Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1907-05-23


twelve southern counties of Wiscon-
sin has nearly doubled in ten years,
Prof H. G. Taylor of the department
of political economy of the university.
Prof Taylor discovered number of
interesting facts, as, for instance, that
there were in 1900 69,795 farms in
the state, of which 22,996 were oper-
atted by tenants. These, with the 21,-
ZIG owners of rented farms make a
total of more than $4,000 people in
Wisconsin who are directly interested
land. Yet in comparison with the
State of Illinois, where nearly 40 per
cent of the farm lands are rented, Wis
consin's percentage of tenancy is low,
being but 1876 per cent of the total
number of farms of the state. In the
northern eighteen counties of the
state but per cent of the farms are
run by tenants. This, however, is cas-
lily explained by the relatively low
land values and the regency of settle
ment A decade has nearly doubled the
number of farms in those counties,
while in the older part of the state
there has been practically no increase
in numbers.
In the twelve, counties in the ex-
IRENE southern part of the state dur
ing the decade preceding 1900 the
number of rented farms increased
from 5,431 to 1892. The seven years
that have since elapsed, Prof. Taylor
finds. have considerably augmented
these numbers. His comparison OF
conditions of rental in these counties
for 1880 and 1900 is extremely inter
esting. He finds that in the twenty
years the number of farms rented in
Rock county increased from Fl to 35.4
per cent of the total number in the
county. In Milwaukee county the in
crease was from 14.7 to 31.2 per cent;
in Kenosha county, from 1853 to 29.1
per cent: in Walworth county, from
1876 to 29.7 per cent; in Lafayette
county, from 1873 to 27.6 per cent; in
Green county, from 14.9 to 26.5; in
Dane county, from 1871 to 1852; in Ra-
cine county, from 1873 to 24.S; in
Grant county, from 14.6 to 2O.7; in
Waukesha county, from 1873 to 20 per
cent; in Iowa county, from 1873 to
1879, and in Jefferson county, where
there was the smallest percentage OF
rented farms, it jumped from to 1872
per cent.
This rapid increase in the tenant
system of farming is not confined to
as a whole the number of rented
farms increased in the decade from
1873 to 22,996. In considering these
1900 additional rented farms, how
ever, it must be remembered that
there was an increase of 35,473 in the
number of farms of the state, SO the
increase in percentage of rental is not
so great as the decades statistics OF
rental would suggest.
Various reasons are given for the in
crease in proportion of tenant farmers
The scarcity of farm laborers is some
turning their land over to tenants.
The number of farm laborers, how
ever. increased more rapidly in the
decade under consideration than did
the number of farms. In 1880 the
farm laborers were 28S per cent of the
total number of farmers and laborers
while twenty years later that percent
age was increased from 56170 to 49,
718, while the farmers increased from
138.443 to 169, 1875, but prosperity in
creased the demand for labOrers so
that many of the farmers who former
ly did their own work wished to hire
help, and, failing to secure it, rented
the land to tenants and retired. The
same prosperity has increased the
market value of farm land so that
young men find it more difficult to be-
come owners, and another factor in
the increase of tenancy is introduced
The tenant farmers are, as rule,
Young men. 1t is unusual for farm
err to remain in the tenant class all his
life. Census statistics show that the
percentage of tenant farmers diminish
es in proportion with the advance
from the lower to the higher age peri
DDS. A chart which Prof Taylor had
made shows that but % per cent Of
the farms of the state are operated by
men under twenty-five years of age,
and of these but 23.7 are owned free,
32.5 are encountered and Al per cent
are rented That is, nearly half of
the young men occupying these farms
are tenants. In the age period cover
ed by the succeeding ten years are
farmers occupying 1913 per cent of the
farm homes of Wisconsin. These
have increased the percentage of own
ership to 284, and that of encountered
homes to 426 per cent. The number
of tenants, however, drops from Al to
26.7 per cent Men from thirty-five to
forty-four years of age operate 20 per
cent of the farms, and of these they
own free 40.5 per cent, own under en-
cumbrance 43.6 per cent and rent but
1879 per cent The advance is as
marked in the case of the men be-
tween forty-five and ffty-four years.