OWNERSHIP OF TENANT FARMS IX NORTH CENTRAL STATES 7 
The parcels indexed for 1920 averaged 175.4 acres. For the 85 
counties of the areas indexed for ownership, the average acreage 
owned by each landlord and rented to tenants was 210 in 1920, as 
compared with 152 for the landlords owning rented farms in the 
entire North Central States in 1900. 
A fourth of the landlords of the 85 counties studied in connection 
with the 1920 census had less than 100 acres of rented farm land 
In 1900, 44 per cent of the landlords resident in the North Central 
States owned less than 100 acres of rented farm land. In 1920 a 
third of the rented acreage indexed for ownership in the 85 counties 
studied was in the hands of landlords with less than 200 rented acres. 
In 1900, 46 per cent of the acreage owned by residents of the North 
Central States was in the hands of landlords with less than 200 
rented acres. (Table 2.) 
Table 2. — Concentration of ownership of rented farm acreage, North Central 
States, 1900 and 1920 l 
Total studied 
Percentage distribution by number of rented acres held 
item and year 
Less 
than 
100 
acres 
Less 
than 
200 
acres 
200 or 
more 
acres 
500 or 
more 
acres 
1,000 
or 
more 
acres 
2,500 
or 
more 
acres 
Total 
studied 
Landlords: 
1900 
Number 
474, 894 
71, 365 
570, 195 
85,437 
72, 928, 715 
14, 987, 608 
Dollars 
2, 633, 833, 028 
2, 902, 471, 207 
Per cent 
44.06 
24.98 
38.20 
20.96 
14.93 
7.17 
18.60 
7.68 
Per cent 
77.74 
63.24 
69.20 
53.58 
46.36 
33.38 
51.45 
36.63 
Per cent 
22.26 
36.76 
30.80 
46.42 
53.64 
66.62 
48.55 
63.37 
Per cent 
2.96 
6.98 
8.12 
14.68 
18.00 
25.84 
14.00 
21.92 
Per cent 
0.62 
1.45 
3.16 
5.02 
7.88 
9.56 
5.26 
7.62 
Per cent 
0.08 
.17 
.87 
1.61 
2.97 
2.89 
1.55 
2.37 
Per cent 
100 
1920 
100 
Eented farms: 
1900 
100 
1920 
100 
Acres in rented farms: 
1900 
100 
1920 
100 
Value of rented farm land and 
buildings: 
1900 
100 
1920 
100 
1 The 1900 figures are for farm landlords resident in the North Central States and concern rented farms 
owned anywhere in the United States; the 1920 figures are for farm landlords owning rented farms in one 
or more of 85 counties. 
Between 1900 and 1920 there was an increase in the per acre 
value of farm land and buildings in the North Central States of 249 
per cent, and on this basis the holdings of rented farms in the North 
Central States which averaged $5,533 per landlord in 1900, would 
have been worth $19,306 in 1920 with no change in acreage. (Table 
11.) In the 85 counties indexed for ownership in 1920 land and 
buildings per rented farm averaged $34,450 in 1920 as compared 
with $22,734 in the North Central States as a whole. The average 
value of the holdings of rented farms in the hands of the landlords 
owning in the selected 85 counties in 1920 was $40,554. In view of 
the fact that the rented farms in the 85 counties studied in 1920 had 
a considerably higher average value than rented farms in the North 
Central States as a whole, it seems probable that the average holdings 
of landlords of the North Central States was something less than 
that for the 85 counties studied but still somewhat more than the 
$19,306 average which one might expect using 1900 figures and the 
rate of increase in farm values since that year. 
