OWNERSHIP OF TENANT FARMS IN THE UNITED STATES 
41 
in the weather, in the seed, etc. The matter is complicated by changes 
in tenure which are brought about by tenant farms being sold from 
time to time to men who operate the places themselves and by owner- 
operators retiring from active farming and renting to tenants. 
The men who own rented farms are probably well fitted to speak 
authoritatively on the question of changes in the fertility of their 
farms. Information given elsewhere in this bulletin affords ample 
evidence of their mature experience. Most of them live in close 
proximity to the land which they rent to tenants, most of them have 
farmed themselves, many of them have farmed and now supervise 
the farming on the very land which they rent to tenants. 
To questions asking the number of tenants and the number of 
tenants who so farmed in 1920 as to decrease the fertility of the land, 
23,108 owners of rented farms returned answers. The replies involve 
54,474 rented farms of which 36 per cent were reported to be de- 
creasing in fertility. Owners with 2, 3, or 4 tenants reported a 
larger percentage of their tenants to be farming in a destructive 
way than owners with 1 tenant. Owners with 5 or more tenants 
were less optimistic about the fertility of their farms than owners 
with fewer tenants. The fertility of tenant farms is decreasing more 
generally in the South than it is in the North, and in the North it is 
decreasing more generally in the States of the Great Plains than in 
the States to the east (Table 26). 
Table 26. — Tendency with regard tc 
fertility on rented f 
arms, selected 
areas, 
1920 1 
Location 
Owners studied 
* 
Percentage of rented farms de- 
creasing in fertility classified 
as to number of farms owned 
by landlords 
States 
Counties 
Total 
Rented 
farms 
owned 
Rented 
acres 
owned 
All 
farms 
1 farm 
2, 3, or 
4 farms 
5 or 
Total 
Group 2 
more 
farms 
r Northeastern 
Number 
31 
64 
30 
50 
Number 
1-4, 15, 16 
5-11 
12-14, 28, 29 
17-27, 30 
Number 
3,391 
10, 974 
3,632 
4,596 
Number 
5,200 
18,768 
7,066 
21, 370 
Thou- 
sands 
537 
2,727 
1,671 
1,047 
Per cent 
17 
17 
45 
56 
Per cent 
15 
13 
28 
37 
Per cent 
18 
16 
37 
41 
Per cent 
21 
North Central i 
29 
t Great Plains . 
51 
Southern 
63 
fc All areas studied 3 
184 
1-31 
23, 108 
54,474 
6,177 
86 
18 
27 
55 
1 Replies to questionnaires. 
2 See footnote 4, p. 3. 
3 Includes the California area and a few scattered reports. 
In various sections of the country different types of farming are 
followed, and in the same locality many farmers handle the land 
about the same whether they own it or rent. Tenancy generally 
thrives better in a locality suited to crop farming than it does in one 
where livestock raising is the principal enterprise. It is more diffi- 
cult to maintain fertility where crops are sold than where they are 
fed. In many such localities, however, the farming practice of the 
owner farmers is similar to that of the tenants. Where farm practice 
has due regard to the conservation of soil fertility, tenants have often 
proved themselves capable farmers, following practices more likely 
to maintain fertility than practices followed by owner operators in 
localities where crops are sold. 
