a 
FARM LAND VALUES IN IOWA. 37 
lation of wealth by tenant farmers. The average labor income of 
tenants in the Tama district was $3,053 in 1918; in addition to this, 
the tenant was allowed $354 for his working capital, as well as the 
value of the labor performed on the farm by members of the family 
and the value of living obtained from the farm. Certainly the 
favorable conditions of the war period made possible considerable 
accumulation by tenants. In 1913, however, the average labor in- 
come of tenants was but $1,315 in the same district. 
SUMMARY OF CAUSES AND PROBABLE EFFECTS OF THE “BOOM.” 
CAUSES. 
The great attention attracted by the recent unusually rapid increase 
in the values of farm lands and in the activity in buying and selling 
farm land has resulted in the advancement of numerous theories in 
explanation of these phenomena. It would be difficult to suggest 
probable causes which have not already been mentioned in popular 
discussion. However, it may be desirable to indicate the relative 
importance of the several causes mentioned, to test them so far as 
possible by the known facts, and to suggest their mutual interrelation. 
From the standpoint of causes it is desirable to distinguish to some 
extent the increase in activity in buying and selling from the increase 
in values. An increase in value, if not too abnormal, may occur 
without being accompanied by any considerable increase in buying 
and selling activity. In fact, a steady increase in value was taking 
place prior to the beginning of the ‘‘boom”’ of 1919. However, it is 
clear that the increase in value and the increase in sales activity were 
due in part to identical causes during the spring and summer of 1919, 
and, moreover, the increase in values and increase in sales activity 
mutually influenced one another—that is, the increase in value 
tended to stimulate aetivity in buying and selling, while this activity 
in turn reacted upon values. 
Foremost as a cause is the fact that farm income, as a result largely 
of war prices for farm products, increased for a time more rapidly 
than land values. This fact is clearly established by the analysis of 
farmincomes. (See above, p. 21.) 
This truth was sometimes expressed in popular discussion by the 
statement that there was ‘‘little or no increase in land values during 
the war period, and an increase was, therefore, about due.’”’ This is, 
of course, but a half truth, for it has been shown that there was a 
probable average increase of approximately $15 per acre during the 
period from March, 1918, to March, 1919, if this may be taken to 
comprise a greater part of the war period. If the latter term is em- 
ployed to coincide with the entire duration of the European war— 
from 1914 to the beginning of 1919—there was undoubtedly a much 
larger increase. 
