44 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



tenants is low, and the value of the farm lands is low. The lands are 

 poor investments for capital, and farms inherited hy parties no longer 

 living in the section are turned into money as quickly as possible. 

 Loose capital will not go into such territory and buy such farms just 

 as an investment. The same principle holds true in a comparison of 

 the states as of the counties. In the North Central states the average 

 tenancy of farms was in 1900, 27.9 per cent. By states it was as 

 follows : 



Per Cent. 



Illinois 39.3 



Nebraska 36.9 



Kansas 35.2 



Iowa 34.9 



Missouri 30.5 



Indiana 28.6 



Ohio 27.5 



South Dakota 21.8 



Minnesota 17.3 



Michigan 15.9 



Wisconsin 13.5 



North Dakota 8.5 



Illinois and Iowa are acknowledged the best agricultural states in 

 the union, as well as in the North Central division, and hold first and 

 fourth place, respectively, in this group of states — the great agricul- 

 tural states of the union. Our most fertile lands are gradually drift- 

 ing into the hands of tenants, and unless the movement is stayed the 

 agriculture of these farms will decline. 



Tenancy, as it now exists on American farms, is detrimental to the 

 agricultural welfare of the country, from both an economic and a social 

 standpoint. Farm leases, as a rule, are of short duration; this is an 

 incentive to the farmer to only have regard for the present productive- 

 ness of the land and to disregard any methods of maintaining the 

 fertility of the land. Short leases result in a transient population 

 that is demoralizing to the farmer himself and to the community. 

 The old proverb, " A rolling stone gathers no moss," is no more aptly 

 illustrated than in the case of the tenant farmer who moves from farm 

 to farm, never remaining more than a few years in a place. Such a 

 tenant is not interested in improving the farm unless immediate results 

 can be realized; he is not a permanent citizen of the neighborhood and 

 can not be regarded as a reliable constituent of the school or church. 

 Absent owners of such farms are not interested in the improvement 

 of the buildings and equipment of the farms, the building of better 

 roads, the maintaining of better schools or any public improvement 

 that will add to the expenses of the farm unless it will give a propor- 

 tionate return at an early date. 



