FARM LAND VALUES IN IOWA. | 29 
The statistics on economic rent and landlords’ per cent of net 
return on present value of investment in Table XVI are of great 
interest and significance. The statistics may be considéred from 
several standpoints. 
In the first place, we may compare the increase of economic rent 
per acre with the increase in land value per acre for the corresponding 
periods. In the Tama district economic rent increased about 74 per 
cent for all classes of farms from 1913 to 1918, while land values 
increased only 21 per cent. This disparity indicates forcibly the 
condition that produced the radical readjustment in land values dur- 
ing the recent ‘‘boom.’”’ On the other hand, while the economic rent 
increased 74 per cent from 1913 to 1918, land values from 1913 to 
1919 increased 82 per cent, indicating a tendency for the increase of 
land values to outrun somewhat the increase of economic rent. This 
tendency was particularly marked in the Warren district. Asa result 
of the poor corn crop of 1918 economic rent for that year was only 
28 per cent higher than in 1915, whereas the influence of the boom 
caused land values to advance 89 per cent during the same period. 
The two districts present interesting contrasts in respect to the 
per cent of the average net return of landlords to the average value 
of landlords’ investment. For all systems of renting the percentage 
of landlords’ return is higher in the Warren district than in the Tama 
district. Thus, for all rented farms the percentage of landlords’ net 
return in the Warren district averaged 3.95 per farm in 1915 and 
5.33 in 1918, while in the Tama district the percentages are 2.48 and 
2.43 for the respective periods. However, comparisons for all tenant 
farms are somewhat affected by the different proportions of cash and 
share-rented farms in the respective periods, as well as in the two 
districts, and safer conclusions may be derived from comparing 
changes in landlords’ per cent of returns under the same system of 
renting. 
In the Tama district the percentage of landlords’ return on farms 
rented for cash slightly declined from 1913 to 1918, indicating that 
cash rents failed to keep pace with the advance in land values, while 
in the Warren district the percentage of return on cash-rented farms 
increased somewhat. In both districts, however, the landlords’ par- 
ticipation in the benefits of rapidly advancing prices of products 
under the systems of share renting resulted in considerable increases 
in percentages of landlords’ return on share-rented farms. Since a 
higher per cent of the farms in the Warren district were rented on 
shares than in the Tama district, this fact explains the relatively 
large landlords’ per cent of return for all tenant farms in the Warren 
district. 
Tf the landlords’ per cent of return on present value of investment 
be calculated on the basis of the ratio of 1918 rents to the land values 
