520 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



cattle or sheep, produces far less than his proportional part of the 

 hay, but gives his attention primarily to producing corn and hogs. 

 Everything is favorable for a high rate of tenancy. The land is 

 too dear in price for the poor man's pocketbook. It is level, 

 uniform, and easy to till. Moreover, it is held in large tracts, 

 making it eaey for the tenant to get in one block all he can cul- 

 tivate. Under the system of farming here practised these large 

 units are more efficient than smaller ones, but the great size is in 

 itself a factor, in addition to the high price per acre, precluding 

 ownership by a man of small means. In these states, as in the 

 others previously noticed, high prices of land and high tenancy go 

 together, and low prices and low tenancy together. In Kansas, 

 where the land values are fairly uniform over a considerable part 

 of the state, tenancy shows a similar uniformity. In Nebraska, 

 where the range of prices is much greater, there are many more 

 counties in each of the extreme groups, all of the conditions of 

 high tenancy being present in the eastern part of the state and 

 the low values excluding it from the western part. 



Turning to Missouri the conditions are essentially different. 

 The whole south central part of the state is broken and hilly. Thus 

 it is quite well adapted to fruit growing and diversified farming, 

 but poorly adapted to the cultivation of the cereals on a large scale. 

 Hence tenancy here corresponds to that of Wisconsin, Michigan, 

 or eastern Ohio, in contrast to that of the leading grain-growing 

 districts. This land is still largely undeveloped, is low in price, 

 and is therefore in great measure either occupied by its owner or 

 not at all. Southern Illinois and Indiana are likewise not so well 

 adapted to grain farming. Here again, with the smaller farms, 

 and the still smaller fields, combined with low prices of land, the 

 conditions are favorable for ownership, which is, as previously 

 stated, relatively high. 



From two different standpoints, then, the same facts are dis- 

 covered. High price of land and high rate of tenancy go hand in 

 hand, likewise low price of land and low rate of tenancy. Yet it 

 does not follow that the one condition is the sole cause of the 

 other. The American farmer has been slow to adopt a diversified 

 system of farming. Labor has been the scarce factor, and therefore 



