TENANCY IN THE NORTH CENTRAL STATES 



By Benjamin H. Hibbard 



(From the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. XXV, p. 710, November, 1910) 



FROM the standpoint of tenancy the United States is far too 

 large and too varied to be treated as a unit. Any one of 

 the recognized geographical divisions is so large and varied that 

 even a statistical treatment of tenancy for one section is sure 

 to leave out of account many local and minor influences which, 

 taken together, may be of primary importance. It would be 

 irrational to speak of tenancy in the abstract and include within 

 the scope of the term the twenty-acre cotton farm of Georgia 

 and the thousand-acre farm of North Dakota. In the former case 

 the tenant is usually under the eye and the domination of the 

 owner of the land ; is in debt for equipment and dependent for 

 subsistence ; is in charge of one thousand dollars' worth of 

 property ; and is himself the owner of but one or two hundred 

 dollars' worth. In the latter case the tenant is frequently as 

 independent as the owner of the land ; selects his crops to be 

 planted ; plans his field operations ; owns his live stock and im- 

 plements, free from incumbrance ; buys and sells entirely at will ; 

 owns property worth from one to several thousand dollars ; and 

 is in charge of a farm worth perhaps twenty-five thousand dollars. 

 Such is the contrast from north to south. Though the contrast 

 from east to west is less pronounced, it is by no means negligible. 

 In the East the farm is small by comparison ; it no longer re- 

 sponds to cultivation alone is not so well adapted to the use 

 of draft animals and even less to the use of mechanical power ; 

 diversified farming, or highly specialized intensive farming, is the 

 only type which can succeed. In the Far West there is a great 

 expanse of country and the greatest diversity of soil and climate ; 

 a range of crops from the durum wheat and alfalfa of the plains 



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