1889.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 319 



and practical farmer, I desire to present to your minds a few 

 encouraging facts and some brief suggestions, which may 

 satisfy you, at least, that you need have no fears that the 

 system of landlording, which has nearly destroyed the agri- 

 culture of England, and has oppressed and distracted Ire- 

 land, will ever become an established institution in America. 

 In the New England States, which are especially interesting 

 to us, there are 207,232 farms, — of which only 17,597 are 

 rented. These rented farms are occupied by tenants w^ho 

 are subjected to no violent restrictions, and they are owned 

 by persons who in many cases have come into possession 

 accidentally, — perhaps by inheritance, perhaps by fore- 

 closure. The owners of these farms are often incapacitated 

 by age from labor on the land, are often occupied elsewhere, 

 and often hold these estates in probate. But seldom are 

 farms of this description purchased as an investment, nor do 

 they ofler any inducement whatever to the capitalist. The 

 condition of newer States, and of States in new conditions 

 under the government, is somewhat difierent ; but it is 

 analogous in many respects. In IlMnois and Indiana, for 

 instance, the original large land-holdings are not wholly dis- 

 tributed in fee ; and in some cases the original owners of 

 small farms have removed to remoter and cheaper Western 

 lands obtained on government terms, satistied with the 

 profit they have made by the sale of their holdings. For 

 these reasons many farms are still rented, — forms which 

 constitute a part of large tracts of land purchased in the 

 early period of those States by Eastern capitalists, or taken 

 as an investment by local capitalists, who preferred land 

 with even a small income to the uncertainty of speculative 

 stocks. In Illinois, for the above reasons, out of 255,741 

 farms, 80,244 are occupied by tenants, under the easy system 

 of the United States. In the Southern States the case is 

 somewhat difierent. Prior to the late civil war a great pro- 

 portion of the lands in these States was occupied and man- 

 aged by large planters. When the system under which they 

 had been operated was broken up, the management of such 

 estates was in most cases changed, and at the same time their 

 sale in smaller divisions was found impossible, on account of 

 the impoverished condition of those who would constitute 



