6 BULLETIN 1047, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
against the land it is frequently assumed by the purchaser, or a new 
first mortgage may be placed by him with some financial institution, 
the former owner accepting a second mortgage for his interest in 
the land. A very large percentage of the second mortgages on farm 
land are, therefore, held by former owners, as well as a considerable 
percentage of the first mortgages. 
BASIS OF FIGURES ON LOANS BY BANKS, 
Table 2 summarizes the actual returns from the questionnaire to 
banks. These figures, together with data from the comptroller's 
report, constitute the basis of the estimated total farm mortgage 
loans by banks, as given in Table 1. For the United States as a 
whole, 45 per cent of the banks reported. The lowest percentage of 
return was 27.5 per cent, from North Carolina, and the highest, 
72 per cent, from Massachusetts. 
In estimating the total farm mortgage loans held by banks, the 
figures for national banks and those for " banks other than national" 
were for each State tabulated and calculated separately. 2 
In general, the loans held by commercial banks originated with 
them. The country banks especially are instrumental in placing 
farm mortgage loans with insurance companies, as well as with savings 
banks, trust companies, and mortgage bankers in the larger cities. 
In some cases, these country banks sell mortgages which they already 
own, but more often they act merely as agents or correspondents 
either for the farmer or for the investor and may or may not assume 
liability to the investor. 
2 It was assumed in the case of each State, first, that the percentage obtained by dividing the 
total loans and discounts of each class of banks which replied to our questionnaire into the total 
loans and discounts of such of these banks as reported some farm mortgage loans applied also to the loans 
and discounts of banks of the same class which did not reply to the questionnaire. Secondly, it was assumed 
that the percentage of loans and discounts represented by farm mortgage loans in the case of the banks 
reporting some farm mortgage loans held also for the part of the loans and discounts not reported, but 
which, according to the first calculation, were composed of some farm mortgage loans. In the State of 
Missouri, for instance, the total loans reported by banks other than national were $172,370,019, and the loans 
reported by banks whose loans, in pare, represented farm mortgage loans were $119,772,253 or 69.5 per cent 
of the total. Furthermore, of the total loans reported by the banks the loans of which were, in part, farm 
mortage loans, $21,683,921, or 18.1 per cent were farm mortgage loans. By applying the first of these per- 
centages, 69.5 per cent, to $587,691,000, which was the total amount of loans and discounts of banks other, 
thannationalreported for the State by the Comptroller of the Currency, a total of $403,445,245 was obtained 
which represented the loans and discounts of banks having some farm mortgage loans; and by applying 
the second percentage, or 18.1 per cent, to the last named sum, a total of $73,9S9,362 was obtained for farm 
mortgage loans. A similar computation was then made for the amount of farm mortgage loans held by 
national banks, and the resulting figure was added to those obtained above, giving a total of farm mort- 
gage loans held bj- all banks in Missouri amounting to $75,093,027. 
