No. 4.] OUR AGRICULTUKAL ADVANCE. 



87 



There are some other evidences, however, to be taken into 

 consideration, and these we will examine presently ; mean- 

 while, our final judgment on this point may be fairly 

 reserved. 



Ownership of Farms. 



The ownership of farms has, theoretically at least, a 

 somewhat close connection with the average size of farms. 

 We will next examine, therefore, the statistics of farm pro- 

 prietorship. We find that in 1880 75 per cent of the farms 

 in the United States were operated by owners, in 1800 this 

 proportion had been reduced to 72 per cent, while in 1900 

 it has been still further reduced to (35 per cent. The fall 

 of 7 per cent in the last decade is especially striking. 



In the North Atlantic States the jiroportion of farms 

 operated by owners as compared with those operated by 

 tenants is constantly higher than in the United States at 

 large. In 1880 it was 84 per cent; in 1890, 82 per cent; 

 and in 1900 it was 79 per cent. These figures, along with 

 similar figures for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, may 

 be compared more easily when arranged in the following- 

 table : — 



We cannot but be struck with the decreasing propor- 

 tion of farm owners among farm operators. This means, 

 of course, a corresponding increase of tenant farmers. This 

 tendency is indisputable in the country at large, and there 

 is hardly a State in the Union which ofi'ers an exception. 

 We may congratulate ourselves that this tendency is re- 

 duced to a minimum in our own Commonwealth, but even 

 here it has not been altogether suppressed. 



The exact meaning of these figures may fairly be ques- 



