320 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



almost the entire mass of the small land-holders there. As 

 I have previously stated, the number of farms in those 

 States has largely increased ; in Missouri, from 92,792 to 

 215,575; in North Carolina, from 75,203 to 157,609; in 

 Georgia, from 62,003 to 138,626; in Mississippi, from 42,- 

 840 to 101,772 ; in Texas, from 42,891 to 174,184. In this 

 increase there were but few purchasers, either emigrant or 

 native. The emancipated colored population became tenants, 

 and, as the number of farms increased, the number of tenants 

 necessarily increased: Missouri having, in 1880, 58,892; 

 North Carolina having 52,722 ; Georgia, 62,175 ; Mississippi, 

 44,558 ; Texas, 65,465. In all of the States, New England 

 and Southern, many of the farms are rented on shares. The 

 tenant is for the time proprietor. The obligations of his 

 lease are easy. He stands on an equality with the land- 

 holder, — and usually holds the commanding position. Of 

 the 4,008,907 farms in the United States, only 1,047,505 

 are occupied by tenants of this description ; and these farms 

 are constantly changing from ownership to tenant occupancy. 

 These figures must satisfy any one, even if he is determined 

 to find the fatal disease of the republic in its land system, 

 that the agricultural classes here do " own the soil they till," 

 and that landlordism, as I have described it and as it exists, 

 has few charms, and threatens no danger. 



1 might enlarge upon the division and subdivision of lands 

 in the United States, as contrasted with that of the United 

 Kingdom ; but I will merely remind you that New England 

 has five times as many farms as " old England," and small 

 land-holders innumerable, with less than one-seventh of the 

 population ; and that 4,008,907 farms are held in the United 

 States with a population of 60,000^000, while 50,000 landed 

 proprietors only are counted in the 35,000,000 of people in 

 the United Kingdom. Feudal tenure, moreover, does not 

 exist here. Our ancestors left that behind them in England, 

 and opened the way for that constant distribution of land, 

 which, with the cheap and easy modes of transfer here, brings 

 landed property into an active market. They left behind 

 them, moreover, the entire system of tenant-farming, as 

 established by long custom and intricate law in England ; 

 and the landlord has gradually disappeared. 



