The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1917-09-13
The Price of Land.

Every farmer boy wishes to own
Z his own farm. For fifteen years now
the farmer boys have been wailing
8 the fact that land is too high and
that it is impossible for poor boy
to own farm by ordinary hard
to be getting worse than ever for
/. farm land everywhere is selling for
more than it did year or two ago.
Thirty years ago when our fathers
bought land they didn't know wheth-
er they could pay out on it or not. In
Z the nineties, corn, hogs and cattle
were SO low that it seemed as though
mo farmer could get ahead. Then
I, about 1897, things began to happen
and they have kept on happening ev-
cry year. Prices have gone up and
up until it seems impossible for them
to go any higher. 1t is worth while
to study the prices of corn, hogs, cat
tie and land to see i,ew they move
more or less together. In 1900 the
price Of corn per bushel was around
81 cents and the value of ordinary
ments was S36. In 1910, the custom
airy values of corn and land under
corresponding conditions were so
cents and $50: Fat cattle and hogs
In this period increased from $4 or
IS per cwt., to Sc or 81. Roughly
speaking from 1900 to 1917 corn
land has gone up just about $1.5Q or
81 per acre for each cent per bushel
that corn has advanced. Now this
doesn't mean that an advance in the
price of corn in times of drouth and
extreme heat will send up values. 1t
is the price of corn Independent of
the size of the crop that counts.
s- Today no one knows just what the.
real, price of corn should be in an or
binary year with medium crop un,
der peace conditions Some people
say that this customary corn price
Should be between so cents and ST.
tomary price for corn just as so cents
was before the war then land which
WAS worth $50 should go to $500.
Hogs and cattle will also have to go
up and the normal price instead of
being Sc or 81 will be $40 or Sill.
The future was never more uncer-
tain. The things TO be afraid OF is
that corn, hogs and cattle will be
very high for five or six years and
that land Will suddenly go upward
with a great boom. This will be fine
for the older farmers who are farm
ing their own land; but it will be
hard on the young fellows who try to
buy land. Many of them may begin
to buy their farms just at this time
when everything is booming. AS long
as the boom is on, everything will be
fine, but suppose that corn, hogs and
cattle go off in price and land begins
to hesitate in it's price ascent.
The price OF corn, hogs and cattle,
after the war depends on how badly
the city people of this country and
Europe need food and how able they
are to pay for it. For three years the
city people of the world have been
bidding against each other for food
with borrowed money. Some day fiji
back to growing more food than they
eat, instead of eating more food than
they grow. For a time prices will be
extraordinary good and every farmer
III the world will do his best to grow
bumper crops so as to get his share
of the "velvet." But while prices are
high every city man will do his best
to get along on only that food which
is absolutely necessary. And so after
q times prices will undoubtedly come
down from the wartime level.
It is z fascinating time for young
fellow to be alive and keep his eyes
open. There will be chances to make
big money and chances to lose it.
Part of the time corn, wheat and oats
will be altogether too high in rela-
ton to hogs and cattle and it will
b0SM 70 uc paying eHiA6 " piow
mp all the pastures and meadows for
grain. Then for time there may
seem to be tremendous profits in live
stock. Finally things will adjust.i
themselves and we will go ahead
smoothly perhaps eight or ten years.
fnom now. II
Watch the price changes of all.
farm products, of manufactured pro-
dctg and Of land. After time you !
M be able to make q shrewd guess
Aos10 the future.-Wallaces' Farmer. /
Doa't forget the Saturday after |.
no0o matinee at the Idle Hour
Ekoatfo ct 3 o'clock. Admission 5
~ 70 eents
lsosAtng, not even graveyard is