SOME ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF FARM OWNERSHIP 9 
straight lines. Figure 1 is drawn to the natural scale and shows 
only the trends of factors best treated arithmetically, these being 
the factors for which Table 3 includes data. Figure 2 is of the ratio 
variety and shows only the trends of factors best treated geo- 
meterically,® these being the factors for which data are included in 
Table 5. 
FACTORS WITH UPWARD TRENDS 
Of the factors affecting the economic situation of these owners 
during the period 1896-1920, the following had trends toward higher 
figures when no allowance is made for changes in the general pur- 
chasing power of money : 
Trends of Factors Having Annual Changes of Relatively Uniform Amounts, Selected Farms, 
North Dakota, 1896-1920 
Unconverted net increment per acre 
100=17 cents . 
Converted netincrement per acre 
100 =-1.74% dollars 
250 
DROS 2 SU. CANA pe Se Owners share of seed cost peracra 
100235 cents 
200 Owner's share threshing cost per acre 
100=/6 cents 
Unconverted net increment per $100 
a valvation of real estate. 100=4.47 dollars 
Cost of supervision and general expens® 
Gy per acre 100=46 cents 
150 
ae Se per bushel. /00=9.2 cents 
— 100=27 cents 
75 
Amenid-Liverpoo! wheat price spread 
per bushel. 100=20.3 cents 
50 Cost of repairs per acre. /00=36 cents 
Rea/ estate taxes per $100 valuation of 
Amenia-Minneapolis wheat price spread 
per $100 valuation of wheat. 100- 16.10 dollars 
3) Amenia-Liverpool wheatpricespread 
1896 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 
Fig, 1.—The changes here shown as experienced by the owners of selected farms in most 
cases were such as to strengthen their’ economic pesition 
AMOUNTS PER ACRE 
Value of wheat yield. 
Receipts from sale of all crops raised. 
Expenditures for five items of cost to landowners, and especially for seed, 
threshing, and supervision and general expense. 
Real-estate taxes. 
Market valuation of real estate. 
Net rents. 
Net increments. 
® Owing to the marked advance of commodity prices during the period 1915-1919, 
compound interest curves do not fit the data as well as some of the higher-plane curves. 
To avoid further complexity of treatment, however, no geometric trends are shown here 
to correspond to higher-plane curves. i : : 
Sine curves were used by Prof. Henry L. Moore, of Columbia University, to describe 
trends in crop yields in North Dakota. Because of the relatively short span of time 
covered in the present investigation, it would be of little use to fit sine curves to the 
data on yields or other factors. , 
The conception of a trend followed here is that of a unified course of movement 
observed over an entire period of considerable length. 
22422°—25——2 
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