FARM MANAGEMENT STUDY OF COTTON FARMS. 11 
In consequence, nil surveys were made using Spanish units of meas- 
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 stud} x , 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 count} T , while 
the figures of the survey apply to a selected area in which land values 
are above the average. Furthermore, during the 4J 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 cf 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. He is, in fact, making a fair profit on his in- 
vestment, and it is this fact, in part, that gives these lands their mar- 
