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Show FARM VALUES'.: ' '--SHRINK 01ft v y rVi-":o ;'; ; WASHINGTON;, lApril f .(li.v.As-sociated .(li.v.As-sociated 'Press ) A" shrinkage , the, value .of American farms aiid farm inilrtr'ngs from .StJ0,"10,002.fiO2 in 1920, to $-IO,54G,52:f7r!) in -102;"). was estimated by tlie department of commerce today in a preliminary report on the latest agricultural census. The decrease amounts to a little more than 25 per cent. Farm acreage in the same period declined from 955,SS.j,715 to 021,-8S9.3S0 021,-8S9.3S0 acres, and the department's division of land economics calculated calculat-ed the decline in the average acre value of land and buildings at 22 per cent and for land alone at 2Sj per cent. The value of farm buildings, build-ings, it was explained, increased C per cent. - ' . The 1925 figures, compared wilh those for 1910, indicated an increase of 35 per cent in the average farm value, but considering the drop in the purchasing power of the, dollar during that interval, the economists concluded there was actually 'a net: decline of 10 to 12 per cunt during that period. The decline during the lat five years was not general, the department's depart-ment's experts found, the ah Linkage in vulues having been greatest in the range country, the wheat and corn belts, and the eastern cut ton states, while a slight increase was recorded in New England and the middle Atlantic states. In the mountain states the decline amounted amount-ed to 41 per cent, in Iowa 31 per cent, and in Georgia 10 per cent. The increase in New England was S per cent and in the middle Atlantic Atlan-tic states one per cent. Pacific ?oast values remained constant. Collapse nt' the war "laud 1 n,'' ivith the fall of eorn and hog prices, lecounted largely for the decline in Iowa, the experts reported, while the decrease in Georgia was due L-hiefly to the boll-wucvil and the exodus of Negfo workers. In the range country and mountain slates, they sa id, drouth and culhipse of vheat priees were the leading caus- Tlie increase in farm val ues in :ho northwestern slates was attributed attri-buted to a great extent to the development de-velopment of tbe dairy industry, the favorable position, respecting markets, mark-ets, ami an increased d. 'nand for "arm land for recrea 1 ion a I purposes. |