258 



AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



creasing so rapidly, the matter appears somewhat different. 

 This is shown in the following table : 



TABLE XLX 



Average Size of Farms and the Number of Farms of 500 Acres and 

 Over in Specified States in 1880 and est 1900 



These figures suggest that the increase in tenancy may have 

 resulted from the breaking up of large farms into small holdings 

 let to tenants. All of the states in the above table showed a 

 marked decrease in the number of farms containing 500 acres 

 and over, and a great increase in small farms. 



The decline in the number of large farms was not confined 

 to the Southern States. The number of farms of 500 acres and 

 over in Illinois decreased from 3898 to 2333, though there was 

 no important change in the average size of farms in that state 

 owing to counterbalancing changes in other size groups. In 

 Texas a breaking down of large farms into small ones was 

 going on in the Black Prairie, but this was more than counter- 

 balanced in the state as a whole by the development of large 

 ranches in the cattle country to the west and south. Hence, 

 this cotton and cattle state illustrates the way in which averages 

 covering diversified territory cover up the facts regarding the 

 tendencies in given regions. 



That cotton production was gradually becoming organized 



on a tenant basis instead of a wages system is further borne out 



by statistics which show a decline in the expenditure for labor 



in 1870 l and in 1900 in this region. There was a decline in the 



1 No statistics available for 1880, hence 1870 figures are used. 



