Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 83.djvu/503

Rh one hundred per cent, in twenty out of twenty-two cases, more than one hundred and fifty per cent, in fifteen out of twenty-two cases, and more than two hundred per cent., in ten out of twenty-two cases.

The total figures showed that the bulk of the increase in the farm land values in the United States between 1900 and 1910 occurred west of the Mississippi. The figures for increases per acre lead inevitably to the same conclusion, namely, that the farm land in the states lying west of the Mississippi has increased, during the past decade, between one hundred and three hundred per cent, in value.

The same movement for the increase in farm land values has apparently been going on steadily for sixty years. Although the census figures prior to 1900 gave the value of land and buildings together, the value of farm land predominates to such an extent that the figures for land and buildings are indicative, though not conclusive, for the increase in the value of the land.

The acreage increases between 1850 and 1910 were so extensive in the states west of the Mississippi that it would scarcely be fair to cite increases in total farm land values. It is interesting, however, to note that during these six decades the total number of farms in the entire United States increased from one and a half to six millions; that the total land in farms increased from 294 millions of acres to 879 millions of acres; and that the total improved land in farms increased from 113 millions of acres to 478 millions of acres. Thus the total number of farms increased fourfold, the total acreage in farms threefold and the total improved land in farms fourfold, while the total population increased slightly less than fourfold. Meantime, the total value of all farm property rose from 3,967 million dollars to 40,991 million dollars (an increase of tenfold); and the value of farm land and buildings rose from 3,272 million to 34,801 million dollars (an increase of elevenfold).

The increase in the value of farm land and buildings between 1850 and 1910 is distributed very irregularly over the different sections of the country. For the entire United States the increase in the value per acre was from $11 to $40; in New England the increase was from $20 to $36; in the Middle Atlantic States, from $29 to $57; in the East North Central States, from $13 to $75; in the South Atlantic States, from $6 to $23; and in the East South Central States, from $6 to $21. West of the Mississippi the increases in value per acre were, for the "West North Central States, from $6 to $50; for the West South Central States, from $6 to $19; for the Mountain States, from $6 to $21; and for the Pacific States, from $1.55 to $48. A comparison over so long a