FARM OWNERSHIP AND TENANCY IN UNITED STATES 269 



case with farms located near county lines. Such owners can 

 hardly be classed as non-residents, and the very small per cent 

 of rented farms owned by non-resident landlords would have 

 been still further reduced if it had been practicable to exclude 

 such owners. 



" The Western division had the smallest proportion of rented 

 farms whose owners resided in the county where their rented 

 farms were located. . . . The South Central and South 

 Atlantic divisions had the largest proportion of owners residing 

 in the county where their rented farms were located. . . . 

 The North Central division had the largest, and the Western 

 the next largest, proportion of rented farms with owners residing 

 outside of the state." * 



The character of the landlord has great significance when 

 viewed from the standpoint of the tenant farmer who hopes 

 to rise to the position of a landowning farmer. Land leased by 

 the retired farmer is not held out of the market for many years, 

 because of the limits set to life. Upon the death of the retired 

 farmer, if not at an earlier date, the land is divided among heirs 

 or sold to settle the estate. This brings land upon the market 

 and helps those who inherit the proceeds to buy farms. Per- 

 manent landed estates managed by a landlord class keep land 

 off the market so far as tracts of a size which a small farmer 

 can buy are concerned, and the influence of inheritance is to 

 maintain the landlord class. The permanent landlord class 

 trained to manage estates operated by tenants is, however, not 

 without its redeeming feature, as any one will conclude who 

 studies the present methods of operating landed estates in the 

 regions of negro tenants in the South to-day. Trained land- 

 lords with large estates are, as a rule, more agreeable for a 

 tenant, white or black, to deal with than are the retired farmers 

 who enter the landlord class for a few years late in life. 



1 Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900, Vol. V, p. lxxxvii. 



