640 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



In 1905, at the end of the five-year period covered by this investi- 

 gation, the prices of farm products have risen out of the depths to 

 which various causes had previously sunk them, so that the farmer 

 is at last getting a fair net return for his labor and farming operations 

 in most products. This is naturally reflected in the higher capitaliza- 

 tion of agricultural land. This conclusion is not advanced theoreti- 

 cally, but is amply sustained by the reports of many thousands of 

 correspondents in all parts of the country and for all classes of farms for 

 which there has been a considerable increase in price of products. 



One can well realize how directly the availability of cheap public 

 land suitable for farming has depressed the value of old agricultural 

 land and kept from rising to its otherwise natural level the value of 

 newer land taken into cultivation, upon reading the statements of 

 many correspondents, particularly in the agricultural margin near the 

 land recently acquired from nation, state, or railroad. The national 

 land that can be utilized agriculturally is now reduced to about 

 300,000,000 acres, but nearly all of this is suitable only for grazing, 

 since it cannot be used in dry farming nor under irrigation. 



While the public land suitable for farming has been reaching 

 exhaustion the flow of immigration from foreign countries and from 

 the older parts of this country has been continuing in its direction, 

 and where no farming land could be obtained from nation, state, or 

 railroad the influx of agricultural people was halted hi regions where 

 farms had been established in more recent years, and the consequent 

 pressure of new demand upon a fixed area increased the value per 

 acre during the five years often as much as 50 to 100 per cent. 



Along with the general causes that have elevated the price of farm 

 land during the last five years should be mentioned the diminishing 

 rate of interest. So great in the aggregate have been the savings of 

 the farmers and persons in other occupations in the North Central 

 states and in other sections that a large amount of these savings has 

 sought investment in farms, even to the extent of raising farm value 

 and diminishing the rate of interest, so that an advance of the price 

 has followed often with no increased net profit per acre. 



In the cotton belt the abolition of the crop lien in consequence of 



profitable prices of cotton has worked a greater economic revolution 



han has taken place in any other part of the country or for any crop 



ther than cotton. When the cotton planter ceased to pay an 



xtremely high rate of interest for an advancement of supplies 



estimated at 40 per cent fifteen years ago and became able to sustain 



