672 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



back on it," because the landholding system there is a "ghastly 

 failure," as a campaign of exclusive interest to Britons, and as having 

 little if any bearing upon the course of affairs in the United States. 



But the conditions in Britain suggest what the conditions in 

 America may be in the course of not so many years if present tend- 

 encies are permitted to go on unchecked or undiverted. That the 

 time is come for earnest consideration of European experience is 

 amply proved by the trend from farm owner to farm tenant in the 

 United States, which is accompanying the trend from farm to city, 

 and is clearly indicated by the figures of the last census. In ten years 

 the number of American tenant farmers increased by 329,712, or 16. 2 

 per cent, while the number of farmers operating land owned by them 

 increased by only 295,399, or 8 . i per cent. Even today there are 

 nearly two and one-half million farmers in America who rent the lands 

 they cultivate, as compared with four million farmers who own their 

 farms. Should the relative rate of increase continue for another ten 

 years, the actual increase in number of tenant farmers would be nearly 

 50,000 greater than that of farmer-owners. 



With two and one-half million tenant farmers America already 

 has a bigger problem, in point of numbers, than has Great Britain. 

 The problem is not so serious yet, largely because of the area of the 

 United States and the newness of our agricultural development, but 

 it is serious enough to command careful attention. The unsolved 

 farm land tenure problem in the United States is largely responsible 

 for the annual migration into Western Canada of hundreds of thou- 

 sands of good American farmer citizens. One man from central 

 Ohio had been making for the landlord as much as $9 per acre per 

 year on a i7o-acre farm, and the result was that the owner valued the 

 land upon the basis of a $9 annual income, which is a little better than 

 5 per cent on $175. The more profit he made the farm yield, the 

 greater became the share that the owner received, and the higher he 

 placed the value of his land, and the farther out of the reach of the 

 tenant's purchasing power the land went. 



In time the farm tenure problem will become as acute in the 

 United States as it is in the British Isles. Perhaps in the future we 

 shall have laws limiting the area of farm lands which one man may 

 own, and fixing the terms upon which he shall rent it. At present, 

 however, we have two and one-half million tenant farmers and five 

 million tenantless, uncultivated, unplatted farms. They should be 

 brought together. 



