OWNERSHIP OF TENANT FARMS IN NORTH CENTRAL STATES 11 
The distribution of the ownership of rented farms by area and 
value must be interpreted somewhat in the light of differences in the 
average size and value of farms in the various regions studied. 
(Table 7.) In value the farms of the Iowa and Illinois areas were 
highest, but in acreage the farms of northwestern Iowa, the Dakotas, 
and Kansas were largest. The average acreage held was largest in 
the areas where the farms were the largest and the average value of 
the rented property was highest in areas where the rented farms 
averaged highest in value. 
Table 7. — Average size and value of rented farms and of holdings of rented farms in 
areas indexed for ownership, North Central States, 1920 
Averages for areas studied 
State aver- 
ages for 
rented farms 
State 
Acreage 
Value 
Coun- 
ties 
Location in State 
All 
rented 
farms 
Par- 
cels 
in- 
dexed 
Land- 
lords' 
hold- 
ings 
All 
rented 
farms 
Parcels 
indexed 
Land- 
lords' 
hold- 
ings 
Size 
Value 
Ohio 
Number 
11 
11 
10 
8 
6 
7 
11 
10 
1 
10 
Western _ 
Acres 
107 
164 
173 
118 
132 
192 
167 
} 406 
272 
Acres 
99 
159 
164 
116 
129 
187 
161 
383 
245 
Acres 
115 
189 
215 
120 
138 
238 
193 
447 
301 
Dollars 
16, 398 
38, 347 
54, 854 
10, 551 
19, 275 
55, 315 
44, 595 
29, 828 
22, 198 
Dollars 
15, 529 
37, 436 
51, 625 
10, 633 
19, 061 
53, 952 
43, 099 
28, 445. 
20, 021 
Dollars 
17, 978 
44,518 
67, 685 
11,091 
20, 409 
68, 779 
51, 664 
33, 152 
24,538 
Acres 
105 
148 
Dollars 
13, 243 
31, 068 
Do 
Central 
South central 
Southern 
Northwestern 
Central . 
Michigan 
Wisconsin 
Iowa . 
112 
138 
167 
9,504 
15, 137 
38, 898 
Do 
/ 429 
\ 368 
252 
20, 713 
South Dakota.. 
Kansas _ 
Northeastern 
Central 
35, 869 
16, 835 
The average size of the tenant farms in a given State or area also 
has much to do with the variation between States and areas in respect 
to the proportion of the rented acreage held by owners of a given 
number of acres. In North Dakota, where rented farms averaged 
347 acres in 1900, 40.8 per cent of the acreage was held by landlords 
who had 500 acres or more of rented land. On the other hand, in 
Ohio, where rented farms averaged only 92.7 acres in 1900, only 8.4 
per cent of the rented acreage was held by landlords who owned 500 
rented acres or more, while similar small proportions of the rented 
acreages were held by such landlords who were resident in Michigan 
and Wisconsin. 
In 1920, because of the increase in the average size of tenant farms 
and the fact that tenant farms indexed in the areas studied were 
somewhat larger than the tenant farms throughout the States con- 
taining the areas, the percentage of the rented acreage held by land- 
lords with 500 acres or more was somewhat larger than for the corre- 
sponding States in 1900. In the Dakota area over half the acreage 
was in the hands of persons with 500 or more acres, in Kansas about 
three-eighths, in central Illinois and in northwestern Iowa about 
one-fourth. (Table 8.) 
