PROFITS IN AGRICULTURE 



887 



income of 7.3 per cent, the average labor income of the 378 owners 

 is $548. Under similar conditions the average labor income of the 

 124 tenant farmers is $739. 



TABLE XXXVII 



A COMPARISON OF THE LABOR INCOME OF OWNERS AND TENANTS BY ALLOWING 

 7.3 PER CENT INTEREST ON THE TOTAL FARM INVESTMENT, INSTEAD OF 

 S PER CENT (7.3 PER CENT Is THE AVERAGE RATE OF THE LANDLORD'S 



INTEREST ON INVESTMENT); SURVEY 1912, CHESTER COUNTY 



Approximately half of this difference is due to the fact that the 

 tenant farms on the average are more than one and one-fourth times 

 as large as the average of the owned farms, but part is also probably 

 due to the fact that the tenant farms on the average have a larger 

 number of dairy cows, usually of somewhat more than average quality. 

 While these tenants make larger labor incomes than the owners, it 

 must be remembered that the owners have the interest on their 

 investment in addition to this labor income, so that the owner's 

 families have larger total incomes than those of the tenants. 



This bulletin contains ample evidence that the young farmer who 

 has relatively little capital will find it to his best interests to become a 

 tenant on a farm of considerable magnitude rather than to undertake 

 the same type of farming on a much smaller farm which his capital 

 might enable him to own. 



D. Some Opinions on Profits in Farming 



289. "WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH FARMING?" 1 

 BY WALDON ALLAN CURTIS 



There are, of course, all sorts of causes of the contemporary 

 desertion of farms in the old states, but the principal cause is that 

 farming is badly underpaid, that in no other line of endeavor do the 

 same physical strength, mental ability, and capital command so little. 

 Desertion has been faster in the East, for the countless factories give 



1 Adapted from The Independent, LXVII (December 30, 1909), 1485-88. 



