i8 



AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 



had been owners. For many the climb from tenancy to farm ownership 

 was a difficult, if not impossible, task to perform. 28 



The relationship between high tenancy and high land values was strik- 

 ing. According to the census of 1910 this parallelism was evident in two- 

 thirds of the states in the Middle West. High-priced land that was held 

 for speculative purposes was always for rent, and in these states there 

 usually were tenants to take a good deal of it. By contrast, in the newer 

 parts of Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota, where there was 

 land "begging for occupants," it had to be worked by the owner or not 

 at all. The low tenancy rate in these parts held down the general average 

 for those states, in spite of the speculation and tenancy in the older sec- 

 tions. This relationship between the value of land and tenancy was also 

 found to exist in certain groups of counties within such a state, for ex- 

 ample, as Illinois. 



Likewise, there was a close tie between tenancy and the types of farming 

 engaged in. According to the census of 1900 the tenant farmers of the 

 Middle West had supervision of more than their proportional number of 

 farms on which hay and grain were the principal products and a little 

 more than half their proportion of the livestock farms. The tenants 

 raised grain to sell, while the landowners usually raised it to feed to their 

 livestock; they produced only three-fourths of their proportional share of 

 hay and forage, and were even further behind the landowning farmers 

 in the ownership of sheep. As for hogs, the tenants raised their full number. 

 They grew only two-thirds of their share of wheat and exceeded by one- 

 third their proportional share of corn. In some of the wheat-growing 

 states, however, the tenants raised more than their share. With respect to 

 corn, conditions were more nearly uniform throughout, although the 

 tenants raised proportionately more than did the landowners. Vegetables, 

 fruit, and tobacco usually were grown by the landowning farmers. 



The character of the tenant farm itself was of some importance. The 

 value of the farm per acre was about the same, but the buildings were 



28. Senate Document 705, 60 Congress, 2 session, pp. 41-42; Wallaces' Farmer, 

 XXXIV (January i, 1909), p. 4; Report of the Special Committee on Farm Tenancy 

 (75 Congress, i session, House Document 149, serial 10126, Washington, 1937). The 

 validity of the "agricultural ladder hypothesis" is strongly attacked by L. F. Cox, 

 "Tenancy in the United States," Agricultural History, XVIII (July, 1944), pp. 

 97-105. 



