OWNERSHIP OF TEXAXT FARMS IN NORTH CENTRAL STATES 17 
Residence of landlord in relation to rented farm land owned was 
first studied in connection with the census of 1900. At that time 
rented farms were separated into two groups according to form of 
rent paid, cash or share. For each group the farms concerning which 
the residence of the owners was known were further divided into three 
groups according as the owner was resident in the county, in the 
State but not the county, or resident out of the State. 8 
For the counties for which ownership of rented farms as of 1920 was 
indexed, no distinction was made between cash and share rented 
farms. Farms were grouped according to whether they were owned 
by residents of the county, residents of the adjoining counties in and 
out of the State, residents of nonadjoining counties in and out of the 
State, and residents of nonadjoining States. The second grouping is 
significant because frequently owners reside rather near their rented 
farm or farms, though in an adjoining county. Landlords who 
answered the questionaire gave further information pertaining to the 
number of tenants who lived within 3 miles of the landlord's residence. 
In the matter of residence the post-office address of the landlord 
was considered in relation to the county containing the rented tract. 
It does not necessarily follow that a landlord whose post-office 
address is in an adjoining county, or even in an adjoining State does 
not live in the same county as the farm. This anomalous situation 
may arise in the case of a landlord hving near a county or State line 
but getting mail from a town just over the county or State line. 
Contrariwise, a landlord who gets mail from a town located in the 
county in which his farm is located may not live in that county or 
State but just over the line. 
A preponderant proportion of the rented farms, rented acreage, 
and value of rented farms was owned by residents living in the same 
county. This was true both in 1920 for the 85 counties studied and 
in 1900 for the entire North Central States. The percentage of each 
of these factors owned by residents hving in the same county was 
about the same and a study of absenteeism based on number of farms 
would tell much the same story as a study based on acreage or value 
of rented property. 
Of the rented farms in the 85 counties indexed for ownership in 
1920, 73.7 per cent were owned by landlords resident in the county. 
These farms contained 70 per cent of the acreage indexed and were 
worth 72.3 per cent of the value of the farms indexed. The per- 
centages for 1900 for the North Central States as a whole were much 
the same as the corresponding percentages for the 8q counties in the 
1920 study. (Table 15.) 
Farms owned by landlords resident in the county or in adjoining 
counties constituted 89.2 per cent of the number, 85.6 per cent of 
the acreage, and 87.9 per cent of the value for the 1920 study. For 
the same study farms owned by landlords resident in the State or 
5 In using statistics on residence one point deserves consideration, because of its tendency to bias the 
results. This is the question of the representativeness of the rented farms, the residence of whose owners 
is unreported. It seems very probable that a larger proportion of these farms unreported as to residence 
of owner are owned by landlords whose residence is relatively remote than is the case with rented farms 
owned by landlords of reported residence. The census of 1900 shows that of the rented farms in the North 
Central States which were owned by persons whose post-office address was in the same county as the farm, 
32.3 per cent were rented for cash. Of the farms owned by landlords not resident in the same State as the 
farm, 38.9 per cent were rented for cash. It is significant that 3S.9 per cent of the farms owned by landlords 
of unknown address were rented for cash. 
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