FARM LAND VALUES IN IOWA. 45 



under these conditions. Heretofore, these obstacles have not been so 

 great, for the increase of land values 'alone has been sufficiently 

 large to amortize a large part of the indebtedness. Thus, a tenant 

 who bought land in the Tama district at the average Value of $192 

 an acre in 1913 could have borrowed 85 per cent of the purchase 

 price and sold the farm for enough to repay the debt out of the in- 

 crease in value during the six years. Unless farm land may be. ex- 

 pected to continue to advance steadily in the future, this important 

 means of acquiring wealth sufficient to repay indebtedness incurred 

 for purchase will not be available. 



It appears, therefore, that in view of the financial undesirability, 

 as well as the almost insuperable difficulty, of tenants acquiring 

 ownership under present conditions, comparatively few tenants may 

 be expected to change their present status, unless there occur a marked 

 change in conditions. 



The question whether the present level o^ land values is to be con- 

 sidered abnormal and to be deplored should finally be tested not only 

 by the interest of the individual owner or tenant, but also by the 

 general public interest. 



Is it to the public interest that farmers must pay so much to acquire 

 the ownership of land that they can earn very much less on their in- 

 vestment than if they invested in other lines of business ? Is it to the 

 public interest that the making of a return equal to the market 

 value of the farmer's labor is so precarious, on account of the high 

 capital charges of the business, that from 65 to 85 per cent of the 

 farmers, in a time when conditions were unusually favorable to 

 agriculture, failed to earn that amount ? Finally, is it desirable 

 that land values should be so high that it is financially both unde- 

 sirable and impossible for a large percentage of tenants to acquire 

 the ownership of a farm ? 



The reader may answer these questions according to his own point 

 of view. From the point of view of the writers the questions them- 

 selves suggest the unwholesomeness of the tendency toward the over- 

 capitalization of the earnings of farm lands — a tendency prevailing 

 not only in Iowa, but in other agricultural regions before the recent 

 "boom," but carried to a greater extreme in the rapid recapitalization 

 of land values that has been described in this study- - 



o 



