THE VALUE OF FARM LAND AND EQUIPMENTS 209 



wheat, for example ; and yet the man with plenty of funds which 

 are available at the right time may win large profits from specula- 

 tions in land. Speculation if indulged in at the proper time 

 may keep the price of land from falling so low as it might other- 

 wise do in times of depression, and also from rising so high as it 

 otherwise might during times of inflated values. This is true 

 only where the speculator is wise enough to buy when prices 

 are too low and to sell when the values rise too high. Unwise 

 speculation in land may have the very opposite result. 



The study of the rise and fall of the price of land in the United 

 States seems to show that there are times when the price rises 

 rapidly for a few years and then remains stationary for several 

 years. This latter period is usually characterized by the fact 

 that sales of land are relatively few. Land is generally held at 

 the prices which were reached during the period of rapid sales, 

 when optimistic views of the future forced the price considerably 

 beyond the present capital value. If sales are made during this 

 dull period they are likely to be at a price appreciably lower 

 than that at which land is usually held, and likely to be a forced 

 sale. The price of land, then, may be illustrated by a curve 

 which rises during one period, remains on the same level or 

 falls during a succeeding period, and then rises again. When 

 viewed for a long period of time, the general rise in land values 

 is evident, but the temporary fluctuations are very important 

 to any one interested in buying land. 



The price of land in any given district is influenced by the 

 number and character of the men who desire to be farmers in 

 that district. It often happens that competition for the use of 

 land is keener in some regions than in others, even though the 

 land be as fertile, and the prices of agricultural products as 

 high, in the one place as in the other. Some districts produce 

 more high-grade farmers each generation than do other districts, 

 and as a strong motive is required to impel the surplus of 

 farmers to remove to another district, competition in the over- 

 populated district forces the rents and the prices which are paid 

 for land higher and higher until they are appreciably above the 

 level of those which are paid for land in other districts which 



