64 LAND TENURE 



This quotation raises the ever-occurring question of capitalistic 

 farming versus the small-scale farmer. Evidence is given on both 

 sides of this much mooted question so that the reader may draw 

 his own conclusion. In the past it has been customary for a tenant 

 to purchase a farm, pay part cash and give a mortgage for the 

 balance. A study of statistics when such a condition existed 

 revealed the true situation. However, at the present time a care- 

 ful study of the census returns of owners free, owners mortgaged, 

 and tenants shows that the tenants are not increasingly becoming 

 buyers with mortgage encumbrances, but, on the other hand, the 

 owners are mortgaging their farms. In brief, those who have 

 occupied a farm from two to four years should show a large per 

 cent of owners with mortgages. Then in the course of time 

 these owners with mortgages would become owners free. Those 

 who have been on the farm ten years and over would in such 

 an event show a marked decrease in the number of mortgages. 

 However, statistics show that this happy condition of affairs does 

 not exist. 



According to a bulletin issued by the Iowa Experiment Station : 



"To obtain greater economic independence requires more years of saving 

 before ownership now than formerly. Hence, the age of ownership to-day 

 is about six years later in life than it was 25 years ago. Farmers make their 

 first payment on land now at the age of 34, while 25 years ago ownership was 

 obtained at 28 years of age." 6 



A bulletin of the Texas Station (No. 21) asks: "What chance 

 has the farm tenant in Texas to become a home owner? Some of 

 them have the same chance or opportunity to become home owners 

 that the average merchant in the town has to become a merchant 

 prince. The chances are slight." 



A study of the tenant systems of farming in the cotton belt 

 along the Mississippi River between Memphis and Vicksburg, 

 made in 1913, and covering many hundred records, found the 

 following situation: 



Share Croppers, Share Renters, Cash Renters. The study 

 makes a comparison among share croppers, who supply nothing 

 but their labor and receive one-half the crop; share renters who 

 supply their own implements and livestock and receive two-thirds 

 or three-fourths of the crop; and cash renters, who supply the same 

 items as share renters but pay a fixed rent in cash or lint cotton. 

 In this area the tenants form 92.0 per cent of all farmers. The 

 average labor income of share croppers was $333 ; for share renters 



6 Lloyd, O. G., Farm Leases in Iowa. Iowa Exp. Sta. Bui. 159. 



