104 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



son why the owners are not living on unpaid labor is because 

 they are older men than the tenants and their families are more 

 mature and have either started farming for themselves or 

 shifted to other occupations. 



In the case of owners, one in every four (24.6 per cent) 

 lives on his interest ; while in the case of share renters, but one 

 farmer in every 77 (1.3 per cent) lives on the product of his 

 capital. Between these extremes we find 17 per cent of the 

 part owners and 3.7 per cent of the cash renters living on the 

 interest of their capital. As the capital and age of operators 

 increase between the groups of share renters and owners there 

 is an increasingly larger number of operators living on in- 

 terest. 



The largest per cent (6 per cent) of operators living on their 

 capital is found among the share renters, and the smallest 

 among the owners. 4 



The share renter has only a small amount of capital and 

 therefore a small income from interest. Consequently in most 

 cases of unforeseen losses, such as uncommon losses of stock, 

 exceptional destruction of machinery, or false judgment in the 

 daily routine, the share renter must fall back on his capital. 

 The owners having large incomes from interest usually find 

 these sufficient to tide them over periods of financial stress and 

 therefore do not draw upon their capital. 



4 Part owners are not considered in this discussion, since the numbers are too 

 small to assure accuracy. 



