1. Johnson, “Postwar Optimism,” p. 184.
2. As discussed earlier, urbanization most likely captures other influences as well as the opportunity for off-farm earnings. Considering the results presented here, further research is needed to determine more precisely the stabilizing effect of urban areas.
3. When either Percent Farms Mortgaged or Debt/Value is dropped from the regression equation the other variable is highly significant with the correct sign.
4. When the log-log functional form is estimated, the coefficient of Debt/Value becomes significant while the t-ratio of Percent Farms Mortgaged falls to t = 1.44.
5. The estimates do not differ substantively when the log-log functional form is specified. The coefficient of Land Value becomes significant at the 95 percent confidence level. In three states— Arizona, New Mexico, and Wyoming—improved acreage increased by over 1,000 percent. To test whether the estimates in Table 3 are sensitive to these outliers, I estimated the parameters of equation (1) with the above states deleted from the sample. R2 goes up to .69. The coefficient on Land Value becomes more significant and t-ratio on Improved Acreage falls to 1.95. None of the other estimates is affected significantly.