Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 83.djvu/502

498 Mississippi. In short, the great farm land value increases occurred in that section of the country from which most of the necessary farm products are derived. An examination of the figures in the preceding paragraph shows that of the 22 states outside of this area, none reports increases of more than two hundred per cent., while only eight show increases of more than one hundred per cent. Within the area (west of Pennsylvania, north of the Mason and Dixon Line and west of the Mississippi), of the 27 states, seven report increases of more than two hundred per cent., while 19 of the 27 report gains of more than 100 per cent.

There is, to be sure, a partial explanation of these immense western increases in the increase in acreage. The number of acres devoted to farming purposes is greater in 1910 than in 1900. This increase is not, however, considerable. Although the population west of the Mississippi increased 30 per cent, between 1900 and 1910, the total number of farms increased only 18 per cent., the total acreage in farms increased only 9 per cent., and the total amount of improved land in farms increased only 29 per cent. If the reader will bear in mind the fact that the northeastern section of the United States is increasingly dependent upon the West for its food supply, the increase in the amount of farm land west of the Mississippi is less than might have been expected.

An appeal to the census table showing the value of farm land per acre bears out the suggestion that the increase in western farm land values can not be attributed to increased acreage. The percentage of increase in the value per acre of all farm land between 1900 and 1910 was 108 per cent. In the New England, Middle Atlantic, East North Central and East South Central States, this increase in value per acre was less than one hundred per cent. For the other groups of states, namely, for those lying west of the Mississippi, the increases ranged from 1-46 per cent, for the Pacific States to 222 per cent, for the Mountain States. An examination of the figures for individual states shows that among the 14 New England, Middle Atlantic and East North Central States (lying east of the Mississippi and north of the Mason and Dixon Line), only one state (Illinois, 105 per cent.) shows an increase of over one hundred per cent. Among the 22 West North Central, West South Central, Mountain, and Pacific States, only two states, Minnesota (73 per cent.) and Louisiana (85 per cent.), show increases of loss than one hundred per cent, in farm values per acre; while nine states show increases in the value per acre of between two hundred and three hundred per cent., and one state (Arizona) shows an increase of 476 per cent. Among the eastern states the increases in farm land value per acre are therefore comparatively small—less than one hundred per cent, in all but two instances. Among the states west of the Mississippi, on the other hand, the increase in value per acre has been immense—more than