Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1920-02-29
BIG DEMAND FOR
 LAND FOR HOMES IN THE SOUTHWEST
Good Crop Enables Oklahoma \ Tenants to Make
 Payments

Mangum, Okla, Feb. 28.--Not in been such a demand for land for homemaking purposes. h not a sim 2 gle year in nearly half . century 5. have farmers made and saved so much money as their crops of 1919 produc- ed. Examples of individual small fortune making are as numerous as farming communities. This year was { ideal as to sunshine and rain, though net without it's embarrassing periods of too long continued rainfall. Be- cause of his inability to save two or more crops of alfalfa one Greer coun- ty farmer lost several thousand dol lars. In ordinary times the loss would have bankrupted him, but last year every other crop he had made hIm large returns, and in smilingly dis cussing the alfalfa misfortune he de- clared that his land has increased in value several times the amount of the loss.
 Renter Buys Farm.
 One renter in Greer county, who worked on what is called the third and fourth basis, paid his landlord over s3000 out of his crops and had enough surplus left to make 75 per cent payment on farm he bought at the new prices.
 Cotton in Greer county produced an average of half bale to the acre. which represented a cash return of about s100. The tenant with 50 acres of cotton made s5000, of which amount he paid his landlord one-fourth, leav- ing him S375O0. Not every tenant was in position to make his crop and gather It with so little expense, but there are men in this county whose , total outlay tor planting, cuitivating ana gathering did not exceed S750 to eacn 5U acres of cotton. 1t IS safe to guess that the average farmer of that class made another 5000 clear out oI other crops during the year, with a net total of $4G00.
 Some good grades of land in the county have sold for $50 an acre. A quarter section on that basis brought $aoU0. ASo the tenant who was not too cnoIce oI land or dld not care to go E heavily into debt TOT home could have nearly pad TOT good farm out of the net proceeds of ms crop.
 Local Men Buying.
 Real estate men here say that the number ot outside purchasers IS in- considerable compared to local buy CTS. And majority of local pur- cnasers nave been men who all their lives have been tenants. The farm loan business Is good, but fortunately for the borrower, the amounts are much smaller than heretofore have been borrowed Tn that way.
 Land values range rom s10 to Sl0O an acre. That o1 the low prIce IS t~i tlx, Tor poses. The average price prevailing over this section is $40 an acre.
 The cotton acreage was not large over portions of the southwest last year. in Greer county It IS said to over the previous year. Farmers of this region planted larger fields of wheat, oats, kafir. maize and other crops that are drouth resisters and that were needed for food and feed ] following previous dry years. Not few farms in Greer, Jackson and Harmon counties in Oklahoma, and Wheeler, Collingsworth, Child ress and Hardeman counties in Tex as produced an average of one bale of cotton to the acre last year. This ] meant a little over $200 an acre in ' CaSn TeLuTHS. HtIc IS du iiS thbSS of one Greer county farmer having received over $500 bale for part of s his crop of exceptionally fine shape.
 A farmer in the edge of the sand dunes that border Red river on the south in Childress county. whose fam ily has half starved during the last few years, made over Sl0,000 net out of his cotton alone in 1919. When { the cotton was picked he proceeded to do what he has postponed doing for < Is years; he took his family back to East Texas on visit to relatives, and out of the balance he was to build a new house and some barns and fences.
 Z Much of the best land is subirrigat- ed and seldom fails to produce well. Prospective Buyers Turned Away. 7 A government farm agent express ed the financial situation in this coun- ty as result of crops last year as follows:
 s "lf all the money that has been spaid to farmers for the crops of 1920 twere assembled in the county court shouse it would buy every acre of land ain the county and pay the owner a flair price for it.'