FARM OWNERSHIP AND TENANCY IN UNITED STATES 267 



1910. The small number of owners in that region is indicative 

 of the fact that in the South there is a distinct tenant class. 



In the Cotton Belt the land is still in the possession of a land- 

 lord class. In parts of Virginia where the land has not been 

 so generally retained in large estates, the percentage of land- 

 owning farmers among the negroes is very high. This can be 

 explained in part by the lack in eastern Virginia of a great staple 

 crop like cotton which would make profitable the operation of 

 plantations by tenants, and partly by the fact that the negroes 

 of Virginia are a higher type than those of the Cotton Belt. 



The apparent superior economic position of the northern 

 farmer is somewhat reduced when the question of mortgage 

 indebtedness is raised. In 1900, 30 per cent of the farm homes 

 occupied by owners were mortgaged. The census for 1900 

 shows a more complete analysis of the farming classes by tenures 

 than do the census reports for 1880 and 1890. Those other 

 than cash and share tenants renting all the land they cultivated 

 were divided into four classes, namely, owners, 54.9 per cent, 

 part owners, 7.9 per cent, owners and tenants, .9 per cent, and 

 managers, 1 per cent. The practice of farming a tract of rented 

 land in addition to the land owned seems to have been a common 

 practice in many of the grain-growing sections. 



Farms operated by managers were not so numerous but were 

 more generally large farms, so that while they are only 1 per 

 cent of the farms they represent 10.7 per cent of the aggregate 

 area in farms. In spite of the fact that these farms include 

 many of the country homes of wealthy city folk, the cheap areas 

 of the West included in these managed farms reduce their value 

 to only 5.5 per cent of the aggregate value of farms. 



The position of the tenant farmers is better understood when 

 one knows more of the character of the landlords whose land 

 they cultivate. It has been shown that in the North most 

 tenant farmers sooner or later become landowning farmers, while 

 in the South a very large proportion of the tenants never rise 

 to the position of landowners. The vast majority of the rented 

 farms in the North are owned by men who have passed through 

 various stages of acquiring land for their own use, and who are 



