Dickenson County herald. [volume] (Clintwood, Va.) 1939-195?, 1944-06-29
Boom in Farm Land Prices and Rapid Turnover
Prompts Fears That Collapse Will Follow Peace

chases by city investors was larg-
est, being 80 to 81 per cent OF all
sales.
It is true that farmers have been
using much of their larger incomes
to buy bonds and to pay off debts.
The steadily decreasing volume OF
farm mortgage debt is evidence OF
this trend. But now reports indi-
cate that heavier debts are fire.
quently being assumed when farms
are bought. This is especially true
of tenants who are buying on con-
tract or with relatively small down
payments.
Surveys by county banks. indicate
that all types of farm buyers are
now In the market. Tenants are
acquiring their own farms. Owners
are expanding their present units
or are taking on additional acreage,
perhaps for sons now in the service.
Even large commercial farms in
some instances are changing hands
at increasing prices. Local bust
ness and professional people and
city investors bent on hedging
against imitation or higher income
taxes are buying land. War plant
workers, too, are making purchases,
expecting to turn to farming when
their munitions jobs are ended.
All these conditions are reminis-
cent Of what occurred in World War
I, for that too, was a story Of agri-
cultural upsurge. Farm income
rose from billions in 1914 to 147s
billions in 1919. High prices and
ready market for agricultural prod
ucts, plus easy credit facilities, en-
couraged farmers to bid up land
prices.
Farms were bought on specula-
ton with the expectation Of quick
sale at a profit. Land values were
inflated from an average Of $40 an
acre in 1914 to $40 in 1920. Within
those six years farm real estate
rose in total value from 1914 billion
dollars to &c billions.
The sequel was history-making
crash. Land prices fell from an
average Of $40 an acre to $28. More
than third of the nations six mill
lion farms were foreclosed by the
end of the depression. AL farm
land and buildings declined in value
from Sc billion to 81 billion.
It is natural that people today
fear that the same thing will happen
all over again. AS result some
agricultural leaders already are
urging legislative controls. Some Of
these are drastic, some milder. Pro-
posals range all the way from re-
striction of land-owning privileges
in some cases to credit control and
heavy federal capital gains taxes.
Lest the remedies be as fatal as
the disease they are designed to
cure, however, farmers were re-
Gently urged by Ray Yarnell, editor
Of Capper's Farmer, to look care
fully into these proposals, their i'm
plications and what else may be
proposed in the future before en-
dorsing them.
''The land boom of the first World
war and its awful consequences
throughout 20 years have been cred
tied by some to unwise land owner
ship policies" he declared. Cup
swings of prices with the second
World war have engendered the
fear that another boom was in the
making and that its consequences
would be the same as the first.
buyers have been warned re-
peatedly. Still, reports of advanc-
ing prices multiply. Some belief
holds that voluntary action would
be ineffective. So legislated RENE
dies are proposed"