TENANT FARMERS IN THE UNITED STATES.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 948, 20 October 1882, Page 4

TENANT FARMERS IN THE UNITED STATES.

It is generally believed (says an American correspondent) that in the United States every fanner owns the land which he tills. .The late census, however,proves that this belief is based on a fiction. In the Southern States the major portion of the small farms are leased. This is accounted for by the presence of the negroes made free by emancipation. In the State of Illinois, out of a total of 255,741 farms, 80,244 are leased. In Michigan one-tenth of the farms in that State are leased ; in Wisconsin, one-eleventh ; in Indiana and lowa, one-fourth ; Missouri, one-fourth ; Kansas, one-sixth ; Minnesota, oneeleventh ; Nebraska, one-sixth ; Ohio, onefifth. In the. ten States there are 1,680,533 farms, of which 357,065, or onefifth of the whole, are leased to tenants. The conditions of payment arc more generally a share of the product than a fixed money rental. This seems to be just, and gives the most satisfaction, as in the case- of a bad season the lessee and lessor both suffer alike. The growth of tenant-farming in this country will be watched with increasing interest as the public lands are closed out. Then the era of speculation will begin, and large estates will spring up in spite of no aristocracy and republicanism ; no primogeniture nor entail, and no political privileges attaching to ownership of the soil, in distinction from ownership of any other kind of property, ■■■MwwaaaBWMMBWBM