FARM-MANAGEMENT SURVEY OF REPRESENTATIVE AREAS. 



11 



INCOMES RECEIVED BY FARM TENANTS. 



There are few regions in the United States where tenant farming 

 has been developed so extensively and where it plays such an impor- 

 tant part in agricultural production as in the corn belt. The per- 

 centage of farms worked by tenants is second only to those operated 

 by owners, and the areas farmed and the products grown compare 

 very favorably with those of the farm owners. 



In the region covered by this survey, records were secured from 247 

 tenant farmers. These men rented one farm, or land owned by one 

 person. There were 51 other tenants who rented farms from two 

 different parties. Their records show the same results, which have 

 not been included -in Table IV. 



Table IV. — Average capital, receipts, expenses, and profits of tenants on 21i7 

 farms operated by tenants in Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa. 



Item. 



Indiana 



(83 

 farms). 



Illinois 

 (71 



farms) . 



Iowa 

 (93 



farms). 



Average 



(247 



farms). 



Average area acres 



Average capital 



Average receipts 



Average expenses 



Average farm income 



Average interest at 5 per cent 



Average tenant's labor income 



128 



202 



187 



172 



$1, 758 



1,335 



492 



843 



88 



755 



82, 867 



2,257 



975 



1,282 



143 



1,139 



$2, 667 

 1,605 

 755 

 850 

 134 

 716 



$2, 431 

 1,732 

 740 

 992 

 122 

 870 



Most tenants hope to become farm owners as soon as they have 

 sufficient capital. The income they receive while leasing a farm is a 

 measure of the period they will have to work before making the 

 change. The average tenant in Indiana, with an investment of 

 $1,758, received $755 for his year's work. In Illinois, with an invest- 

 ment of $2,867, he received $1,139 as a labor income. In Iowa, with 

 an average capital of $2,667, his labor income was $716. Owing to 

 drought in early summer, the income of the tenant in Iowa was prob- 

 ably 20 per cent less than it would have been in a normal crop year. 



The 247 tenant farmers made an average labor income of $870 

 from an investment of less than $2,500. When it is remembered that 

 the farm owners with over 12 times this investment made less than 

 half the labor income of the tenants, the evidence is unmistakable 

 that the man with small capital should rent rather than buy a farm. 



For the amount invested, the tenant's income is very much greater 

 than that of the farm owner. The sum available for the family liv- 

 ing, however, is smaller in the case of the tenant, for the farm owner, 

 with an average capital of $30,606 (see Table II), has $1,530 interest 

 to use, as well as the $408 labor income. Thus, if the farm owner 

 is free of debt, as one-half of them are, he has $1,938 available for 

 a living, as compared with the tenant's 



