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Hibbard, Benjamin Horace, 1870-1955 / The history of agriculture in Dane County, Wisconsin
(1904)
Chapter VI: Land values, pp. 192-202
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Page 201
1LIBBARD-HISTORY OF AURICULTURE IN' DANE COUNTY. 201 at all. The choicest land is worth nearly one hundred dollars an acre where improvements are an inconsiderable part of the value, and a great deal of land with good improvements, say three thou- sand dollars worth on two hundred acres, sells for eighty dollars, leaving the bare land at sixty-five. With land at this high figure can it go still higher, or must it cease to rise? In the first place, the causes of the present high price are of interest. No one pretends that the average farmer can make actual returns on the investment in the highest-priced land; far from it. It takes the best of them to make more than the current rate of interest. Yet land not only shows no tendency to drop in price, but persists in climbing steadily upward. In the first place, the entire agricultural community has implicit confidence in the stability of farm values; on the other hand, they expect a decline in the rate of interest, and they often express the belief that an investment in land, where the returns are three or four per cent. a year, is sure to be better in a term of years than twice that rate from other investments, because of the rise in the value of the land itself, and because of the comparative safety of land as an investment. There have been not a few instances of men who have felt that land at eighty dollars an acre was not yielding proper returns and so disposed of it, but on getting hold of the money found no better place to put it, and again bought land at a price as high as that received. Land, above all other kinds of property, is the best place for the man unfamiliar with business to invest his monev. The owner of land has a home: living in the country is much less expensive than in the city or even in a village; and besides, many people prefer to live in the country. The constant increase of the conveniences of farm life must also be a factor in keeping the price of land at a high level. Just as improved street-car accommodations raise the price of suburban property, so the telephone, now to be had almost as cheap in the country as in town, the free delivery of rural mails, the improve- ment of country roads, the lessening cost of comfortable and at- tractive carriages, must result indirectly in adding value to the facrms Ther ch n improvements ae nionere of farm machinery at all. The choicest land is worth nearly one hundred dollars an acre where improvements are an inconsiderable part of the value, and a great deal of land with good improvements, say three thou- sand dollars worth on two hundred acres, sells for eighty dollars, leaving the bare land at sixty-five. With land at this high figure can it go still higher, or must it cease to rise? In the first place, the causes of the present high price are of interest. No one pretends that the average farmer can make actual returns on the investment in the highest-priced land; far f rom it. It takes the' best of them. to make more than the current rate of interest. Yet land not only shows no tendency to drop in price, but persists in climbing steadily upward. In the first place, the entire agricultural community has implicit confidence in the stability of farm values; on the other hand, thev expect a decline in the rate of interest, and they often express the belief that an investment in land, where the returns are three or four per cent. a year, is sure to be better in a term of years than twice that rate from other investments, because of the rise in the value of the land itself, and because of the comparative safety of land as an investment. There have been not a few instances of men who have felt that land at eighty dollars an acre was not yielding proper returns and so disposed of it, but on getting hold of the money found no better place to put it, and again bought land at a price as high as that received. Land, above all other kinds of property, is the best place for the man unfamiliar with business to invest his monev. The owner of land has a home.; living in the country is much less expensive than in the citv or even in a village; and besides, many people prefer to live i n the country. The constant increase of the conveniences of farm life must also be a factor in keeping the price of land at a high level. just as improved street-car accommodations raise the price of suburban property, so the telephone, now to be had almost as cheap in the country as in town, the free delivery of rural mails, the improve- ment of country roads, the lessening cost of comfortable and at- tractive carriages, must result indirectly in adding value to the farms. The cheapening and improvement of farm machinery gives a chance for added net returns, and perhaps more than any or all of these influences the constant falling in interest charges makes land a favorite investment. What effect the latent pos- .1
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