Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1911-04-27
WESTERN LAND VALUES.

b. W. Holt, a financ1aI WrlLer' u
an address the other day before
New York meeting said that western
land values are collapsing, that far
mers are mortgaging their lands too
heavily and that trouble is in sight
Any one familiar with conditions
in the western states knows tina
these statements are wide Of thu
truth. The fact is that western rea
estate, take it the country over from
the Mississippi to the foothills o.
the Rocky mountains, Is today re
turning from the crops raised upo !,
good interest upon the prices asked
and received. Lands in Missouri
Iiwa, Nebraska and Kansas, ant
other prairie states east Of the sixth
principal meridian, are producing to-
day practically the same amount Of
wheat and corn as similar lands in
Indiana, Ohio and Illinois. There
is no reason why they should not be
worth as much money except fol
the difference in distance to mar
ket. That distance is being rapidly
lessened by the growing Of important
cities in the interior and the popu-
lation increases which give a home
demand for great deal Of the west
ern product. Outside of that is the
gulf outlet to the very comprehensive
railway mileage which enables the
western farmer, wherever he is To-
Gated to put his product on the mar
ket practically on the same basis as
does any other farmer in all the Miss
issippi valley.
Land is worth exactly what its
value is made by the crops produced
upon it and this has been the basis
Of the rapid rise in land values all
through the Mississippi valley. When
a farmer can take three or four cut
tings of alfalfa a year off piece of
land in central Nebraska, and sell
his hay for SO to $12 per ton, the
land is not going back the mar
ket.
The Illinois or Wisconsin farmer
who sells out at $500 an acre, goes
five hundred miles west and buys
land that will produce as much as
his own farm for half the money.
This looks like a high price to the
old-time westerner who has seen the
value rise from so to 100 per cent
in the past half decade, but It is
based entirely upon what the land
will produce. The bank deposits OF
the farmers Of the prairie states,
the growing increase of the valua-
lions in towns and in personal pro-
perty, as well as the ample ability Of
the farmer himself to invest in lux
uries and pay for them, is evidence
enough that western farms are worth
the money they represent.
The report Of the Kansas agricul-
tural department Just issued, shows
that more dollars worth of produce
was raised on the Kansas farms in
the past two years than In any two
years Of the states histoiy. and this
with two wheat crops OF only aver
age amount. The income Of the
Kansas farms for 1910 vas over hRIi
a billion dollarh IL It logical
TO say that land VIII produce such
an income IL not wOrta SIS TO tl25
an aeref
Mr.. Holt is AZ least twelve months
behind the times IN making any eri-
tiesms upon western land values Il
there was ever any reason for alarm
Il vas IN the spring Of 1910, when
real estate changes had been 70 nun
erous as 70 absorb an the loan funes
available. But Instead Of 4 COLLAPSE
there has cone q readiustment and
much more moderate selling, Bot
Without uly decrease m land VALVES.
NJ tsfmsr raovr that lii land Al
~,r.k he nou,r IS ass fof n. s1t