tained; and in the long run, the net income is smaller. To have 45% 

 of the land operated under a tenant system and to have that system on 

 the increase, would then seem to present a problem worthy of considera- 

 tion. The obvious solution would be along the line of aiding the present 

 operators to obtain the ownership of the land. In Europe and to a 

 lesser extent in some parts of the United States this need is met by an 

 ably managed and extensive system of cooperative banking. 



Another interesting angle of this question has to do with the length 

 of tenure. The average length of tenure for all farms is 12.4 years. 

 But more than half of the farms and considerably more than half of the total 

 acreage of farm lands, have changed hands at least once during the last ten 

 years. This means an unstable element in the population large enough 

 to cause concern. For all owned land, the average term of occupancy 

 is 15 years, but for land operated by tenants, the average term of occu- 

 pancy is only 4 years. One fourth of the entire farming population, then, 

 is shifting, a fact which must necessarily hamper all efforts toward the 

 betterment of rural life conditions along social, religious and educational 

 lines. 



Sixty-two per cent, of all farms operated by their owners are held 

 free of mortgage debt. A slightly larger per cent, of white farmers than 

 of colored farmers carry a mortgage debt, a fact more than offset by the 

 greater size and better equipment of the farms of the white farmers. 

 The amount of the mortgage debt where reported was about 32% of 

 the total value of the land and buildings. The age of the farmers is of 

 interest in this connection. Table No. 4, (Appendix, page I), shows 

 the number of farmers, white and colored, coming within the different 

 age groups. 



Diagrams Nos. II and III, show the proportion of the farmers within 

 each age group who are farm owners, with or without mortgage indebt- 

 edness, or tenants. For the white farmers, certain things should be 

 noticed as follows: the proportion of farmers in each given age-group 

 who own farms without mortgage indebtedness increases as the age in- 

 creases, so that while only 12% of those under 24 years of age have un- 

 mortgaged farms, in the four following age groups the per-cents. are 

 respectively 19.4, 32.7, 48 and 58, and of all those over 64 years of age, 

 67% come within this class. The proportion of each age-group who 

 own farms with mortgage indebtedness increases through the first three 

 groups, and then decreases through the succeeding groups, the highest 

 proportion being in the group 35-44 years of age, 31% of these coming 

 within this class. Lastly the proportion of each age gioup who are ten- 

 ants decreases rapidly through the successive groups; 64% of all farmers 

 under 25 years of age are tenants, the i)cr-cents. in the four following 

 groups are respectively 44, 24, 13, 12, while all over 64 years of age only 



12 



