm values is 

 available only between 1900 and 1910. The other data are, however, of 

 considerable significance. The whole body of information indicates that 

 in those sections of the United States from which the food products of 

 the country are chiefly derived, the land values during the last few 

 decades have increased at a very rapid pace, culminating in the decade 

 between 1900 and 1910 with an increase for ten years of double, treble 

 or quadruple their 1900 values. 



For manifest reasons, the increases in the values of lumber lands 

 were prodigious, yet in many instances they are insignificant when com- 

 pared with the increases in agricultural land values, which should yield 

 an essentially stable value over so short a period as ten years. Instead 

 agricultural land has fairly leaped into the field of rising values. 



While farm values constitute the chief concern of the territory west 

 of the Mississippi, the northeastern section of the United States is inter- 

 ested primarily in city land values. Did the census officials de- 

 vote even a tithe of the effort to the determination of city land values 

 that were lavished upon farm values, there would be collected a body of 

 data valuable in the extreme. No such procedure has been adopted, 

 however, hence the unfortunate seeker after the truth of changes in city 

 land values is compelled to rely on the little information that may be 

 culled from private sources. 



Most American cities have no record at all of the increase in the 

 value of land separate from improvements. Indeed, a prominent land- 

 valuation expert goes so far as to write : 



I do not believe that any authentic information concerning the increase of 

 city land value exists. Until assessments are made by the same method every- 

 where, there will be little in the way of statistics that will exhibit the informa- 

 tion you desire." 



In one sense this statement is perfectly correct. The data which 

 have been collected on land values are neither authentic nor scientific. 

 They are, however, indicative of a certain tendency which Mr. Eichard 

 M. Hurd, president of the Lawyers' Mortgage Compan)', characterizes 

 by saying. 



In general land values have increased enormously in the best part of the 

 leading American cities; the land is now selling, in many sections, from two to 

 three times the figures given in my book.*" (Published in 1903.) 



•A personal letter, December 23, 1912, from E. "W. Doty. 

 "A personal letter, December 24, 1912. 



