Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1906-1908, 1907-05-17
TENANT FARMERS
ARE ON INCREASE
RENTED FARMS IN SOUTHERN
COUNTIES DOUBLED IN
TWELVE YEARS.
TAYLOR'S INTERESTING PAPER
Professor Finds Young Men Exceed Old
Men Ten Times Over in Number
as Leasers of Soil.

/ MADlSijN, " lS., May Ill Special /
The number Of rented farms in the !
twelve southern counties Of Wisconsin !
has nearly doubled in ten years, accord
ing to Investigations made by Prof. II. |
&. Taylor Of the department Of political
economy Of the university.
Prof. Taylor discovered u number Of
interesting facts, as, for instance, that
there were in 1900 100, 79J farms in the
state, Df which 1885 were operated by
tenants. These with the 21,216 owners
Of rented farms make Il total OF more
/ than HOOD people in Wisconsin who
are directly interested in the present
methods OF letting farm land. Yet in
comparison with the state Of Illinois. |
where nearly 10 per cent. Of the farm
lands are rented, Wsconsin'S percentage
OF tenancy is low, being but 13.j per cent
OF the total nlmbcE 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 easily
| explained by the relatively low land val
ues and the regency of settlement. \
decade has nearly doubled the number
Of farms i'll those counties, while in the
older part Of the state there has been
practically no increase i'll numbers. ,
Increase in Southern Counties
In the twelve counties in the extreme
cade preceding 1900 the number of
rented farms increased from 5431 to
JOB. The seven years that have since
elapsed, Prof Taylor finds. have con-
sIderabiy augmented these numbers. His
| comparison Of conditions of rental in
these counties for 1880 and 1900 is ex-
tremcly interesting. He finds that in the
| twenty years the number of farms
rented in Rock county increased from
y to 35.4 per cent. Of the total number
III the county. In Milwaukee county the
increase was from III to b. per cent;
i'll kenOsha county, from 1863 to 29.1 per
cent; in Walworth county, from 80 to
29.7 per cent; in Lafayette county, from
1873 to 2l.6 per cent; i'll Green county,
from l4.9 to 26.5; in Dane county, from
| 10.T to 26.2; III Racine county from l3.3
to 24S; il Grant county, from 1916 to
POI: in Waukesha county, from 1873 to
20 per cent; i'll Iowa county, from 1913
to 1879; and in Jefferson county, where
there was the smallest percentage OF
rented farms it jumped from 8 to 49,
per cent.
This rapid increase in the tenant sys-
TEN Of farming is not confined to these
southern counties. In the state as a
whole the number of rented farms in
creased in the decade from 12,1o9 to
22,996. III considering these 1000 adj
ditiOnal rented farms, however, it must
be remembered that there was an in
crease of 80, 4I3 in the number of farms
of the state. so the increase in percent
age of rental is not SO great as the de
cadeSS statistics of rental would Sug
geSt.
Some Causes of Change.
Various reasons are given for the in
crease in the proportion of tenant far
mCrs The scarcity of farm labOrerS Is
| sometimes named as the cause for own
ers turning their land over to tenants.
The number of farm labOrerS, however,
4 IDprp9 sod ranillV the decade n
der consideration than did the number
of farms. In 1880 the farm laborers
Were 2S.S per cent of the total number
of farmers and laborers. while twenty
years later that percentage was in
creased from J6 10 to 93,11S, while the
farmers increased from 1873, 443 to 169,-
/ 19o. but prosperity increased the demand
for laborers so that many of the farmers
who formerly did their own work wished
to hire help, and, failing to secure II,
rented the land to tenants and retired.
The same prosperity has increased the
market value of farm land 50 that young
men find it more difficult to become own
erS, and another factor i'll the increase
of tenancy is introduced.
The tenant farmers are, as Il rule,
young men. 1t is unusual for a farmer
to remain in the tenant class all his life.
Census statistics show that the percent
age of tenant farmers dimniSheS in pro-
portion with the advance from the lower
to the higher age periods. A chart which
Prof Taylor had made shows that but
ID per cent. of the farms of the state
are operated by men under % years of
age, and of these but 23.I are owned
free, Sd 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 covered
by the succeeding ten years are farmers
occupying 1913 per cent. of the farm
homes of Wisconsin. These have in
cod tho nprppnt1pp of nWuprShln IN
2S4 and that of encountered homes to
426 per cent. The number of tenants,
however, drops from II to 26.T per cent.
Men ,ra.n ) - - years Of ice operate
- per cent. OF the farms, and Of these
they own free 400 per cent, own under
! enCumbranCe 43.6 per cent. and rent but
1870 per cent. The advanced is as
marked in the case of the men between
~ and u years. 1hey occupy % per
cent. of the farms, and of these own
free 40 per cent. with 400 more under
circumference, and only 50 per cent.
rented. Farmers from - to GA years
hold 16 per cent of the farms, 80 per
cent Of these considerably more than
half are owned free, while 34.5 are en-
numbered. and but % per cent. are held
! as tenant farms. Men more then GA
years old are occupying ID per cent. Of
Wisconsin's farms, owning free from
! circumference 6S.S per cent. Of these,
and holding 24 per cent. more encum-
bered, with only IL per cent. as tenants
Thus it is shown that the percentage of
tenancy of farmers from % TO 81 years
4 Of age decreases from Al to Al per
cent In other words, there are exactly
ten times as many young men among
the tenants as old men. These figures
point toward the fact that there is no
i permanent tenant class in Wisconsin,
! but that young men gradually pass
through the successive stages of hired
men. tenant farmers. owners under en-
F.. cumbrancC. and full landowners.
i What the Results Will Be.
/ Tenancy is thus made Il stopping
stone leading to independence. That it
shall continue TO be such. and not him
] drance to ownership. depends largely on
the adjustment of conditions between
i tenants and owners. If with the increas-
] ing values of land, owners should de-
! mand an increasingly larger proportion
of the proceeds of the farm as rent. so
that the tenants income becomes less
and less in proportion to the land value.
the period required to gain possession
will be heightened that i'll time it
, might be in Wisconsin as it now is in
England that would cease to attempt
20 buy the land and tenancy become the
rule.
hSn-,+an fau5Tnrtlisr, * almost m