120 The Tariff and the Farmer. 



The first table shows a gain in ten years, under low 

 duties, of $667,000,000, while the farms, with high duties, 

 in twenty years, 1880-1900, sustain a loss of $326,000,000. 

 The percentage of gain in value from 1850-60 is well up 

 towards 50%, while in the twenty years mentioned there 

 was a loss of nearly 12%. In the second table, while the 

 average farm, with its live stock and machinery increased 

 in value over $900 from 1850-60, there was a loss of $237 

 from 1880-1900. Another glance at the table shows that 

 forty years of hard work from 1860 to 1900 increased the 

 average farmer's property just $11. The average farm 

 is somewhat smaller in area in recent years than for- 

 merly. We repeat to give emphasis. Under a revenue 

 tariff the value of the average farmer's possession 

 increased in ten years $900, while forty years of the 

 highest protection ever known added but $11. 



The Situation in Eegakd to Tenure of Possession. 



Taking this division of states as a whole, there was a 

 decrease in the percentage of those who owned the farms 

 they tilled of over 8% in twent}^ years, 1880-1900. In 

 1900 over 38% of such farms were mortgaged. Massa- 

 chusetts, the fourth state in value of manufactures, sus- 

 tained a loss of 3.3% in farm ownership, and of this 

 37% was mortgaged. Pennsylvania, rank two in value 

 of manufactured articles in 1900, shows a slight decline 

 in farm ownership of a little more than 1%, but one-third 

 of these were mortgaged. The gain in tenant farms was 

 28.5% in the twenty years. New York, the largest man- 

 ufacturing state in the Union, shows a fall-off of farm 

 ownership of over 14%. Of the farms owned 46% were 

 mortgaged. The Springfield Weekly Eepublican of July 

 25, 1907, states that the United States Agricultural De- 



