38 
BULLETIN 1433, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Table 33. — Percentage of farm tenants given some supervision or advice by their 
landlord or his agent or overseer, selected areas in the North Central States, 1920 
State and section 
Tenants 
studied 
Percentage of tenants given some advice 
or supervision classified by number of 
tenants renting from each landlord 
All 
tenants 
1 tenant 
2, 3, or 4 
tenants 
5 or more 
tenants 
Ohio, western . . 
Nu mber 
2, 179 
8,358 
1,350 
1,043 
5,505 
2,065 
3,511 
Per cent 
57.0 
44.8 
45.6 
58.6 
37.8 
50.3 
36.0 
Per cent 
48.7 
38.7 
44.4 
52.8 
29.4 
40.6 
29.2 
Per cent 
60.3 
45.0 
48.8 
62.0 
38.7 
49.9 
35.8 
Per cent 
81.3 
57.0 
135.2 
194.3 
47.8 
60.9 
39.9 
Wisconsin, southern .. 
Iowa", central and northwestern 
North Dakota and South Dakota, eastern 
24, Oil 
44.1 
39.2 
44.4 
52.2 
i Percentage based on the replies of less than 10 landlords. 
TENDENCY TOWARD SOIL DEPLETION ON RENTED FARMS 
Fertility of the soil is decreasing on the farms operated by 21 per 
cent of the tenants of rented farms in the North Central States. 
In the opinion of the landlords, their other tenants so farm that the 
fertility is maintained if not increased. The answers to the following 
questions furnished the information tabulated: Give number of 
tenants In your opinion (a) how many of your tenants so 
farmed in 1920 as to maintain or increase the fertility of the land? 
(b) how niany so as to decrease the fertility? 
Judging from the replies of the owners of the land, the fertility 
of the land is not so well maintained by tenants farming for owners 
who have many farms as it is for owners having 1 or a few farms. 
Only 15 per cent of the tenants farming for owners who had 1 rented 
farm were deemed to be so farming that the fertility was declining, 
whereas 20 per cent of the tenants of landlords with 2, 3, or 4 tenants 
were causing the fertility to decline, and 37 per cent of the tenants 
of landlords with 5 or more tenants were running the land down. 
Owners of rented farms in Ohio, Illinois, and Wisconsin were more 
optimistic about the fertility of their farms than were the owners of 
rented farms in the Dakota and Kansas areas who answered the 
questionnaire. (Table 34.) 
Table 34. — Tendency toward soil depletion on rented farms, selected areas of the 
North Central States, 1920 
State and section 
Coun- 
ties 
Landlords replying 
Percentage of rented farms de- 
creasing in fertility, classified 
by number of rented farms 
owned 
Land- 
lords 
Rented 
farms 
owned 
Land 
owned 
Total 
farms 
1 farm 
2, 3, or 
4 farms 
5 or 
more 
farms 
Number 
11 
21 
8 
6 
18 
11 
10 
Number 
1,465 
4,789 
1,059 
771 
2,890 
1,049 
1,551 
Number 
2,208 
8,563 
1,357 
1,050 
5,590 
2,140 
3,355 
1,000 
acres 
250 
1,500 
158 
149 
1,063 
729 
977 
Per cent 
16 
15 
22 
13 
21 
32 
36 
Per cent 
12 
12 
21 
11 
13 
21 
25 
Per cent 
17 
13 
22 
16 
18 
34 
30 
Per cent 
26 
23 
27 
13 
Iowa, central and northwestern 
North Dakota and South Dakota, 
38 
38 
Kansas, central.. 
60 
85 
13, 574 
24, 263 
4,826 
21 
15 
20 
37 
