668 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



The percentage of farm land leased in the United States in both 

 1900 and 1910 was smaller than indicated by the data based on the 

 number of tenant farms. On the other hand, while there was only 

 a slight increase in the percentage of farms operated by tenants 

 between 1900 and 1910, the proportion of the farm area operated 

 under lease was considerably greater in 1910 than hi 1900. 



Managers controlled 6 . i per cent of the farm land in the United 

 States in 1910. In the West South Central and Mountain divisions 

 they operated between 10 and 20 per cent of the land. 



In nearly all discussions of land tenure in the United States, only 

 the statistics on farms operated by tenants have been employed, and 

 the reader naturally supposes that the farms which are not operated 

 by tenants are cultivated by their owners. The data on the per- 

 centage of farms operated by tenants suggest that (i) owners operated 

 a smaller part of the land in the Southern states than in any other 

 division of the country; that (2) the farms of the Mountain and 

 Pacific states were almost exclusively in the hands of owners; and 

 that (3) operation of farms by owners was declining between 1900 and 

 1910. Each of these three contentions must be modified or rejected 

 when the statistics of acreage are examined. Outside of the New 

 England and Middle Atlantic states, operation of land by owners was 

 most prevalent in the East South Central and South Atlantic states. 

 Ownership was least common in the West South Central and West 

 North Central groups. In the territory east of the Mississippi River, 

 ownership was less prevalent in the (East) North Central states than 

 in any other division. 



Operation by owners, while shown by the data based on acreage 

 to be smaller than might be inferred from the more commonly quoted 

 data based on farms, was more prevalent in the country as a whole 

 in 1910 than in 1900. It appears, therefore, that while the trend in 

 the tenure of farms was somewhat toward tenancy, the trend in the 

 tenure of farm land was toward a relative increase of both the lease 

 and the owned acreage at the expense of the acreage controlled by 

 managers. This was true especially in the West South Central, 

 Mountain, and Pacific divisions. In the Middle Atlantic states the 

 trend was toward ownership because of the decline in the percentage 

 of farms run by tenants. In the North Central states, however, both 

 east and west of the Mississippi River, and in the East South Central 

 states, the trend was toward land leasing and away from operation 

 by the owners. 



