AVERAGE ASSESSED VALUATION OF MONTANA LANDS 



1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 



Irrigated Land $61.16 $62.87 $50.95 $60.80 $48.90 



Dry Land 18.47 18.97 13.44 12.90 13.20 



Grazing: Lands „ 6.08 6.89 4.96 4.80 4.70 



All Agricultural Lands 9.59 9.30 9.10 



TREND OF LAND VALUES 



TREND OF LAND N^O-UES 

 IMPROVED FARM LAND 



Reports of March 1, 1927, show that 

 Montana land values had dropped even 

 Icwer than the 1925 values, which were 

 the lowest since 1918. The low valuation 

 of March 1 reflects the absence in the 

 land situation in Montana as yet of any 

 strong outside inquiry for farm lands. 

 While some increase in land values may 

 be expected to follow the general trend 

 of better crops during the past five years 

 and some improvement in local demand 

 is noted, such demand as yet has not been 

 sufficient to meet the heavy offerings of 

 land on part of those who acquired Mon- 

 tana farms during the early part of the 

 depression period. Most observers of the 

 farm land situation believe that present 

 values are very low in comparison with 

 what the land is worth under present con- 

 ditions. This however is a healthy con- 

 dition in that Montana can offer the new 

 settler an opportunity to buy good farm 

 lands at a relatively low price compared with earning capacity under the present 

 condition of agriculture generally. 



MARCH 1 VALUE PER ACRE OF MONTANA FARM LAND 



1919 1920 1924 1925 1926 



Good Plow Land _ $46.30 $60.60 $30.00 $27.90 $29.60 



Poor Plow Land 20.00 21.80 12.50 13.00 13.50 



All Plow Land _. _ 33.60 36.00 21.50 18.50 22.50 



All Farm Land (Improved) 40.00 42.20 25.50 23.50 27.00 



(Uni; 



All Farm Land (Unimproved) 32.50 



35.50 



19.00 



15.00 



19.00 



1927 

 $26.50 

 12.80 

 19.70 

 23.80 

 16.61 



IMPORTS OF FARM IMPLEMENTS 



Although no complete records of sales of farm implements in Montana are 

 available, reports of railroads to the Montana Railroad Commission show con- 

 siderable increase in 1927 in the shipments of all farm implements. From these 

 records one can judge roughly the trend of sales of this commodity in the state. 



The table shows that from 1919 to 1925 there was a decided downward trend 

 in farm implement shipments. The data indicates a reversal of this trend in 

 1926, however, when shipments increased over both 1925 and 1924. The shipments 

 for 1927 show a continuation of this upward trend. It is generally expected that 

 sales of farm implements in 1928 will exceed those of last year. 



Increased sales of farm implements in 1927 were mainly of certain types of 

 machinery. Sales of combine-threshers were increased heavily over all previous 

 years. There was also an increase in sales of tractors and of field cultivators. 

 Estimates of State College officials place the number of tractors sold in Montana 

 in 1927 at about 3,500, the number of combines sold at over 900 and the number 

 of duckfoot cultivators sold at over 2,300. These figures are taken to mean a 

 considerable increase over sales of this item in 1926 for which data is less com- 

 plete. 



IMPORTS OF FARM IMPLEMENTS IN 1927 



Year 

 1919 

 1920 

 1924 

 1926 

 1926 

 1927 



Cars 



....671 



,...642 



....249 



.196 



,271 



-...J28 



