HE BONANZA FARMS. 75 



by companies and corporations they do not diminish 

 in size, as shown in the following chapter. 



In 1860 the number of farms of 500 acres and less 

 than 1,000 in the free States, was 3,472 ; in 1870, in 

 the same States, the number was 6,951. In the year 

 1860 the number of farms of 1,000 acres and over, in 

 the free States, was 791 ; in 1870, the number was 

 1,507. Showing that in the decade from 1860 to 70 

 the farms of 500 acres and less than 1,000 more than 

 doubled, while those of 1,000 acres and over increased 

 ninety and one half per cent. But taking the whole 

 country for two decades we find that the ten years be- 

 tween 1870 and 1880 have been marked by a gigantic 

 growth of the large farm interest. 



In 1860 the whole number of farms of 500 acres 

 and less than 1,000 in the United States, was 20,319 ; 

 in 1870, the number was 15,873 ; in 1880, 75,972. 

 Of the 1,000 acre farms and over, there were, in 1860, 

 5,364; in 1870, 3,720 ; and in 1880, 28,578. By this 

 exhibit it is seen that in the decade from 1860 to 1870 

 there was a decrease in the number of both of these 

 classes of farms of about one fourth. This decrease 

 was confined to the late slave States, where many of 

 the large plantations had been broken up and gone into 

 the possession of the late slaves as tenants, and all the 

 separate holdings were returned in the census of 1870 

 as distinct farms. But it is shown that during the 

 last ten years the increase in the number of the 

 smaller bonanza farms was nearly seven fold ; while 

 in the monster farms that are represented in the cen- 

 sus reports as " of 1,000 acres and over," the increase 

 has been nearly eight fold. They are simply huge 



