Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





Vol. XXIY.





NEW YOEK, SATURDAY, NOYEMBER 29, 1879.





No. fill





Publislied Weekly by

Clje Seal Estate Eecorb S,ssociali:an.

TERMS.
ONE YEAU. in advance.. ..SIO.OO.
Communications should be addressed to

C.   W.   SWEET,
Nos.  1:15 AND 1:^7 BrOADWAT





NORMAL  VALUE OP LAND.

What should be the average price for an acre
of land, used for purely agricultural purposes—
that is, for the growing of the ordinary grain
crops ?

Tbis question has been put many times, and the
answer has generally been that it was diflicult to
give a figure in view of the great diversities
brought about bj' the character of the soil, the
distance from market, the nearness to i-ailroads
and other incidental circumstances.

But a large number of authorities agree that
about fifty dollars per acre should not be ex¬
ceeded in the purchase of average good land w-ith
average advantages. A piece of rich soil near a
large city may be worth a thousand dollars an
acre for growing garden truck. The same land
in central New York, away from a ready market,
would not be worth ninety dollare an acre. There
is very rich land in the Western States which can
be bought for from tbree dollars to tive dollars an
acre, and some rather poor laud in the Eastern
States which can be sold for a liundred dollars an
acre, but the fact to be borne in mind is the
rapid equalization of values which is taking place
all over the country. It may be said broadly
that during the past seven years farmers in the
Middle and Eastern States have uot made, and
may have lost some money, while it is very cer¬
tain that for the last two years,farmers in the
Western States, particniarlj'- ia the e.xtreme West,
have mado a great deal of money. The great
speculator, Jay Gould, it is well-known, was for
a long time a " bear " on Eastern stocks, that is,
the securities of railroads east of the Mississippi
River, while at the same time he was a violent
" bull" upon all securities west of the Missouri
Eiver. He argued, and rightly, as the event
proved, that prices would advance at points to
•which the tide of emigration centered, and would
retrograde, or, at least, stand still, at points from
■whence the emigration was going. In other
Avords, he believed that while Kansas, Nebraska,
Colorado and Texas were being settled by emi¬
grants from the Eastern States; while mines
were being opened and new farms taken, that in
that quarter there would be an advance in prices,
and the new railroads would add largely to their
business, while in the railroads]of the States from
which the emigrants came theie would be less
doing. Mr. Jay Gould has a large following in
Boston, and it is remarkable {that the first profits
were made by the Eastern men rather than by
New Yorkers in the new roads west of the Mis¬
souri. It was Boston capitalists who made the
immense gains out of the Atchison, Topeka &
Santa Fe road. The same capitalists also made
the fii-st " big " money out of the Missouri, Kan¬
sas & Texas Railroad. The Kansas Pacific stocks
had the "cream" taken out of them by Jay
Gould's Eastern followers, and it is well-known
that it was Boston which held the Union Pacific





originally at very low prices, to sell out finally
to New Yorkers at very high prices. This in¬
crease in the value of the Western roads is
partly due to the opening of new mineral
regions, but more especially, it is to be credited
to the taking up of Western land, and the
heavy crops of grain and wheat which the
extreme Western railroads have been obliged to
carrj'. This same process is now going on in the
Northwestern regiou, and",Minnesota as well as
Manitoba and the Red River Valley are destined
to witness an immense emigration within the next
few years. Land is stilljlow in that region, and
there is a large margin for a rise. Let it be re¬
membered that the salient fact of the next five
years is the enormous development of the Terri¬
tories west of the Missouri and northwest of the
Mi.ssissippi. The new constitution of California,
also by discriminating against the immense land
holdings of the millionaires, will tend to sub-di¬
vide farms and there will be a great increase of
inhabitants in California in consecjuence. We ex¬
pect to .see emigration not only from the East
here, but from Europe, set in on a scale of unpar¬
alleled magnitude. The great West is like an ex¬
hausted receiver into which will rush the popula¬
tions from other parts of the globe. This will
tend surely and certainly to the equalization in
the values of land; in this respect following the
railroads where this increase in the price of the
minor railway securities has,'been so marked a
feature of the recent Wall street "booms."

But farming at theEiust can scarcely have been
called profitablo for at least ten years. Colonel
Richard Lathers, who owns five hundred acres of
what is considered splendid farming land in the
Berkshire District, Massachusetts, told the writer
that he could make no money out of his domain,
either by grazing or grain growing. He bought
the land very cheap, consolidated nine farms and
made what would be considered a splendid prop¬
erty iu Great Britain. He did not believe that
any Eastern farmer had recently made money,
because of the competition of the Western grain
grower, and the cheap through rates on the rail¬
roads. Colonel Lathers added that were he to
give his farm to an Eastern tenant, charging him
uo rent the tenant could not make it pay on ac¬
count of the difference in the price of labor and
of seed, and the difficulty in getting to market on
account of the competition of the Western raiser
and seller of grain. The Colonel is a man of great
sagacity as well as wide experience, and he was
satisfied that there had been an actual loss for the
last few years on all farms in the Middle and
Eastern States; that the great fertility of the
Western lands and the low rates on the railroads
had put the Eastern farmer at such a disadvan¬
tage that his land was not worth to-day what it
had been selling for ten and fifteen yeare back.
Land in the East is held, like in England, for other
purposes than profit. It is because it involves an
old homestead, or it is because the holders are
well to-do, and do not care to sell on a falling
market. It is expected, perhaps, that a new rail¬
way will come that way, giving value to the old
propertj'; but certain it is that so long as the dis¬
crimination on the railroad is in favor of the
extreme West just so long will farming be rela
tively unprofitable iri the far East.

All this Ls to be considered in the purchase of





farming land. The same causes which have upset
the landed a'ristocracj- of England, which bas
made the growing of grain in Europe unprofitable,
has been at work here in the Eastern States, and
are likelj- to continue for some time until there is
a rise in value of the Western property, or until
some action is taken bj' the nation bj' which rail¬
roads will not be permitted to give an advantage
to the Western forwarder over the Eastern pro¬
ducer. This will probably not be brought about
by national legislation, as the next census will
give so large a preponderance to tbe West and
Northwest in the councils of the nation that
everj'thing will be done to cheapen rates of agri¬
cultural protlucts in their way to the seaboard.
Hence, for many j-ears we .do not look for any
marked rise in farming lands in tho Eastern
State.s, The West oilers such an inviting field
that the Indian Territorj-, Texas, Nebraska,
Colorado nnd the great Northwest, with its
millions of fertile acres, will, for a long time to
come, attract the Ea,stern farmers as well as
European emigrantJi, because of the greater
fertility as well as cheapness of the land.

All these facts must be considered in estimating
the average value of arable land. We very much
doubt, taking the whole countrj- through, and
estimating monej' as being worth si.x per cent.,
whether the average farm is worth more than $."jO
an acre. We consider a higher price tban that
for anj' of our Eastern farm lands as excessive,
except, of course,^where there are large improve¬
ments, nearness to market, or otber exceptional
advantages to be taken into consideration.
Of course, special crops, such as grape growing,
makes a verj- great difierence iu tbe price of
land, and there is a great deal of land adapted for
grazing [purposes which is worth more money
than the average we have indicated.

Still, one consideration must be kept constantly
iu mind, viz., that the increase of tho population
of the country is very great and is cumulative.
The inhabitants of the United States are multiply¬
ing geometricallj-. This w-ill tend to raise the
average price of land, East and West. The home
markets for the Eastern farmer will also be in¬
creasing, owing to the denser population at the
manufacturing centres, and last, but not bj- anj-
means the least consideration is, the fact that the
present "boom" in railway securities, which is
making itself felt in the business world, will last
of all be felt in all kinds of real estate. Property
unsalable in '7.5, will be purchased with avidity
at high figures in 18S1 and '82. Nay, more. It
would not be surprising if this (ountry, at some
time in the not distant future, should see an
excited land speculation. The profits have been
so large to those who have bought lands at cheap
prices, that the time cannot be far away when
the mania for purchasing will become very
general, and we will seo the feverish land mad¬
ness of 1837 repeated.





THE BOARD OF ASSESSORS.
Our account of an interview with an ex-official
in the preceding issue of The Real Est.^te Rec¬
ord, being entirelj' from memory, his language
might possibly be construed as a reflection upon
the present Board of Assessors—in that part, at
least, where,reference is made to the delay in
confirming the assessments.     We take the first