AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 723 



purposes. This fact of itself probably indicates that the chances 

 of agricultural success, in states whose lands have declined in 

 value, have been such as to give little encouragement either to 

 the borrower or to the lender of money upon farm lands. In 

 Illinois, in 1886 and 1888, the rate of mortgage foreclosures 

 upon lots was somewhat less than upon acres. 



In Minnesota, owing mainly to the introduction of diversified 

 farming, the farmer was better off in respect to foreclosures 

 during 1 892-1 893 than at any previous time in the history of 

 the state. Moreover, in 1893 the rate of mortgage foreclosure 

 upon acre property used for farm purposes was less than upon 

 city lots or acre tracts held for speculative purposes in the 

 vicinity of cities. To what extent Minnesota, in regard to mort- 

 gage foreclosures, is representative of other trans-Mississippi 

 states whose lands are rising in value, it is impossible to say with 

 any great certainty. In states like Iowa and Missouri, where both 

 soil and climate are well adapted to agriculture, where the farm 

 population is possessed of considerable accumulated resources 

 and credit, and where a fairly well-diversified system of crop 

 production exists, it is fair to infer that mortgage foreclosures 

 have not been unusually frequent. But in sections subject to 

 prolonged and disastrous droughts and having inhabitants pos- 

 sessed of meager resources, such as western Kansas and Nebraska, 

 mortgage foreclosures have beyond question registered a high 

 degree of agricultural disaster in recent years. 



Upon the liquidation of mortgage indebtedness in Michigan, 

 the reports of the state bureau of labor for 1888 and 1893 throw 

 some light. The report for the latter year showed a slight de- 

 crease in the percentage of farms and of acres mortgaged, in the 

 amount of mortgage debt, and in the percentage of debt to the 

 assessed value of farms encumbered, with a consequent falling 

 off in the annual burden of interest of $471,581. 



With regard to the relative rates at which the liquidation of 

 mortgage debts upon acre tracts and city lots proceeded during 

 the last decade, tables are submitted on the following page. 



The figures indicate that the rate of mortgage liquidation 

 upon acre tracts was 54.89 per cent, and upon lots 47.06 per 



