BULLETIN" 384, TJ. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Table 4. — Percentage of farm-mortgage business on which commission is paid — 
Continued. 
Percent- 
age 
■without 
commis- 
sion. 
Percentage with commis- 
sion. 
Geographic division and State. 
Total. 
With 
commis- 
sion 
paid in 
advance. 
With 
commis- 
sion paid 
in install- 
ments. 
West South Central: 
Arkansas 
66.9 
76.8 
8.4 
57.0 
31.1 
35.8 
59.9 
41.7 
59.0 
80.5 
67.0 
41.8 
68.4 
81.0 
33.1 
23.2 
91.6 
43.0 
68.9 
64.2 
40.1 
58.3 
41.0 
19.5 
33.0 
58.2 
31.6 
19.0 
18.6 
16.3 
36.7 
27.1 
28.4 
45.6 
28.1 
47.0 
32.8 
9.5 
IS. 3 
46.4 
23.6 
15.1 
14 5 
6 9 
54 9 
Texas 
15 9 
Mountain: 
Montana 
40.5 
Idaho 
18.6 
Wyoming 
12.0 
Colorado 
11.3 
8.2 
10.0 
Utah 
14.7 
Pacific: 
Washington 
11.8 
8.0 
California 
3.9 
Again, it is found that the States deriving a large percentage of 
their farm-mortgage funds from insurance companies are among those 
where commission is paid on a relatively large proportion of the farm- 
mortgage loans. This condition follows naturally from the fact that 
wherever capital for mortgage loans is obtained from outside sources, 
especially from distant sources, it generally passes through the hands 
of one or more middlemen, to whom commissions must be paid. In- 
surance companies, of course, represent only one of several outside 
sources from which capital for farm-mortgage loans is secured, but 
they are of sufficient importance in a number of States to make it of 
interest to compare the proportion of the total farm-mortgage capital 
which they furnish with the proportion of farm-mortgage business on 
which commission is charged. For example, in Georgia, Nebraska, 
Oklahoma, Kansas, South Dakota, and Iowa, which are among the 
States obtaining the largest proportion of their farm-mortgage capi- 
tal from insurance companies, the percentage of farm-mortgage busi- 
ness on which commission is charged ranges from 64 (in Iowa) to 92 
(in Oklahoma) . On the other hand, in States like Michigan and Wis- 
consin, where farm mortgages held by insurance companies represent 
less than 2 per cent of the estimated total farm-mortgage debt, the pro- 
portion of the farm-mortgage business on which commission is paid 
is much less, and those Eastern States where the insurance companies 
do practically no farm-mortgage business are among those having 
the lowest percentage of commission loans. 
It may be concluded, therefore, that the practice of charging com- 
mission is most widely current in States where it is necessary to 
