8 BULLETIN 874, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



those there were several sales at $600 or more. The writers have 

 found references to a number of other cases of sales at $600 or more 

 in a large number of clippings from Iowa newspapers. In one case 

 the rate of sale was more than $900 per acre. This, however, in- 

 volved only 10 acres of land and probably represented residential 

 value. It is also true that a considerable number of other sales at 

 $600 or more were small tracts, ]3robably used as truck farms or for 

 some other intensive purpose. .The importance of the comparatively 

 few sales at $400 or more was so exaggerated by newspaper publicity 

 that the general public were led to believe $400 to be the going value 

 of Iowa farm land as a whole. 



EXTENT OF ACTIVITY IN BUYING AND SELLING FARMS, 1919. 



PERIOD OF THE "BOOM." 



Taking the State of Iowa as a whole, the unusual activity in land 

 sales covers the j3eriod from the early spring of 1919 until the middle 

 of the month of September. There are some indications that in- 

 creased activity in land transfers occurred in certain counties in the 

 fall of 1918, especially in Sioux, Plymouth, Cass, and Sac Counties. 

 For this reason investigators were frequently told that the "boom" 

 began in northwestern Iowa and spread from that region as a center. 

 It seems clear, however, that while this tendency for the activity to 

 spread from one county to another was more or less manifest and 

 was intensified in every county by the stories of activity and of 

 rapidly increasing values of other parts of the State, as well as by 

 the movement from county to county of real estate agents, specu- 

 lators, and buyers seeking to replace lands alread} T sold, the entire 

 movement was more or less spontaneous throughout the State. It 

 was unquestionably due largely to general conditions everywhere 

 favorable to such a tendency. Broadly speaking, the activity proba- 

 bly began a little earlier in some of the comities in the northwestern 

 part of the State and a little later in some of the counties of the 

 northeastern part of the State than in the majority of counties. 



PROPORTION OF FARMS SOLD. 



From the degree of excitement which prevailed during the spring 

 and summer of 1919, one might have formed the conclusion that 

 nearly all the farms of the State of Iowa were changing hands. In 

 order to determine what proportion of the farms of the State were 

 actually being sold, inquiries were made of real estate men, bankers, 

 and other well-informed persons as to what proportion of the farms 

 of their communities had changed hands during the "boom." The 

 average of 93 estimates from 34 counties is 8.9 per cent 1 , or 6,250 



1 A recent statement issued by a large Iowa trust company gives 19,000 as the number of farms sold during 

 the "boom." This is approximately 10 per cent of the farms of the State, but the estimate covers a longer 

 period than that given above. 



