BULLETIN 384, U. S. DEPAETMElSrT OP AGRICULTURE. 



Table 4. — Percentage of farm-mortgage business on which commission is paid- 



Continued. 



Geographic division and State. 



Percent- 

 age 

 ■without 

 commis- 

 sion. 



Percentage with commis- 

 sion. 



Total. 



With 

 commis- 

 sion 

 paid in 

 advance. 



With 

 commis- 

 sion paid 

 in install- 

 ments. 



West South Central 



Arkansas 



Louisiana 



Oklahoma 



Texas 



Mountain: 



Montana 



Idaho 



Wyoming 



Colorado 



New Mexico. . . 



Arizona 



Utah 



Pacific: 



Washington 



Oregon 



California 



66.9 



76.8 

 8.4 

 57.0 



31.1 



3.5.8 

 59.9 

 41.7 

 59.0 

 80.5 

 67.0 



41.8 

 68.4 

 81.0 



33.1 

 23.2 

 91.6 

 43.0 



64.2 

 40.1 

 58.3 

 41.0 

 19.5 

 33.0 



58.2 

 31.6 

 19.0 



18.6 

 16.3 

 36.7 

 27.1 



28.4 

 45.6 

 28.1 

 47.0 

 32.8 

 9.5 

 18.3 



46.4 

 23.6 

 15.1 



14.5 

 6.9 

 54.9 

 15.9 



40.5 

 18.6 

 12.0 

 11.3 

 8.2 

 10.0 

 14.7 



11.8 

 8.0 

 3.9 



Again, it is found that the Staties deriving a large percentage of 

 their farm-mortgage funds from insurance companies are among those 

 where commission is paid on a relatively large proportion of the farm- 

 mortgage loans. This condition foUows naturally from the fact that 

 wherever capital for mortgage loans is obtained from outside sources, 

 especially from distant sources, it generally passes through the hands 

 of one or more middlemen, to whom commissions must be paid. In- 

 surance companies, of course, represent only one of several outside 

 sources from which capital for farm-mortgage loans is secured, but 

 they are of sufficient importance in a number of States to make it of 

 interest to compare the proportion of the total farm-mortgage capital 

 which they furnish with the proportion of farm-mortgage business on 

 which commission is charged. For example, in Georgia, Nebraska, 

 Oklahoma, Kansas, South Dakota, and Iowa, which are among the 

 States obtaining the largest proportion of their farm-mortgage capi- 

 tal from insurance companies, the percentage of farm-mortgage busi- 

 ness on which commission is charged ranges from 64 (in Iowa) to 92 

 (in Oklahoma) . On the other hand, in States like Michigan and Wis- 

 consin, where farm mortgages held by insurance companies represent 

 less than 2 per cent of the estimated total farm-mortgage debt, the pro- 

 portion of the farm-mortgage business on which commission is paid 

 is much less, and those Eastern States where the insurance companies 

 do practically no farm-mortgage business are among those having 

 the lowest percentage of commission loans. 



It may be concluded, therefore, that the practice of charging com- 

 mission is most widely current in States where it is necessary to 



