FARM LAND VALUES IN IOWA. Aj 
ownership may be considered fortunate in that a comparatively small 
proportion of the present farmers of Iowa have assumed the heayy 
financial handicap involved in the purchase at the excessively high 
level of values resulting from the “boom.” Probably not more than 
5 per cent of the farms of lowa were acquired by actual farmers at 
boom “prices.” The remaining 95 per cent of the farmers have 
marked up the prices of their farms, and in case of necessity can 
mark them down again. 
The “‘boom”’ was a process of rapid recapitalization of Iowa farm 
lands on the basis of the high prices of farm products and relatively 
high farm earnings of the war period. The process brought about 
an average increase of about $66 an acre, amounting to an Increase 
of about $200,000,000 for farms actually sold, and, if imputed to all 
the farms of the State, resulting in a total increase of more than 
$2,000,000,000. Active farmers assumed a larger proportion of the 
recapitalized values than they had held of former values. Urban 
owners took advantage of the process of recapitalization to realize 
the increments of land values that had accrued during the period of 
ownership, with the result that these urban dwellers received nearly 
half of all the increment of value in the case of farms owned by 
the sellers before the beginning of the ‘‘boom”’ and more than two- 
thirds of the increment derived from resales of farms purchased 
during the period of the “‘boom.”’ 
The process of recapitalization and redistribution of ownership 
occurred without any serious tendency toward “shoestring’’ specu- 
lation such as sometimes accompanies a land ‘“‘boom.” ‘There were 
unquestionably some instances of this character, but they were 
exceptional. The great majority of buyers were people of substantial 
means, and the terms of sale were not much less conservative than 
those sanctioned by prevailing custom in the region. Moreover, the 
practice of reselling contracts of sale was not as extensive as was 
generally believed. Consequently the March settlement following 
the “boom” occurred without a serious credit stringency. Some 
uncertainty and resulting litigation may grow out of the complica- 
tions from resales, but this is of mmor consequence. - 
Some temporary inconvenience and delay im the making of tenant 
contracts also resulted from the “‘boom”’ due to the uncertainties of 
ownership, but this was also a minor consequence because of the fact 
that not more than 10 per cent of the farms were sold and not more 
than one-fourth of these were resold. 
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ULTIMATE CONSEQUENCES. 
The immediate consequences of the ‘‘boom’’ of 1919 are of relatively 
minor significance as compared with the ultimate consequences. 
The latter grow out of the relation of farm values to farm incomes 
