ILLINOIS land, riding in the wake 

 of a two year crop and livestock price 

 boom, has soared $100 to $200 an 

 acre higher than the future earning 

 power of the soil warrants. This 

 buyer beware warning, aimed di- 

 rectly at young farmers apd renters with 

 just enough for a down payment on a 

 farm in their pockets, was sounded time 

 and again at the land appraisal clinics 

 held recently in Christian, Coles, and 

 Stephenson counties. 



These clinics, sponsored jointly by 

 County Farm Bureaus, the College of 

 Agriculture, and the St. Louis Federal 

 Land Bank, repeatedly brought to light 

 the appalling spread between the prices 

 farms are bringing at present and the 

 probable future earning power of these 

 same farms after crop and livestock 

 prices drop. 



All this, as one young veteran re- 

 marked, is something to think about for 

 a farmer who plans to buy a farm with 

 a nioilest down payment, and expects to 

 pay for the balance by working the land 

 for the next 10 or 20 years. 



At a typical clinic held on the 232 

 acre farm operated by Robert Wishart 

 near Mattoon in Coles county, the soil 

 type and over-all productivity were out- 

 lined by R. S. Smith, soils expert, C. L. 

 Stewart, land economist, and J. B. Cun- 

 ningham, farm m.inagement expert, all 

 from the University at Champaign. 



After each farmer put down his bid 

 on the farm, the average was compared 

 with that of Clair Hay, an experienced 

 Land Bank appraiser, and then checked 

 with its present sales price. 



The group thought the farm, based 

 on its future earning power, to be worth 

 $181, and this compared closely with 

 Hay's appraisal of $175 an acre. 



Robert Wishart, who has operated the 

 farm for a number of years, said, re- 

 flectively, that he wished he could buy it 

 at that price. Later, the men confirmed 

 that similar farms in that locality have 



FamMrt littan Inlantly during farm appraital clinic m J. B. Cunningham, farm manago- 

 mant spaciaiist, discusses soil typ* and building auttoy on Albert Scheffner form near 



Freaport. 



Cunningham points out peak in farm prices 

 to Bill Thissell, Charleston farmer, and 

 Henry Macke, right, of M a tt uu n, as Farm 

 Adviser Myers looks on, daring ro<ent farm 

 appraisal clinic In Coles ce u nl y . 



been selling for $300 and more an acre. 



At the meetings Dr. Stewart related 

 that farms are selling for at least 25 

 per cent more than they were two years 

 ago in 1945. Prices have been in- 

 creasing at a rate of one per cent per 

 month for the last 25 months. 



Farmers agreed that farm lands in the 

 cash grain belt have doubled in value 

 in many instances since the war began. 

 Prices in Coles county were quoted at 

 $350 and $375. 



Other areas of the state, however, are 

 not witnessing quite such a boom. In 

 northern Illinois, for example, the Albert 

 Scheffner farm near Freeport, also the 

 site for a land clinic, was appraised 

 at $139 and would probably sell readily 

 at $225-1250. It was in an excellent state 

 of fertility and with better than average 

 buildings. 



The land boom in southern Illinois 

 has also been more modest. Farms near 

 Carbondale, although varying widely in 

 selling price, are moving most commonly 

 at prices between $60 and $75 an acre, 

 an increase since 1941 of not much more 

 than 20 per cent. 



It is true that the big and spectacular 

 sales have been made to city buyers, but 

 contrary to a popular impression, Stew- 

 art said, a careful study has shown that 



by L«w REISNER 



FioM fditor, lAA MCORO 



Kari LoBunne, Forresten, a prospective land 

 buyer, looks over oats crop with Stephen- 

 son County Farm Adviser Banter, right, at 

 Albert Scheffner farm. 



most of the land is being bought by 

 active and retired farmers. 



And it's the farmers themselves, Stew- 

 art added, who are paying the highest 

 prices, and an unusually large number 

 are planking down the cash. A big 

 share of the sales are 40 and 80 acre 

 tracts. This was contrasted to depression 

 days when entire farms were lost, and 

 consequently sold, outright. 



The tendency now among farm own- 

 ers who plan to sell eventually is to 

 hold onto their farms, Stewart said. 

 People who own farms have no better 

 place to put their money, and in general 

 very few farms, considering the boom 

 in land prices, are changing hands. 



A few farmers are gambling with 

 the high prices and are buying land 

 on a shoestring, especially in the grain 

 belt, in the hof>e that they'll have two 

 or three years of high prices to reduce 

 their debt by $50 to $60 an acre. 



Have farm lands reached their peak.' 

 Probably not as yet. "My personal esti- 

 mate," Stewart said, "is for farm land 

 values to spurt a little after the harvest 

 this fall. A good crop of corn and 

 beans will put a lot of cash in farmers' 

 pockets." 



Farm real estate, he thinks, will reach 

 its peak this winter and then slowly de- 

 cline for three or four years, stabilizing 

 at about 80 per cent of current values. 



SEPTEMBER, 1947 



