STATISTICS AS TO LOANS, DELINQUENCIES, ETC.

Mr. WOODRUM. Do you have any statistical information, Governor, as to the number of land-bank loans and Commissioner loans, by States?

Mr. MYERS. Yes, sir.

Mr. WOODRUM. Do you have also comparable figures as to the number of farmers who have loans of any description?

Mr. MYERS. We have figures by States of the total amount of the farm-mortgage debt which we hold. The land banks had outstanding on June 30, $2,052,000,000; the Commissioner, $830,000,000; a total of $2,882,000,000, which is 37 percent of the estimated farm-mortgage debt of the United States.

Mr. WOODRUM. Do you have the figures as to the number of loans? Mr. MYERS. Not as to number. It is about 37 percent as to amount. We have mortgages on something over 800,000 farms. You see, there is duplication. Some men have both land-bank and Commissioner's loans. Some of them have only land-bank loans, and some have only Commissioner loans. We have mortgages on something over 800,000 farms, which is roughly one-eighth of the farms in the United States, but only something over a third of the farms are under mortgage.

Mr. LUDLOW. How many farms have been taken over?

Mr. MYERS. By the Mortgage Corporation or by the land banks? Mr. LUDLOW. All together, by the Government.

Mr. MYERS. The land banks and the Corporation own now about 32,000 farms.

Mr. TABER. Out of how many?

Mr. MYERS. That is on some 800,000 farms; and the most of the foreclosures have been due to abandonment or neglect, and a very high percentage of foreclosures in the case of the land banks were on loans made before 1929-in the early twenties, when land values were • high. The decline in prices and values led to discouragement or abandonment. Even the foreclosures made in the past 2 or 3 years have been largely on loans made in the early twenties on rather inflated land values.

Mr. SNYDER. You mean these loans were made in bad years, in the twenties, up to 1929?

Mr. MYERS. Those are the principal ones.

Mr. TABER. In the early twenties?

Mr. MYERS. In the early twenties.

Mr. LUDLOW. There is a continuing reduction in the number of foreclosures?

Mr. MYERS. There is a decline; yes. And we are selling farms at a more rapid rate than we are getting them. We are selling them just as fast as we can, to men who can operate them, or who have a reasonable chance of doing so.

Mr. CANNON. What is your percentage of loss?

Mr. MYERS. It is about a quarter of the investment in the loan; but it has been dropping down. Farms are now selling for approximately the value at which they are carried on the balance sheet.

Mr. LUDLOW. Governor, how did you make up your estimate of $31,700,000? Was that based on a close computation?

Mr. MYERS. Yes, sir; it is the minimum figure. We ran $25,000 short on our appropriation for last year.

Mr. SNYDER. Suppose you were to get this sum; would it be a recurring item for another year?

Mr. MYERS. It will be recurring for at least one more year. Under the present law the land-bank rate in the fiscal year 1939 will be 4 percent. As compared to this year's estimate next year's will be roughly $10,000,000 less. In other words, if by legislation interest rates are reduced below the contract rates, it will cost the Government money.

Mr. WOODRUM. I can answer for the Governor that it will be a recurring item-an increasingly recurring item.

DATA ON NUMBER OF FARMS, MORTGAGE INDEBTEDNESS, INTEREST PAID BY FARMERS, ETC.

Mr. WOODRUM. Governor, will you furnish for the record, if you can without too much trouble, a statement showing the number of farms in America that have mortgage indebtedness, and a break-down of that number-both as to number and amount-showing the ones that are held by the land banks and the Commissioner loans; and such information as you may have available as to the interest being paid by those farmers who have loans that are not either with the land banks or the Commissioner?

Mr. MYERS. We will be glad to furnish such information as we may have.