Land makes demands upon farmers either for capital to own it or for capital and skill to operate it. High prices for the land do not in themselves induce tenant-farming," unless the purposes to which such land may be put are such that tenants can qualify as operators. If large-scale production is at a premium on the high-priced land, then the standardization of farming method and the costliness of farm ownership may encourage tenant cultivation. In any case, financial and technical qualifications of the tenants to carry on the type of farming to which the land is adapted are prerequisite to the prevalence of tenancy. The importance to the tenant of technical knowledge and of capital goods is especially to be noted when there is a change in the type of farming prevailing in a region. The introduction of cereal growing into certain parts of the South has caused a temporary withdrawal of tenants from operation there.2 Cereal growing, where it is an established feature of the agriculture of a region, is ordinarily practiced to a high degree by tenants. As the methods of grain farming become widely known in the Southern districts introducing it and as investments in the special types of equipment become better understood, we may expect the same association of tenancy and cereal growing there as in other parts of the country. Lack of adequate capital to invest in the ownership of land tends to increase the supply of tenants when the methods of farming the land are standardized and well known. Persons with adequate knowledge of farming method seek to manage, rent or own in part-possibly under mortgage-farms for the complete and unencumbered ownership of which they lack sufficient capital. The importance of the influence of both these factors, the lack of capital for land purchase in increasing tenancy and the lack of operating capital and efficiency in decreasing tenancy, must continue to grow as heavier demands are made for capital and operating efficiency. The annual gain to the landlord from unearned increment must constitute a diminishing percentage of 41The price of land and the size of farms are given considerable emphasis in the writings of most of those treating the subject of tenancy. See particularly Taylor, H. C., Introduction to the Study of Agricultural Economics, 244-250; and Hibbard, B. H., Annals of the American Academy, XL, 29-39, and Quarterly Journal of Economics, XXV, 712-719; XXVI, 107-109, 364-369; XXVII, 483. 42Community Service Week in North Carolina, 44. the value of the land and of the total annual increase in the landlord's wealth.43 Great emphasis must, therefore, be placed upon operating efficiency in increasing farm incomes. The landlords may be expected to apply more thorough-going tests to ascertain the farming ability of tenants. This will not only tend to hold tenancy in abeyance, but will accompany a regime of better farming by those operating under all forms of tenures. TENURE AND THE EXPANSIBILITY OF THE FARM AREA Land tenure may, in a general way, be regarded as affording an expression of the relation of the population to the supply of cultivatable land. The accompanying table affords some data on this relation. From 1850 to 1880 the acreage of improved land in American farms increased 151.9 per cent, while population increased 116.3 per cent. The improved acreage per capita was 4.9 in 1850 and 5.7 in 1880. From 1880 to 1910 the population increased 83.4, while the improved farm acreage increased 68.0 PER CAPITA ACREAGE OF LAND IN FARMS, AND PERCENTAGE OF INCREASE OVER VALUE 1880-1910 1850-1880 PERCENTAGE OF INCREASE OVER THIRD PRECEDING CENSUS. 83.4 43 See below, pp. 123, 124. 44Census, 1910, V, 51, 57. percent and the improved acreage per capita declined from 5.7 to 5.2. But for an extraordinary expansion in the unimproved acreage between 1890 and 1900, the acreage of all land in farms per capita would probably have shown a tendency to decline after 1880 similar to that shown by the improved acreage. The expansion of the farm area between 1890 and 1900 was probably due, in a measure, to the belief on the part of some persons that it was best to get desirable new land before it became too late.45 From 1900 to 1910 the expansion of the farm area was hardly possible without resort to somewhat inferior types of soil. As a consequence increased attention was paid to improving the acreage already in farms. The relative increase in the ratio of improved land to all farm land was greater between 1900 and 1910 than for any decade ending after 1880. That there was an increased demand for farm products in comparison with the area supplying them is indicated by the rise in price of farm products. This affected the profits of farming and helped augment the price of farm land. The relative increase in the value of land and buildings per acre was greater during the decade, 1900 to 1910, than during any other census decade of the sixty years. The effect upon land prices was probably greatest in the case of land producing those staple products the area of whose production had previously been expanding more nearly in response to the demand for the products. The effect was not so important, therefore, in the case of cotton lands, but was very pronounced in the case of land producing the important cereals. The relation of land prices to tenure during the recent decades can be best examined, therefore, in the case of cerealgrowing districts. That will be done here for the state of Illinois. 45 The percentage of the land area in farms in 1910 was 46.2, 1900, 44.1, and 1890, 32.7. More significance is to be attached to the smallness of the increase between 1900 and 1910, perhaps, than to the fact that over half of the land had not yet been included in farms. CHAPTER II TENDENCIES IN THE AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY OF ILLINOIS It is impossible to understand the agricultural economy of a state like Illinois without keeping constantly in mind the physical features and soil conditions that give character to the state. The surface of Illinois, for the most part, slopes gently from the north to the south, except in the extreme Southern part of the state where a spur of the Ozark hills rises rather abruptly from the plains to an altitude of approximately one thousand feet. The altitude along the rivers in the Southern part of the state is about three hundred feet above sea level, in the Central part between seven and eight hundred feet, and in the Northern part about one thousand feet. PHYSIOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES The state has a variety of soils, as indicated by the soil map.1 Unglaciated areas are to be found in three portions of the state in the Southern part, where the Ozark hills appear to have obstructed the progress of the glaciers; in the point of land between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers; and in the Northwestern corner of the state. All the rest of the state has been glaciated at least once, and some sections were covered a number of times. The profound influence of the glaciers upon Illinois agriculture was exerted through their effect upon the topography and to a less extent, perhaps, upon the quality of the soil. The difference in yields per acre in the various glaciated districts is considerable, but the difference in land prices is much greater. The unglaciated regions, being more broken, are less suited to 1Hopkins, C. G., The Fertility in Illinois Soils, following 192. 2The dominant soil type in all but Southern Illinois, is a dark brown to black silty loam underlaid by a yellow gray, or drab stiff silty loam subsoil. Associated with it, and particularly in the timbered areas along the streams, is a yellow to yellowish-brown silty loam surface underlaid by a yellow silty subsoil. In Southern Illinois the deposit of loess over the underlying glacial materials is thin. The soil in Southern Illinois is principally a gray silt loam underlaid by a stiff gray silty clay. See Census, 1910, V, 897-898. cultivation by modern farm machinery and to hauling heavy loads. The glaciated regions have better water supply, and suffer less change in the fertility of the soil because of erosion.3 4 The extent of the timber growth in the various parts of the state affords a good index of the general physiographic conditions. The mere presence of natural timbers usually implies that the land is either broken or swampy. This fact alone would tend to cause the timber land to be less easily cultivated, even when cleared. There is the further fact that timber operated against the accumulation of the organic elements so important for the growing of crops. This is attested by the fact that while the productiveness of the timber land was somewhat improved after it was cleared, the distinction between the old. timber land and the old prairie land still stands out with appreciable sharpness. Just what part of the difference in fertility in different sections is due to the fact of former timber influence and what portion is to be explained by geological formation, is, of course, indeterminate. The sharpest line of demarcation between soils in Illinois, when considered from the point of view of productiveness, is found, however, where the same line divides an old timbered from an old prairie district, and at the same time a district of a later from that of an earlier glaciation. This line may be roughly indicated as running from East St. Louis to Shelbyville, the seat of Shelby county, and 3 Mosier, J. G., Effect of Glaciers on Illinois Agriculture, in Illinois Agriculturist, June, 1914, 533, 534. 4Upon the withdrawal of the last glacial sheet the assumption is that the grasses were first among the vegetable growths to cover the land of the state. The area covered by trees, first limited to the unglaciated district, came to include more and more of the glaciated soil. The previous occupation of the land by the grasses made it more difficult for the seeds of trees to get into the soil, and the fires which burnt the grass periodically tended to destroy the incipient timber growth. The organic elements which worked into the soil as a consequence of the decay of the grasses are said to have made the soil still less hospitable to the growth of timber. The hardier, scrubbier types of woodland growth could make their way somewhat better through this soil than the more characteristic types of timber. As the hardier types gained possession of the land, they reduced the hostile elements and made it possible for the other types to follow them. The expansion of the timber over the grass lands must have been very slow for it lacked much of being complete when the settlement of the prairie stopped it. Hall and Ingall, Forest Conditions in Illinois, 195. |