514 FARM MANAGEMENT 



county that is equally good. The great rise in land values 

 in the Central West began in Illinois and Iowa and spread 

 gradually. Farms with which the writer is familiar in 

 Illinois reached $150, when certain farms in Nebraska 

 were worth $40. At the present time, the Nebraska land 

 has reached $125, and these particular Illinois farms are 

 worth about $250. 



Land rose to a very high price in the Middle West 

 before eastern and southern farms began to rise in price. 

 Now farms in both of these regions are rising fairly rapidly, 

 and the prices in the Middle West are about stationary. 

 The waves of rising and falling values pass from region 

 to region. One who knows the agricultural values of the 

 different regions will consider the relation of prices to 

 value before locating. 



Figure 116 shows the relative changes in land values 

 in Iowa, Illinois, and New York. The values in Iowa 

 and Illinois have advanced in much the same way. In 

 1890, the Iowa land offered a better investment than the 

 Illinois land. If $1000 had been invested in average 

 land in each state, the value in 1910 would have been 

 $3416 in Iowa and $2616 in Illinois. But if $1000 had 

 been invested in New York land in 1890, it would have 

 been worth only $1220 in 1910. 



There is no question but that the price of New York 

 land rose too high at the time of the Civil War. For a 

 generation, this land dropped in value while the western 

 land rose in price. After such a period of depression, it 

 takes some time for confidence to be restored so that 

 land again rises in price. There is little doubt but that 

 New York land was relatively too high in 1870, Bnd there 

 seems to be little doubt but that it was relatively too low 

 in 1910. The real land values in these different states 



