According to a recent survey, an area equal to 7 of the 99 counties in Iowa is now owned by corporations. In more precise terms, 7.2 percent of the farm land in the 54 counties studied was found to be owned by insurance companies, open and closed banks, Federal and joint stock land banks, investment companies and other corporations.

This average of 7.2 percent does not convey a true picture, however, because of the wide variations existing. In the county with the most corporate-owned land, 21 percent is in the hands of corporations; in the county at the other extreme, less than 2 percent of the land is so held. There seems, in addition, to be a rather marked concentration of corporate holdings in the north and south central sections of the state. Holdings in the center of the state and along the western border are, with few exceptions, relatively scarce.