724 



READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



REAL-ESTATE MORTGAGES MADE IN UNITED STATES, 1880-1889 



Number 



Amount 



Total . 

 On acres 

 On lots 



9,517,000 

 4,747,000 

 4,770,000 



$12,094,000,000 

 4,896,700,000 

 7,198,000,000 



Liquidation Effected, i 880-1 < 



cent. The amount of mortgage debt resting upon acre tracts, 

 however, gives one an exaggerated idea of the volume of debt 

 carried by the farm lands of the nation. A considerable portion 

 of such land is held for speculative purposes in the vicinity of 

 cities, and cannot properly be considered as farm land in an in- 

 vestigation of the debt under which the agricultural interests of 

 the country are laboring. Lands used for farm purposes and oc- 

 cupied by their owners were subject to an aggregate incumbrance, 

 January i, 1890, of ^1,086,000,000. This debt rested upon 

 887,000 farm families, and represented 35.55 per cent of the 

 value of the farm lands encumbered. There is, of course, some 

 mortgage debt upon farms not occupied by their owners and 

 leased to tenants. The volume of such debt, however, is believed 

 to be inconsiderable ; and the well-being of a class able to live 

 upon the rental of the farms they own need not excite the 

 serious concern of the public. 



