RURAL CREDITS 717 



state, and its amount is $309,352,398; Iowa being second, with 

 $305,658,669; and Illinois third, with $285,706,170. More than two- 

 thirds of the value of this class of farms in the United States is found 

 in the North Central division, and 4.63 per cent of the total value 

 is in the South Atlantic and South Central divisions. 



Incumbrance. Upon the owned and incumbered farms there is an 

 incumbrance amounting to $1,085,905,960, and there are two states 

 in which the amount is at least $100,000,000, namely, New York, with 

 $134,960,703, and Iowa, with $101,745,924. There is an incumbrance 

 of $98,940,935 in Illinois, and an amount not less than $50,000,000 

 nor more than $75,000,000 in each of the states of Kansas, Michi- 

 gan, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. In the 3 states, 

 Illinois, Iowa, and New York, 30.91 per cent of the incumbrance is 

 concentrated; 51 .01 per cent in the 6 states, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, 

 New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania; and 71.37 per cent in the 10 

 states, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New 

 York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The smaller amounts 

 are found in the Southern states and the Rocky Mountain region. 



There are 4 counties each having an incumbrance of $6,000,000 

 and over: Monroe County, New York, and Berks, Chester County, 

 and Lancaster County, in Pennsylvania. The last named is the 

 most prominent tobacco-raising county in the United States, and 

 shows a farm incumbrance of $8,160,269. 



Ratio of incumbrance to value. While the amount of incumbrance 

 unpaid at any time is fixed by contract and by law, the value of the 

 incumbered farm is not so fixed and can only be expressed as a matter 

 of opinion until it is sold and its value measured in money. The 

 average time during which a mortgage on a farm endures from the 

 date of its making to the date of its final payment is about 5 years, 

 and the opinion is commonly expressed that during the 5 years pre- 

 vious to 1890, farm values, independent, of new improvements, 

 declined in many counties. Correspondence that was had with 

 farmers in the pursuit of information leads to the belief that farm 

 owners did not allow for the depreciation of value. A frequent 

 answer was that there was no sale for the farm, but that its old value 

 would some day be restored or that there was little sale for farms at 

 any price, but that the farms ought to be worth what they had been 

 worth some years previous. The correspondence justifies the impres- 

 sion that the farmers rated their farms at the older values when 

 higher than present ones. 



