540 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



tenancy is 12.9, in counties with values from $30 to $60 per acre 

 the percentage of tenancy is 1 5 .9, while in counties with farm land 

 valued at less than $30 per acre it is 11.7 per cent. In Colorado 

 the counties with land at $35 and over per acre show 25.7 per 

 cent of tenancy; those with land at $20 to $35 per acre, 30.8 

 per cent. 



Using as the criterion the total value of the farm instead of 

 value per acre, it appears that the tenants are in charge of the high- 

 priced farms much more than is the case with those low in price. 

 In Oregon the group of counties showing the lowest-priced farms 

 has 12.5 per cent of all farms in the hands of tenants ; the group 

 of medium price, 16.2 per cent; and the group of highest price, 

 17.6 per cent. In Washington the percentages on the same basis 

 are 6.2 per cent for the cheapest farms, 12.7 for the medium, and 

 19.9 for those highest in price. In Colorado the low-priced group 

 shows 9.8 per cent of tenant farms, the medium, 18.7 per cent, 

 the highest-priced group, 28.7 per cent. This relationship between 

 price of farms and tenancy is due in the main to one general fact. 

 Here as elsewhere the tenants are doing the extensive rather than 

 the intensive farming ; they are the grain farmers. Conditions are 

 such that the average value of the grain farm is above that of the 

 stock farm, since the latter, although large, is usually very low 

 in price per acre. Again, the grain farm as a unit is of higher 

 value than the fruit farm, since the latter, though high in value 

 per acre, is of small size. 



The proportion of farms in the hands of tenants has increased 

 simultaneously with the growth of the small -grain industry, and 

 has decreased where small-grain farming has declined. For the 

 Western division as a whole the tenants have been raising about 

 50 per cent more than their proportional share of the oats and 

 wheat and more than double their share of the barley. Wheat 

 growing was carried on in California on a considerable scale for 

 many years until within the past decade, and was located mainly 

 in the great central valleys of the state. With hardly an excep- 

 tion the counties in which there were great acreages of wheat 

 show a higher percentage of tenancy than the average for the 

 state. Since 1900 the wheat-growing industry has declined 



