The latest farmland boom-bust cycle of the 1970's and 1980's caused agricultural economists to search for an adequate explanation. Some viewed the excessive use of mortgage credit by the farm sector as a major contributor to the boom in farmland prices above what the farm sector's earnings picture would support. A look at the literature on factors determining farmland values, speculative farmland price bubbles, and the role of farm mortgage credit yields a remarkable lack of consensus. Some agricultural economists attributed the 1970's farmland price boom to excessive use of mortgage credit by farmers. However, there exists no general agreement among them as to one primary cause.