538 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



VALUE OF LAND AND PER CENT OF TENANCY 



The relationship between values and rate of tenancy may seem 

 at first glance to be a very uncertain one, and therefore worthy of 

 little attention. But the absence of correlation in these particulars 

 is due mainly to the high rate of tenancy in the West North 

 Central division, and to the low rate in the Pacific division ; aside 

 from these two divisions the rankings on the two bases are similar 

 indeed. It will be remembered that in the West North Central 

 division the conditions are especially favorable for the development 

 of the type of farming to which the American system of leasing is 

 adapted, and this fact accounts for the relatively high percentage 

 of tenancy in this division. The table given above shows the 

 Pacific division to rank second in value per acre, although this and 

 the West North Central division (which ranks third in that re- 

 spect) are less than* a dollar an acre apart. It cannot be doubted 

 that if we consider only the characteristic part of the West North 

 Central division that is exclusive of the great body of very cheap 

 land in the extreme western and northern portions then the 

 North Central and Pacific divisions change place as to rank in 

 value per acre ; and this single shift brings the rank in value and 

 the rank in tenancy very close together for all divisions. But value 

 per acre is only one factor affecting the proportion of tenancy. As 

 will be pointed out presently, other factors figure with unusual 

 prominence in the Western States, holding the percentage of 

 tenant farms below what it would be were only the more general 

 type of farms found. It remains true, however, so far as regards 

 farming of the more usual sort, that the proportion of tenant 

 farms rises with the rise in land values. 



