FARM OWNERSHIP AND TENANCY IN TEXAS. 17 



that owing to advanced age, many owner operators are gradually 

 decreasing the size of their farms as they approach retirement time. 

 This class of farmers has been called " retreating farmers." 19 



The average size of share croppers' farms is small as a result of 

 the fact that probably half of them had less land than they needed 

 in order to utilize their entire time. 20 Owners additional as a class 

 are successful farmers who are striving to expand their farm busi- 

 ness, and do so by renting additional land. 



The average total value of the farm and its equipment for all ten- 

 ure classes was $18,981 ; and the relative values of farms for different 

 forms of tenure have the same order as the order of the sizes of farms 

 for the different tenure classes (see Table 9). However, it will be 

 noted that owner-operator farms have relatively a much higher value 

 in proportion to size than do the farms of owners additional. 



That the average value of farms of owner operators is relatively 

 large is due in part to the fact that they have more than twice the 

 wealth of owners additional (see Table 22) and can have and do 

 have better houses and farm equipment. Furthermore, many of the 

 owner operators are decreasing the size of their farms as they ap- 

 proach retirement age without reducing proportionately their build- 

 ing and equipment value. 



An interesting fact brought out in connection with equipment 

 value per acre is that share tenants are almost as well supplied with 

 equipment as are owner operators. One of the serious drawbacks 

 of the one-crop system practiced in the region is that the tenant can 

 not profitably invest all his surplus savings in his farm business, 

 and the resultant tendency for some tenants to overinvest in equip- 

 ment probably explains the relatively high average equipment value 

 for them as a class. 



The data on value of buildings show strikingly one of the evils 

 of tenancy in this area. The average value of buildings on share- 

 tenant farms is about one-half, and on share-cropper farms less than 

 one-third of the average value of buildings on the farms of owner 

 operators. Most of this difference is accounted for in the difference 

 in value of dwellings (see Table 29). 



However, there is a lack of buildings for housing machinery on 

 the farms of all tenure classes. Investigation on this question re- 

 vealed the fact:- that (of those reporting) 120 tenants had no build- 

 ings for iIm' protection <>l' machinery from the weather, 10 had part 

 of thru- machinery under shed, and 1G had all machinery under shed. 

 Forty-five owners bad qo machinery under shed, ( .) had part of it 



Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station Research Bulletin No. 44, p. ( '>. 

 pbteen "f » » ■ * - 60 cropp< ts bad 80 acres <>r lew. 



90872 22 :■ 



