OWNERSHIP OF TENANT FARMS IN NORTH CENTRAL STATES 35 
tenths of the landlords in every area and with over nine-tenths of 
the Iowa and Dakota landlords. 
Owners who inherited all of their land rented a larger proportion 
of it to tenants than did owners who purchased all of their acreage. 
Of the owners who acquired their land altogether by inheritance, 
88 per cent rented all of it to tenants, whereas 78 per cent of the 
owners who acquired their land entirely by purchase rented all of it 
to tenants. (Table 30.) 
Table 30. — Mode of acquisition in relation to the proportion of owned acreage 
rented to tenants, landlords owning rented farms, eight North Central States, 1920 
Owners reporting 
Acreage rented to tenants 
Owners 
who 
Method of acquisition 
Men 
Women 
Total 
Men 
Women 
rented 
all their 
land to 
tenants 
Purchase exclusively 
Number 
8,165 
777 
Number 
839 
767 
Per cent 
86.7 
92.8 
Per cent 
85.8 
90.2 
Per cent 
96.0 
95.4 
Per cent 
77.9 
Inheritance exclusively. .. 
87.9 
KINSHIP OF LANDLORDS AND TENANTS 
To the extent that farm tenants are the kinsmen of those from 
whom they rent it is necessary to modify the usual impressions on 
•the question of the character of farm tenancy. Up to this time 
relatively little statistical information has been available on the ex- 
tent to which farm tenants rent from men to whom they are related 
by blood or marriage. On this question, 14,222 landlords of rented 
farms made answer. Of these landlords 56 per cent reported that 
none of their tenants were kinsmen. Kinsmen of the other landlords 
rented 34 per cent of the 25,606 rented farms owned by the 14,222 
landlords who reported on the question of kinship. Sons or sons-in- 
law occupied 29 per cent of the farms owned and they constituted 
85 per cent of the tenants related to landlords. (Table 31.) 
If these percentages may be used as representative of conditions 
throughout the North Central States, where, in 1920, 31.1 per cent of 
the farmers were reported to be tenants, it would appear that only 
20.5 per cent of the farmers were tenants unrelated to their landlords 
by blood or marriage, and only 22.1 per cent were tenants who were 
not sons or sons-in-law of their landlords. 
Of the North Central States, there is the least tenancy in Wiscon- 
sin and Michigan, and apparently in those States many of the ten- 
ants are related to their landlords. From the replies of landlords 
owning in the Wisconsin area it would appear that 42 per cent of the 
farm tenants are related to their landlords. This is interesting in 
view of the fact that in 1920 only 14.4 per cent of the farmers of 
Wisconsin were tenants. In Michigan 17.7 per cent of the farmers 
were tenants in 1920, and landlords owning in Michigan indicated 
by their replies that 36 per cent of the tenants are related to them. 
In Illinois where 42.7 per cent of the farmers were tenants in 1920 it 
appears from replies of owners of rented farms in that State that 37 
per cent of the tenants are relatives of the landlords (fig. 15). 
