FARM LAND VALUES IN IOWA. 29 



The statistics on economic rent and landlords' per cent of net 

 return on present value of investment in Table XVI are of great 

 interest and significance. The statistics may be considered from 

 several standpoints. 



In the first place, we may compare the increase of economic rent 

 per acre with the increase in land value per acre for the corresponding 

 periods. In the Tama district economic rent increased about 74 per 

 cent for all classes of farms from 1913 to 1918, while land values 

 increased only 21 per cent. This disparity indicates forcibly the 

 condition that produced the radical readjustment in land values dur- 

 ing the recent "boom." On the other hand, while the economic rent 

 increased 74 per cent from 1913 to 1918, land values from 1913 to 

 1919 increased 82 per cent, indicating a tendency for the increase of 

 land values to outrun somewhat the increase of economic rent. This 

 tendency was particularly marked in the Warren district. As a result 

 of the poor corn crop of 1918 economic rent for that year was only 

 28 per cent higher than in 1915, whereas the influence of the boom 

 caused land values to advance 89 per cent during the same period. 



The two districts present interesting contrasts in respect to the 

 per cent of the average net return of landlords to the average value 

 of landlords' investment. For all systems of renting the percentage 

 of landlords' return is higher in the Warren district than in the Tama 

 district. Thus, for all rented farms the percentage of landlords' net 

 return in the Warren district averaged 3.95 per farm in 1915 and 

 5.33 in 1918, while in the Tama district the percentages are 2.48 and 

 2.43 for the respective periods. However, comparisons for all tenant 

 farms are somewhat affected by the different proportions of cash and 

 share-rented farms in the respective periods, as well as in the two 

 districts, and safer conclusions may be derived from comparing 

 changes in landlords' per cent of returns under the same system of 

 renting. 



In the Tama district the percentage of landlords' return on farms 

 rented for cash slightly declined from 1913 to 1918, indicating that 

 cash rents failed to keep pace with the advance in land values, while 

 in the Warren district the percentage of return on cash-rented farms 

 increased somewhat. In both districts, however, the landlords' par- 

 ticipation in the benefits of rapidly advancing prices of products 

 under the systems of share renting resulted in considerable increases 

 in percentages of landlords' return on share-rented farms. Since a 

 higher per cent of the farms in the Warren district were rented on 

 shares than in the Tama district, this fact explains the relatively 

 large landlords' per cent of return for all tenant farms in the Warren 

 district. 



If the landlords' per cent of return on present value of investment 

 be calculated on the basis of the ratio of 1918 rents to the land values 



