FARM MANAGEMENT STUDY OF COTTON FARMS. 11 



In consequence, all surveys were made rising Spanish units of mens- 

 ure, the square league, "legua" (4,428.4 acres) and "labor" (174 

 acres), being the common measures of area. It was the custom in 

 making surveys to use natural lines such as streams or coast lines as 

 bases, giving the land units frontage on these natural features. Con- 

 sequently there is little regularity either in shape or size of the vari- 

 ous units. Land lines, therefore, have no relation to magnetic north 

 and south (except in the Panhandle section of Texas). 



Tracts of land acquired as Spanish grants have since been subdi- 

 vided and sold in smaller area at prices as low as 50 cents per acre. 

 Texas public land has been sold as low as $2.50 per acre. However, 

 as the development of cotton farming took place land values advanced 

 rapidly. The average selling price of land as represented by this 

 survey of 115 farms of Ellis County was $139 per acre in 1914. This 

 price was arrived at by asking each farmer what he considered a fair 

 commercial valuation for his land with its improvements, and was 

 verified by prices received in local sales of farms. 



The census valuation of lands for Ellis County as a whole was, 

 for 1910, $59.90 per acre. The wide discrepancy between this figure 

 and that reported for the farms visited in this study, is due to several 

 causes. In the first place, census values are usually about the same 

 as assessed valuations, which are usually less than half the current 

 sale values. The census figures also apply to the entire county, while 

 the figures of the survey apply to a selected area in which land values 

 are above the average. Furthermore, during the 4^ years since the 

 census values were obtained, land had risen markedly in value. A 

 comparison of census data for 1880 with those for 1910 shows that 

 on the average for this 30-year period land values in Ellis County in- 

 creased at an average annual rate of 6 per cent. During the last 

 decade of this period the total increase was more than 100 per cent. 



A considerable proportion of these lands are farmed by share ten- 

 ants. The net rental income from lands thus rented averages $4.80 

 per acre, which is 3.5 per cent of the average valuation of $139 per 

 acre. From this it might appear that these lands were overvalued, 

 but when the fact is taken into consideration that they were increas- 

 ing in market price, this appears not to be the case. The owner of 

 land obtains his profits not only from operating income, but also 

 from increase in market price of the land. We have already seen 

 that the latter source of profit has averaged 6 per cent annually for 

 30 years past. When this is added to the 3.5 per cent profit from 

 operation, there is a total profit on the investment of 9.5 per cent. 

 Local land values appear, therefore, to be justified from the stand- 

 point of the investor. Fie is, in fact, making a fair profit on his in- 

 vestment, and it is this fact, in part, that gives these lands their mar- 



