TENANCY IN THE NORTH CENTRAL STATES 517 



period of time as does the owner. These facts are all significant. 

 They picture a farmer with a poor outfit of buildings, with com- 

 paratively little grass land, with little live stock, giving his atten- 

 tion to the growing of grain to be hauled immediately to market. 

 The one exception to this condition is the feeding of much of 

 his corn to hogs. 



If these conditions are accurately outlined they present a 

 reason other than the high price of land for the concentration of 

 tenancy on the better land. The tenant is not equipped for doing 

 the more exacting work of stock farming. He lacks the capital 

 with which to begin. He wishes to engage in a business which 

 will yield returns during the year, not after a period of years. 

 Again, he is not encouraged by his landlord to go into live stock 

 to any extent ; the landlord is not anxious to put a great deal of 

 money into the necessary barns, silos, and fences. Even should 

 he have the opportunity to raise stock on a given farm, the proba- 

 bility that he will be obliged to move within a short time is a dis- 

 couragement against doing so, since the next farm he takes will 

 in all likelihood not be so well equipped. In one respect landlord 

 and tenant seem to be agreed, they want prompt returns on the 

 outlay. These conditions cause the tenant to gravitate toward 

 the section where the type of farming for which he is fitted, and 

 which meets his needs, can best be done. This means a district 

 adapted to the growing of grain, especially corn. 



That tenants are prevalent in the heart of the grain-growing 

 section may be seen from the map published in the Thirteenth 

 Census, Vol. V, pp. 98-99. The striking similarity of a tenancy 

 map and a cotton-area map for the South has often been noted. 

 The relation of the corn belt to the density of tenancy in the 

 North has not attracted so much attention. . . . 



It is not intended to suggest that there is any magical connec- 

 tion between tenancy and the growing of corn. The connection 

 is very much unlike the relation of tenancy to cotton growing. It 

 would seem to be due more to the failure, perhaps the inability, 

 of the tenant to enter the more profitable business of stock raising 

 than to any other cause. True, in some cases the landlord re- 

 quires the tenant to grow corn and deliver it to him at market 



