UNITED STATES. 



FARM TENANCY IN THE UNITED STATES 



by Prof. Benjamin H. Hibbard, 



University of Wisconsin. 



Introduction. 



So far as the authentic history of tenancy in the United States is 

 concerned it ma^^ be said to begin with the year 1880 since at that time the 

 first tenancy census was taken. The percentage of farms operated by ten- 

 ants for the four census years, by divisions, were as follows : 



United States 



North Atlantic division 

 South Atlantic division 

 North Central division . 

 South Central division. 

 Western division . . . 



It will be seen that in 1880, about one in four farms was operated by a 

 tenant ; in 1910 almost two out of five were in the tenant group. Unques- 

 tionably the proportion is somewhat higher by this time than it was six 

 years ago. The number of tenant farms increased 130 per cent, during the 

 thirty year period coveredby the statistics, while during the same time there 

 was an increase of but 34 per cent, in the number of farms worked by owners. 

 At these disproportionate rates of increase it will take but another three 

 decades to result in a larger number of tenants than landowning farmers, thus 

 making us unmistakably a nation of tenants and landlords. It is, however, 

 by no means certain that the proportion of tenants will continue to show an 

 uninterrupted increase. In fact the increase has alread}^ ceased, and a turn 

 in the other direction been made, according to the last census, in tweWe 



