496 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



It is alleged in some parts of the West that foreclosure of mort- 

 gages accounts for the increase of farm tenancy ; but this has not 

 been established. It is true, however, that foreclosures on farms 

 in Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, and New Jersey are from one- 

 third of one per cent to one and one-half per cent of the number 

 of mortgages of farms, every year ; and, if these farms upon 

 which mortgages have been foreclosed become and remain tenant 

 farms, the foreclosures are sufficient to account not only for much 

 of the farm tenancy, but also for the entire increase. This is the 

 possibility ; it may not be the fact. 



Then there is a migration of farmers' sons from farms to 

 towns. Education is spoiling sons for farm life, and they prefer 

 the more genteel, exciting, and social life of the town, even with 

 small earnings. People do not go from town to farm. In the 

 movement of population urbanward, the resulting readjustment 

 that must be made with respect to farm proprietorship gives farm 

 tenancy a place which to a great extent might otherwise be filled 

 by the abandonment of farms. Before farm tenancy will be re- 

 duced there must be considerable change in the drift townward, 

 and increase in the profits of agriculture. There is little in pros- 

 pect that will reduce farm tenancy in this country, unless the 

 immigration of agriculturists should be turned into the South. 

 The economic instincts of the immigrants are superior to those 

 of the negroes and their landlords in the South, and this would 

 make ownership by the cultivators encroach upon the present 

 tenant system. 



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There is little reason for believing that the ownership of homes 

 can be promoted to any considerable extent by any scheme. It 

 seems to reach the point which the prospects and distribution of 

 the wealth of the people permit it to reach, whether there are 

 ground rents or not, whether there are building and loan associa- 

 tions or not, and whether there are savings-banks or not. It is a 

 question of land and building values and of prospectively permanent 

 local interests, whether the people own their homes or hire them. 

 This statement, however, is not intended to cover the colored 

 people in the South, most of whom, without great thrift and labor, 



