22 BULLETIN 1047, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTUEE. 



To the extent that farm mortgages are the result of investments in 

 productive permanent improvements and equipment by existing 

 farm owners, they evidence progress and not regression. In general, 

 the increase in farm mortgages during each decade since data on this 

 subject were first gathered by the census has been most marked in 

 sections which have made the greatest progress during the decade. 

 Even where improvements of the kind above mentioned are paid 

 for out of savings instead of with the proceeds of loans, the increased 

 value and price of a farm is quite certain to result in a larger mortgage 

 in case the farm is transferred to a new owner. 



In spite of the great increase in farm mortgage debt during the 

 past decade, an increase which for the country as a whole has slightly 

 more than kept pace with the increase in land values, it may be 

 doubted if any other industry shows so small a percentage of mortgage 

 or bonded debt as agriculture. The farm mortgage debt in 1910, so 

 far as this debt was ascertained by the census, represented 27.3 per 

 cent of the value of the mortgaged farms, while that in 1920 repre- 

 sented 29.1 per cent of the value of the farms for which mortgage 

 debt was reported. The total farm mortgage debt, indicated by the 

 estimated figm'es in Table 1, constitutes 12.9 per cent of the total 

 farm values in the United States. 



While the farm mortgage debt considered as a whole is thus but a 

 relatively small percentage of the total farm values, and only about 

 2 per cent more of the value of the mortgaged farms than was the 

 case in 1910, it is true beyond doubt that many mdividual farmers 

 who purchased land during the recent boom period assumed mort- 

 gages which even with a continuation of fair prices for agricultural 

 products would have been heavy burdens, and which, with the present 

 marked disparity between prices of farm products and prices of 

 supplies and equipment which the farmer must buy, are a matter of 

 very serious concern. 



As sources of farm mortgage loans the commercial banks with 

 upward of a billion and a half of such loans continue to be of first 

 importance. Ranking second as a source of farm mortgage loans 

 are the life insurance companies, with total outstanding loans of a 

 billion and a quarter. 



The reports of loans reported by farm mortgage bankers, as ex- 

 plained on an earlier page, are very incomplete. Institutions of this 

 class therefore are a more important source of farm mortgage loans 

 than the figures in Table 1 indicate. Not only do these organiza- 

 tions as a class hold a considerably larger amount than the quarter 

 of a billion dollars reported, but they annually place a large volume 

 of farm mortgages which are passed on to other investors. This, of 

 course, is true also of commercial banks, particularly those operating 

 in rural districts. 



