The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-02-01
By DWIO

either failed to produce crops or met with disaster through lack of market outlets or adequate marketing ar engagements.
 Owners Needed.
 It is particularly vital that, by every feasible means, the processes of acquiring ownership of farms be encouraged and hastened. This pro- cess Is real in spite of appearances to the contrary, It has been too gen. orally assumed and represented that tenancy has increased at the expense of ownership and that we are wit messing agricultural deterioration in this direction. Tenancy does present aspects which should cause great con- Cern, but it's bright sides have not been sufficiently considered. The slG- Iation does not warrant a pessimistic conclusion.
 In the 30 years from 1880 to 1919 the number of farms in the United States increased from 4,000,000 to G. 362, 900, the number of those owned from 2,984, ,O00 to 4,007, 900, a gain of 1,023,000, or 34.3 per cent, and the number operated by tenants from l. G25,000 to 2,355,00O, gain of 1,S30,- 900, or 129.9 per cent,
 But in 1910, five-eighths of the farms and 8 per cent. of the acreage of all land in farms. were operated by owners and 65 per cent. of the i'm proved land. The number of farms increased, faster than the agricuI- tural population. The only class not operating farms who could take them up were the younger men, and it is | largely from them that the class of tenants has been recruited.
 Conditions Improve. In a recent study of the cases of | 5000 farmers. mainly in the Middle Western States lying in the Mississip- l pt Valley, it was found that more l than 90 per cent. were brought up on | farms; that 31 1-3 per cent. remained | on their fathers farms until they be- came owners and 27 per cent. until | they became tenants, then owners; ] that 12 1-2 per cent. passed from wage earners to ownership, skipping | the tenant stage; and that IS per cent. were first farm boys, then wage earners, later tenants, and finally | owners.
 | It is stated, on the basis of census statistics, that 76 per cent of the farmers under 25 years of age are tenants, while the percentage falls with age, so that among those 55 years old and above only 20 per cent. are tenants.
 In the older sections of the country l (except in the South, which has a 1 large negro pepuiation1, that is, in the New England and Middle Allan tic States, the tenant farmers formed a smaller proportion in 1910 than in I 1900. This is also the case with the | Rocky Mountain and Pacific Di- visions, where there has been a rela- tive abundance of lands. The con- ditions on the whole, therefore, are not in the direction of deterioration but of improvement. The process has 1 been one of emergence of wage la borers and sons of farmers first to tenancy and then to ownership.
 The legislative steps that have been | taken to promote better credit terms | for farmers will have a tendency to hasten this process. The operation | of the farm-loan system, through ar | engagements by which those who have sold lands take a second mortgage subordinate to the first mortgage of the farmland banks, carrying a rel atively low rate of interest, will have a beneficial influence. If further de- velopments can be made through the application of the principle of cooper ation especially in the formation of I personal-credit unions, the conditions
 will be more favorable. In the mean
 time special attention and study
 should be given to the terms of ten-
 ancy, including the lease contract
 with a view to increase the interest
 both of the landlord and of the ten 1 ant in soil improvement and to make sure that there is an equitable di-
 vision of the income.