40 
BULLETIN 1433, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
1900 landlords resident in the North Central States, who had one or" 
two rented farms, owned 87.4 per cent of the rented farms. In 1920, 
88.7 per cent of the rented farms in 85 representative counties were 
owned by landlords who owned one or two rented farms. 
The degree to which rented farms were owned by landlords resident 
out of the county showed practically no change between 1900 and 1920. 
Therefore, considering the greater development of the automobile 
and improved roads, absenteeism is probably a smaller problem than 
it was in 1900 when the owners of 74 per cent of the rented farms in 
these States lived in the county in which the land was located. In 
1920, 73.7 per cent of the rented farms were owned by landlords who 
lived in the same county and 89.2 per cent were owned by landlords 
who lived in the same coimty or in adjoining counties. Two-fifths 
of the rented farms were within 3 miles of the home of the owner. 
RENTED 
FARMS OWNED Q 
BY PARENTS 
200 
NUMBER 
400 600 
800 
1,000 
3 or 4 -- 
9 -- 
10 or more 
hkmm 
wW7//7J?7/7Z% 
V///////A 
111 
W3^^^///////y. 
L ' 
i 
\N 'umber of Farms 
YZ/\ Number of Children 
Fig. 17.— The figure shows the distribution of the ownership of 1,000 rented farms among owners 
with 1, 2, 3 or 4, 5 to 9, or 10 or more rented farms. The number of children of each group of 
owners is shown in connection with the number of rented farms owned. Few of the children 
of farm landlords may hope to inherit a farm apiece 
Owners of rented farms are usually men well along in years, who 
have had considerable farm experience, many of them being retired 
farmers. The average age was close to 60 years. Of the male owners 
less than a tenth had had no experience on farms. A large proportion 
had been tenants on farms in earlier years. 
Seventy per cent of the owners of rented farms have more than 
one child. This fact, together with the comparatively small number 
of rented farms owned by persons who own more than two rented 
farms, and the American custom of dividing the property equally 
among the children at the death of the parents, will assist materially 
in preventing the creation of large holdings of rented land. 
Many of the children of farm landlords, pending the time when 
they may inherit the land or an interest in it, rent from their parents. 
Over a third of the tenants were reported to be related to the person 
from whom they rented, 29 per cent of the tenants being sons or 
sons-in-law. Present owners of the land acquired only about one- 
seventh of their acreage by inheritance. They purchased an average 
of four-fifths of it. 
o 
