10 



BULLETIN 1068, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



CHANGES OF FARM VALUES IN RELATION TO TENURE. 



Agriculture in the black land has passed in 60 years from the pion- 

 eering stage of 1860, when the best land was plentiful and relatively 

 cheap, to the well-established system of crop growing of 1920, with 

 all but the very poorest land in use. As one would expect, this 

 change has affected land values more than it has affected equipment 

 values on the average farm. 



Land values rose from an average of $5.57 an acre in 1860 to 

 $116.47 in 1920, an increase of 20.9 times $5.57, while during the 

 same time the value of equipment per acre rose from $3.48 to $12.56, 

 an increase of only 3.6 times $3.48 (see Table 7). 



The general depression following the Civil War caused both land 

 and equipment values to decline from 1860 to 1870. However, equip- 

 ment values continued to decline until 1880, owing to the breaking up 

 of the stock-raising industry. There was 1 animal unit for each 

 4.4 acres of land in farms in 1870 and 1 for each 6.7 acres in 1880. 



The striking increase in farm operators between 1890 and 1900, 

 however, did not greatly affect land values, which increased only 

 38.9 per cent during the decade as compared with an increase of 95.5 

 per cent for the previous decade and 93.8 per cent for the decade 

 following. 



Table 7. — Average farm values per acre in the black land, by decades, since I860. 1 



Census year. 



Average 

 value of 

 land and 

 buildings 

 per acre. 



Average 

 value of 

 equip- 

 ment 

 per acre. 



Average 

 value of 

 machin- 

 ery 

 per acre. 



Average 



value of 



live 



stock 



per acre. 



1860 



$5.57 

 5.45 

 9.07 

 17.73 

 24.63 

 47.74 

 116. 47 



S3. 48 

 3.13 

 2.44 

 4.06 

 5.10 

 7.41 



12.56 



$0.31 



.28 



.48 



.61 



1.09 



1.51 



4.15 



$3.17 



1870 



2.85 



1880 



1.96 



1890 



3.45 



1900 



4.01 



1910 



5.90 



1920 



8.41 







1 Computed from U. S. Census data. 



The increase in land values since 1900 has been 4.8 times as great as 

 the increase during the four decades previous to that date. This 

 phenomenal increase in the value of land occurred in a period 

 when the size of the farm, the system of farming, and the number of 

 farm operators practically remained unchanged. 



This great increase in value was largely the result of competition 

 for the purchase of the land's annual use value (present and pros- 

 pective) without any significant change in the number of operators. 

 This statement is supported by the fact that the bonus system (see 

 p. 13) grew up during the decade from 1900 to 1910, although the 



