Vol. LXI. No 2712 
$1 PER YEAR. 
NEW YORK, JANUARY 18, 1902. 
A DISCUSSION OF FARM VALUES. 
FARM LANDS AS SAFE INVESTMENTS. 
The Future of Conservative Agriculture. 
The subject of farm values, as recently discussed in 
The It. N.-Y., has especially interested me. On the 
whole the evidence as there set forth has been unfa¬ 
vorable to increased values, if my memory is correct. 
If the readers of The R. N.-Y. were carefully to ex¬ 
amine into the value of farm property as it exists at 
present, it is my firm conviction that they would find 
that good farm lands are worth much more than they 
were 20 or 10 years ago. This I mean to apply gener¬ 
ally. Special exceptions, however, can be found. In 
the great agricultural West, which may include Ohio, 
Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, Wisconsin, Min¬ 
nesota, the Dakotas, Iowa and parts of Kansas, Ne¬ 
braska, Oklahoma and Texas, good farm lands, rea¬ 
sonably convenient to civilization, sell at a good 
price, and are constantly advancing in value rather 
than standing still. It 
has been my privilege 
through personal visit, 
correspondence or in¬ 
terview to learn much 
of land values in the 
above States during 
the past year. On a 
trip into Oklahoma in 
June, 1 round plenty of 
land changing hands at 
$45 to $50 per acre, that 
eight years ago was 
wild prairie sod. Great 
quantities of land are 
changing hands to-day 
in Indiana, Illinois and 
Iowa at prices ranging 
from $50 to $75 per 
acre, and plenty near 
cities at even more. 
The Red River Valley 
lands in Dakota and 
Minnesota are con¬ 
stantly increasing in 
value. Last Summer 
land values in eastern 
Kansas and Nebraska 
were constantly rising. 
The above In particular 
applies to good agricul¬ 
tural lands. What is 
the reason for this con¬ 
dition? One is that in a 
general way the farmer of the Middle West is pros¬ 
pering, and his farm property pays a good income 
on the investment. Further than this, the low rates 
of interest in stocks and bonds are leading many good 
business men in the Mississippi Valley to invest their 
money in high-class farms. They consider that good 
land, in the hands of a tenant, is a safer investment 
than other securities in general, and will pay a high¬ 
er interest, and in. this they are as a rule right. Every 
State in the Union has more or less inferior agricul¬ 
tural land, that must always command a less price 
than other lands. Illinois is usually considered as a 
State consisting of only rich prairie soil, but the fact 
is that Illinois has a great amount of poor soil in its 
southern part, that can be bought for $5 or less an 
acre. The black lands in central and northern Illi¬ 
nois, however, sell for $100 frequently to-day. This 
Illinois condition, however, applies to Indiana and 
Ohio, and also to other great agricultural States. 
If people in some regions believe that farms are 
not in demand in America, they should go out into 
the world and see what is going on. The trains go¬ 
ing west from St. Louis this past season have been 
thronged with men going from farther east, in search 
of farms. But comparatively few of these were Okla¬ 
homa boomers, planning for a free farm. Men own¬ 
ing high-priced lands in the States of Indiana, Illi¬ 
nois, Wisconsin and Iowa have been selling and then 
seeking cheaper lands elsewhere, in other States. 
Northern Wisconsin at present is feeling a strong 
agricultural growth, and timber lands that have been 
cut or burnt over are being bought and changed into 
farms, and prices are steadily going up. A friend of 
mine, a real estate dealer, has within a few months 
been looking into new farm lands in Arkansas, and 
he says that in that State the value of prairie and 
river bottom lands is constantly going up, and he 
finds many people going there to buy and settle. In 
the writer’s judgment, farm prospects in the more 
agricultural States are in a most healthy, promising 
and encouraging condition; this in spite of the 
drought of the past Summer. The whole atmosphere 
of the West indicates as much. 
I do not wish to close this communication without 
calling attention to the opportunities for young men 
to secure farm properties for their own, at compara¬ 
tively small outlay. There are farms to-day for sale 
in the southern parts of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, 
in northern Wisconsin and Michigan, and in other 
sections of the country, that can be bought with a 
minimum of money, with fine opportunities for a per¬ 
son to secure a worthy home. Agents of the Canadian 
government are to-day down here in Indiana offering 
to give 160 acres of fertile land in the Canadian 
Northwest, free to those who will go and actually 
settle on it for a specified time. Down in the south¬ 
ern United States and up in the Northwest the rail¬ 
roads in certain sections offer most liberal induce¬ 
ments to home seekers. A willing spirit and an in¬ 
telligent mind will have no difficulty in securing the 
chance to own a farm. These cheap lands may or 
may not always be low in value, but they will yield 
a good profit on the investment if judiciously handled. 
The rougher lands are often finely suited to the grow¬ 
ing of orchard fruits, while stock farming will find 
an opening almost anywhere. It is too bad that the 
farms of New England that are agriculturally dis¬ 
carded, could not be made to feel the influence of a 
progressive husbandry. But so long as the atmos¬ 
phere of the East is so distinctly non-agricultural, 
perhaps nothing essentially different can be expected. 
In the West the farmer is a power in the city as well 
as the country. No one recognizes the great import¬ 
ance of agricultural prosperity more than the banks 
and business houses of the agricultural West. A 
poor crop year and agricultural depression is some¬ 
thing to be dreaded by the western business man, for 
he of all men recognizes that business prosperity is 
dependent on agricultural prosperity. If some such 
relationship of inter-dependence between farmer and 
business man, between producer and consumer, could 
exist in the East as it does in the West, a far healthier 
condition would now 
occur in farm values, 
and the eastern farm¬ 
er would be a happier 
man. All lines of in¬ 
dustry have their times 
of prosperity and de¬ 
pression, but is it not 
reasonable to conclude 
that, with all our most 
desirable public lands 
distributed, and with a 
rapidly growing popu¬ 
lation that farm values 
should rank high in fu¬ 
ture rather than now? 
This is the opinion of 
the writer, and also of 
many good Dusiness 
men. c. s. plumb. 
R. N.-Y.—That seems 
like a wise and conser¬ 
vative conclusion; yet 
it is easy to see that 
the scheme for irrigat¬ 
ing the arid West at 
public expense, and 
thus bringing millions 
of new acres into com¬ 
petition with the older 
farmers, would from 
the start injure this 
rise in farm values. It 
is to be hoped that the 
irrigation question will be studied conservatively, as 
a National rather than a sectional matter. 
HUDSON RIVER MEN TALK APPLES. 
Best Chance in Quality. 
The planting of large commercial orchards of 
apples, that has been in progress for the past few 
years, and still continues in the West, naturally ex¬ 
cites some apprehension among eastern growers as to 
the markets in the near future for this fruit. That 
we shall see in years of abundant crops overstocked 
markets and depressed prices, I hardly think anyone 
will question. We all recall the bumper crop of 1896 
and the disastrous prices attending same. Still, I be¬ 
lieve the position of the eastern grower a pretty se¬ 
cure one for two reasons. In the first place, he has 
the market virtually at his door, and is in a position 
to take advantage of any favorable conditions of the 
same, and can dispose of his crop at the lowest pos¬ 
sible expense, a very important matter in seasons of 
TWO SOLID PRODUCTS OF DAIRY FARMING. Fig. 14. See Page 46. 
