Independent Farmer Becoming Tenant. 115 



1900, should have seen large front additions made to the 

 dwellings, and barns of generous proportions everywhere. 

 But what sum does the census of 1900 state as the value 

 of the buildings on the average Ohio farm? Just seven 

 hundred and ninety-three dollars ! Less than $800 worth 

 of buildings after nearly one hundred years. And much 

 the same pitiable story of agricultural poverty is told by 

 the census for a large part of the United States. When 

 we compare the cost of buildings erected by farmers 

 with the outlay made in the small and great manufac- 

 turing centres, the comparison is most startling. 



The percentage of gain in ownership of Ohio farms 

 from 1880-1900 was hardly anything, less than one per 

 cent., while the gain in rented farms was nearly 60%. 



NoT^' it will be claimed by some who have reasons of 

 their own for keeping the agricultural community in 

 ignorance of the true condition, that this letting to ten- 

 ants indicates a high degree of prosperity and not the 

 reverse. Cases have been cited to the writer of farmers 

 in some sections of the country who were getting into 

 years, renting their farms and taking up their abode in 

 the iriore populous centres, supporting themselves there 

 by the gains made in many years of toil and the sums 

 obtained by the rental of the farms. It is evident that 

 such farms carry a double burden, which would imply 

 large returns. But if the profits were large why did the 

 percentage of these renters rapidly increase? Why, if 

 they received only fair profits, did they not gradually 

 obtain the means for the purchase of a farm! If gener- 

 ally they did gain the necessary amount, or even enough 

 to gain possession of a farm by giving a mortgage, why 

 did they not exchange the status of a renter for that of 

 owner! In the twenty years from 1880-1900, there was 



