38 
BULLETIN 1432, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
In the discussion which follows inheritance and gift are treated 
under the heading " inheritance," while purchase, trade, and fore- 
closure are treated under the heading " purchase." 
Presuming that the landlords who reported were representative in 
respect to the way in which they acquired land, the replies indicate 
that of the land held by owners of rented farms 79 per cent was ac- 
quired by purchase, 16 per cent by inheritance, 3 per cent by marriage, 
and 2 per cent by homesteading. It appears that 64 per cent of the 
landlords acquired all of their land by purchase and 84 per cent partly, 
if not all, by purchase. The landlords who acquired all of their land 
by inheritance were 11 per cent of the total number, an additional 
16 per cent acquiring part of their land by inheritance. Marriage 
was mentioned as the sole way in which land was acquired by 3 per 
cent of the owners reporting, but an additional 4 per cent obtained 
some land by marriage. In 2 per cent of the cases all the land owned 
Methods by which Owners of Rented Farms 
acquired their land 
Male and Female Owners Compared 
MEN 
2% 
) I Purchase 
WOMEN 
Inheritance 
Marriaae X///A Homesteadinq 
Fig. 16.— Fourteen per cent of the land owned by male owners and 58 per cent of the land owned by female 
owners of rented farms had been acquired by inheritance or marriage:and 2 per cent of the land of each 
class by homesteading, the remainder having been purchased. It should be noted, however, that these 
figures make no allowance for the fact that a part of the wealth used to purchase farms was acquired 
by inheritance, marriage, or gift. The 20,291 male owners who replied owned a total of 7,257,578 acres 
the 3,672 women who replied owned 865,250 acres. The area of the circles are proportionate to the acre- 
ages reported 
had been homesteaded and in an additional 3 per cent of the cases 
some land had been obtained by homesteading. 
Considerable difference is shown between the two sexes in regard 
to the manner in which the land owned was acquired. The men 
had acquired 84 per cent of their land by purchase and only 12 per 
cent by inheritance, whereas the women reported only 40 per cent of 
their acreage to have been purchased and 44 per cent to have been 
inherited (fig. 16) . 12 Women are much less likely to buy land than 
men and of the land held by women a relatively large proportion has 
been acquired by gift, inheritance, or marriage, and a small propor- 
tion by purchase. Women had acquired 14 per cent of their acreage 
by marriage, whereas only 2 per cent of the acreage owned by men 
was reported to have been so acquired. It is probable that in the 
i 2 The figure originally appeared on p. 536 of the 1923 Yearbook, in the article "Land Ownership and 
Tenancy." 
