OAVXEESHIP OF TENANT FARMS IX NOETH CENTRAL STATES 39 
CHILDREN OF FARM LANDLORDS 
Under the laws and customs governing inheritance in the United 
States the holdings of owners with many children tend to be broken 
up. In connection with the extent to which leveling processes may 
be relied upon to do away with inequalities of opportunity, it is 
important to know something about the size of the families of farm land- 
lords, especially of landlords with more than one or two rented farms. 
Replies were received from 14,214 owners of rented farms to a 
question concerning the number of living children. These owners 
had an average of 3.2 children, but about one-sixth had no children. 
Those who had children had an average of 3.8 living children 11 
(figs. 16 and 17). 
Children of those Landlords with 5 or more rented farms have a 
good chance of inheriting at least one rented farm, but the number 
of such children is relatively small. Seventy per cent of the owners 
NUMBER OF CHILDREN PER 1,000 
RENTED FARMS OWNED 
1,000 1,500 
2,000 
LOCATION OF FARMS 
KANSAS (Central) 
OH\0 (Western)-^- -— 
ii i i unic (Central and 
ILLINOIS Northern) ~ 
N.and S. DAK/ 'Eastern) 
MICHIGAN (Southern) 
in\A/A (Central and 
IUWA Northwestern) 
Wl SCONSI N (Southern) 
8 NORTH CENTRAL 
STATES 
Fig. 16. — Considering the chances of the children of farm landlords to inherit a farm, it appears 
from replies of the parents, that on the average there were 1,771 children for every 1,000 rented ■ 
farms belonging to the parents 
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 retention of large 
holdings of rented land. 
SUMMARY 
About a twenty-fifth of the rented farms in the North Central 
States are owned by landlords who own five or more farms. Land- 
lords who own 1,000 or more rented acres each, together own about 
one-tenth of the acreage that is rented to farm tenants. .In 1920 
landlords who owned $250,000 worth or more of rented farm prop- 
erty owned about 8 per cent of the value of farm land and buildings 
rented to tenants. 
Concentration of ownership changed little in the 20 years from 
1900 to 1920 as measured bv number of rented farms owned. In 
11 Of the landlords replying 17 per cent had no children, 13.1 per cent had 1 child, 16.9 per cent had 2 chil- 
dren, 40.4 per cent had 3, 4, 5, or 6 children and 12.6 per cent had 7 children or more. A total of 4,"i,321 
children and 25,590 tenants was reported by the 14,214 landlords. 
