514 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



while now there is 29.7 per cent. This is but about two-thirds 

 the proportion of tenancy for the whole state, and the rate of in- 

 crease is below that for the state. The same general conditions 

 prevail in Ohio, which we may view from a little different stand- 

 point, so as to include all farms of the state. It is found that in 

 thirty counties in the eastern and southern parts, having an aver- 

 age valuation for farms of 360, or less, per acre, the per cent of 

 tenancy ten years ago was 19.5 ; at present it is 20.8 ; not a 

 great change for the period, and a low proportion in each case. 

 In the remaining two-thirds of the state the per cent of tenancy 

 in 1900 was 30.9, while in 19 10 it was 33 per cent. It is just 

 here, roughly the middle of Ohio from north to south, that we 

 find the pronounced break in the tendency of farms to slip out of 

 the hands of the owners and into the possession of tenants, for 

 from this line to the east tenancy declines, while to the west, at 

 least to the Rocky Mountains, ownership declines. 



The same relationship between values and tenancy may be 

 seen in Missouri, where in sixteen counties in the northwestern 

 part of the state with values of $60 and over per acre there is 

 33.5 per cent of tenancy. This is well above the general average 

 for the state and is slightly above the per cent for the same 

 counties ten years ago. In the northeastern part of the state a 

 like number of counties with values below $60 stood at 27 per 

 cent in tenancy in 1900, but fell to 24.6 per cent by 1910. In 

 Indiana the nineteen counties in which farms are worth, per acre, 

 $100 and up have 36 per cent of tenancy. The twenty-five coun- 

 ties with values at $50 and below have 21 per cent of tenancy. 

 These groups happen to be, respectively, about equally above and 

 below the average values and average tenancy for the whole state. 



More examples might be given, but so far as the writer has 

 made the test, the general relationship holds within each state. 

 That it will hold where other conditions are equal seems to be 

 beyond controversy. It does not always hold good from one state 

 to another nor even within a given state, because of varying 

 conditions ; yet the exceptions are comparatively infrequent. 



Not only has tenancy either decreased, or increased at a rela- 

 tively slower rate, in all parts of the North Central states where 



