54 AMERICAN FARMS. 



Second, the typical American farmer was and is, usually, 

 an owner. 



In order to show the present tendencies towards large 

 estates, we will divide the large from the small at too 

 acres, and compare those above and below at different 

 periods, say i860 with 1880. In the year i860, of the 

 2,044,077 land-holdings in the United States, 1,387,614, 

 or 67 per cent, were of the classes 100 acres and under. 

 In Canada, the census of 1881 found the lands in hold- 

 ings of 100 acres and under, to the extent of 71 per cent, 

 of the total. From this we draw the conclusion that 

 farms of 100 acres and less have been the rule. Such 

 have been the typical farms. 



Such farmers providing their own capital, both for the 

 ownership of their lands and the prosecution of their 

 business, and depending chiefly upon their own labors, 

 needed no extensive areas. Indeed large areas would be 

 an intolerable encumbrance to the owners, as the fencing 

 of even a 200-acre farm would be a severe tax on their 

 time. It is true that in many cases, such as those which 

 formed the estates of Virginia, the original grants were 

 large blocks of land, but in those early days when such 

 grants were made, they were not taken for speculative 

 purposes, as now, or for carrying on a wholesale com- 

 petition in agriculture. And when a community did 

 really get down to the cultivation of the soil, or to gen- 

 eral farming, it was on small plots or town lots that the 

 farmers' labors were prosecuted, and each farmer was a 

 proprietor. 



We have stated already that in 1860,67 percent, of 

 the land-holdings were of the classes occupying 100 

 acres and under. The census of 1880, however, showed 

 that a rapid change had been made during the decade 



