30 BULLETIN 874, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
of August, 1919, the percentages for various systems of renting in 
both distticts are reduced below the percentages of 1913 and 1915, 
respectively, the percentage falling to 1.65in the Tama district and 
3.60 in the Warren district. 
It is, of course, possible that these percentages may be increased 
through the increase of rent rates. The possibility of this may be 
determined by comparing contract rents and economic rents. This 
comparison is presented in Table XVII. In the last line of the 
table is shown the estimated rent per acre that landlords must 
receive in order to have as large a percentage of return on the basis 
of land values in August, 1919, as they received in 1913 and 1915, 
respectively 
TaBLE X VII.—Comparison of economic rents and contract rents, all tenant farms. 
Tama Warren 
district. | district. 
Economic rents per acre: 
191 
ene ero eee a eS Seer Mt ee ene Om a ee en oe SASS $7309 |Seea ee 
1 alpen ie elses ae ee OS ee eS in EE San tina Semen Hoes SOM SEAS Mel S5cesccac soi 
QUES oso oss sete esses Se eee ain wis eis Ge el erece rein ys Se SIs ae See See ee 14.42 6.89 
Net contract rentsper acre: 
1 Koh Ke es eee ee ae ep ees eer eee eee ere een oe ESN ae NS Bets See on G 419s eee 
HAE Be Oe We Bae ialm wisn, Shee GS ae pee eas ier aU eI Te aye ING te RE erat | 
Ft a eae eee Aa Se oR ae Sons SES Se Se ane eas 5. 76 7.24 
Wstinaiea contract rent on basis of land values, August, 1919.........--..----.-.-.-- 8.60 11. 44 
The table shows that in the Tama-district contract rent per acre 
in 1913 averaged but little more than half the economic rent, while 
in the Warren district contract rent per acre in 1915 was also sub- 
stantially less than economic rent. The difference, of course, between 
economic rent and contract rent accrued to the tenant as a return 
for his enterprise and risk, in addition to the estimated value of his 
labor and superintendence.- In 1918 economic rent in the Tama 
district had advanced to such an extent that it was two and one-half 
times as great as contract rent. In the Warren district, however, 
as a result of poor crops, contract rent was more than 5 per cent 
higher than economic rent. In the Tama district economic rent of - 
1918 is more than sufficient to pay the same rate of return on the 
land values of August, 1919, as prevailed in 1913, but in the Warren 
district the amount necessary to pay the same rate of return on 
land values of August, 1919, is about 66 per cent greater than the 
economic rent of 1918. 
Even in the Tama district, however, if the landlords should receive 
the same percentage of return on land values of 1919 as they received 
in 1913, the labor income of tenants would have to be $2.84 per acre 
less than it was in 1918. This would reduce the tenant’s labor 
income to an average of $2,421 as compared with $1,315 in 1913. 
Considering the change in the. purchasing power of money during 
the period, the tenant would probably have a smaller real income. 
