FARM MANAGEMENT IN LENAWEE COUNTY, MICH.: oo 
on the investment in each case the owners are left an average labor 
mcome of $210, the renters $548. This shows that under current 
conditions it is still much more desirable to rent than to buy until the 
capital available for investment has reached $2,000 or more. 
In the third class, the operator having capital ranging from $2,001 
to $3,000, there were 5 owners and 23 tenants. The average area of 
the owner-farms was still small, being only 38 acres, whereas the 
average area of the farms operated by renters was 182 acres. A com- 
parison of incomes shows still greater differences. The owners made 
an average total farm income of $375, as compared with $971 made 
by the tenants, and an average labor income of $244 as compared 
with $852 made by the tenants. : 
In the fourth division, those having investments of $3,001 to 
$5,000, there are only 5 tenants as compared with 24 owners, and in 
the next class, with investments of $5,001 to $7,000, only 2 renters 
were found, as compared with 34 owners. No renters were found 
with an operating capital of more than $7,000. 
The average farm income for five tenants in the group with invest- 
ments of from $3,001 to $5,000 was $1,266, and that of the two 
tenants in the group with mvestments from $5,001 to $7,000 was 
$1,648. It will be noted that the average farm income of the owners 
does not approach these amounts until the group is reached in 
which the owners have investments ranging from $17,001 to $25,000, 
and farms average 171 acres in area, or approximately the area of 
the larger rented farms. 
Farm management surveys have, in general, shown that just as 
soon as the tenant farmers have accumulated sufficient capital to 
enable them to make a first payment on a farm of sufficient size to 
permit a satisfactory standard of living, the great majority of them 
pass over into the owner class. In Table XVII it is seen that when 
the average tenant in the region here studied has saved about $5,000, 
thus becoming able to possess a farm which will produce a farm 
income of about $400, he prefers to become an owner, despite the 
fact that as a tenant he could have an income practically three times 
as great. In this area no farmer remained a tenant after he had 
accumulated more than $7,000 capital. | 
There are two general reasons for this. In the first place, the ade- 
quate utilization by the tenant of a large operating capital requires 
a very large area of land, in many cases necessitating a magnitude of 
business that is beyond the managerial ability of the average indi- 
vidual. The table indicates, however, that the man of exceptional 
ability who can manage a large property with a high degree of effi- 
ciency could continue to do better financially as a tenant than as an 
owner, because of the greatly increased acreage which his capital 
would enable him to utilize. 
