TENANCY IN THE WESTERN STATES 541 



greatly throughout these valleys, and during the same time the 

 percentage of tenancy has fallen from a proportion above that for 

 the whole state to one quite below it. The same situation is 

 found in Oregon, where with the decline of the wheat industry 

 in the western part of the state the proportion of tenant farms 

 has decreased to a marked degree. On the other hand, the acre- 

 age of wheat has increased rapidly in the northeastern part of the 

 state and at the same time the proportion of tenant farms has 

 gained rapidly. So in the state of Washington, while the per- 

 centage of tenant farms decreased during the past decade for the 

 state as a whole, there was a sharp increase in the southwestern 

 part of the state, where also the acreage of wheat increased very 

 greatly, in fact, more than doubled. Within the twelve counties 

 leading in wheat, which produce 95 per cent of the wheat grown 

 in the state, 24.2 per cent of the acreage of this grain is reported 

 by tenants. 



In contrast to the high percentage of grain-producing farms in 

 the hands of tenants is the very low percentage of fruit farms so 

 operated. The situation found in the Eastern states is repeated 

 in the West with emphasis, the more pronounced condition being 

 due to the more highly specialized character of the Western fruit 

 farming. The more valuable the fruit farm, either per acre or 

 as a whole, the less likely is it parted with under lease. The 

 oranges, lemons, grapes, and apples are produced mainly by men 

 who own the land on which they are grown. Of the great orange 

 crop of California less than 2 per cent is grown by tenants, and 

 of the lemon crop but little over 4 per cent. Vineyards are not so 

 high in price per acre as are orange and lemon groves, neither 

 does it take so long to bring them to bearing age ; hence a some- 

 what larger percentage is in the hands of tenants. Yet in the 

 fourteen leading grape-growing counties of California the propor- 

 tion of grapes produced by tenants is but 9.2 per cent, while in 

 the same counties the proportion of tenant farms is 21 per cent, 

 or over twice as great. Apples are not grown so exclusively by 

 special farmers ; they are reported in considerable quantities from 

 farms on which grain is the leading source of income. Hence the 

 grain farms in the hands of tenants frequently produce important 



