6 BULLETIN 874, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
From a number of sources of information it has also been possible 
to check the accuracy of the increase shown by the table to have 
occurred from March 1, 1918, to August, 1919. According to this 
information it appears that from March, 1918, to March, 1919, the 
time the increased activity in land sales began to be manifested, there 
was an increase of not jess than $15 per acre and possibly as much as 
$20. 
Table III shows an average increase from the first of March, 1918, 
to August, 1919, of $65 per acre. This may be compared with the 
increase of $81 per acre from March, 1918, to March, 1920, according 
to the statistics of the Bureau of Crop Estimates. The latter figure 
) 
reflects the full extent of the “boom,” showing that there was an 
increase between August, 1919, and the cessation of unusual activity 
in sales of farms. 
Assuming that the increase from March, 1918, to the beginning of 
the ‘‘boom”’ was $15 per acre, there remains an average increase of 
$50 to be attributed to the advance during the “boom” up to about 
the middle of August. There was probably a further increase before 
the cessation of activity in buying and sellimg land about the middle 
of September amounting to about $16 an acre. Consequently it 
appears that an average increase of $66 an acre may be attributed to 
the farm land ‘“‘boom”’ of 1919. 
It will be noted that the increase shown by the data on sales in 
Table ITI for the period of the ‘‘boom”’ for March to August inclusive, 
is only $33 as compared with a probable average increase, as stated 
above, of approximately $50. Two facts probably account for this. 
In the first place, the ‘‘boom”’ was really a popular awakening to an 
increase in values that had been going on steadily in the pre-‘‘boom”’ 
period. When the awakening came there was a sudden jump in 
values manifested in the early months of the year. A second explana- 
tion is the tendency to seil the best grade of farms first. A supple- 
mentary investigation was made for the purpose of verifying this 
conclusion. A typical district was visited and additional sales: data 
were obtained for 194 farms. These farms were classified into ‘‘A”’ 
orade and ‘‘B”’ grade farms, the first group having an average price 
of $340 an acre and the second group, $261. It was found that 30 
per cent of the ‘‘A”’ grade farms were sold between January 1 and 
April 1, 1919, while only 18 per cent of the ““B”’ grade Ls were 
sold jiiae the same period. 
PROBABLE INCREASE IN VALUE OF LAND IN ENTIRE STATE, 1915 TO 1920. 
On the basis of the figures given in Table II there has been an 
increase in the average value of Iowa farm land that is little short 
of astounding. The average value of Iowa farm land increased $121 
an.acre from 1915 to 1920. This represents a total increase of $3,987,- 
ed, 
