88 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



tioned. The pessimistic man might jump at tlie conclusion 

 that we were tending inevitably toward European conditions, 

 — toward the establishment of a gentry of land owners and 

 a peasant tenantry of land tillers. It is doubtless true that 

 in man}^ respects we are gradually approaching European 

 conditions, not only in agriculture, but in our general in- 

 dustrial environment. Nevertheless, the suggested infer- 

 ence from the figures is premature. It would probably be 

 a better statement of the facts to say that our agriculture, 

 like our other industries, is advancing, through the aid of 

 capital invested by those who, from the nature of the case, 

 cannot be operators. The figures do not necessarily mean 

 that the farms of the United States have been gradually 

 slipping out of the hands of the men who used to own them. 

 In fact, the absolute number of owners operating farms has 

 steadily increased.* The number of farms operated by 

 tenants has simply increased more rapidly. This may mean, 

 and probably does mean, that an increasing number of per- 

 sons have felt justified in buying farms as an investment, 

 just as they have always bought railroads, water works and 

 manufacturing industries. 



The distribution of these investments su^srests that farms 

 have not been for sale in Massachusetts, or that prices have 

 been unattractively high, or that, for some other reason, 

 capital has preferred to seek the w^estern farms. Doubtless 

 a certain number of western farms have been taken up on 

 mortgage foreclosures, and capital has thus found a forced 

 investment in farm lands. 



Looked at in any light, however, the figures indicate a 

 specific change in agricultural conditions. This change is 

 in the direction of the investment of more outside capital ; 

 and this means, in agriculture as in every other industry, 

 that an economic advance is being made. 



* Tlie number of farms operated by owners in tbe United States stands as 

 follows: — 



1880, 2,984,306 



1890, .3,269,728 



1900, 3,713,371 



