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TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. The Growth of the Total Population and of the Population Engaged in Agriculture, Illinois, 1820-1910........

II. The Number of Farms and of Acres in Farms, Total and Improved, Illinois, 1850-1910

III. The Percentage of Operators Belonging to Ten-Year Age-
Groups, Illinois, 1890-1910

LIST OF SHADED COUNTY OUTLINE MAPS OF ILLINOIS

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I. The Percentage of Farms Operated by Tenants, 1880....... II. The Percentage of Farms Operated by Tenants, 1890 III. The Percentage of Farms Operated by Tenants, 1900.. IV. The Percentage of Farms Operated by Tenants, 1910 V. The Percentage of Farm Acreage Operated by Tenants, 1910.. 57 VI. The Percentage of Farm Acreage Operated under Lease by Part Owners, 1910

VII. The Percentage of Farm Acreage Operated under Lease by Tenants and Part Owners, 1910........

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VIII. The Percentage of Farm Acreage Operated by Owners
Proper, 1910

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IX. The Percentage of Land Area in Farms, 1910......
X. The Average Number of Acres per Farm, 1910.........................----

XI. The Average Value of Land and Buildings per Acre, 1880...... 76
XII. The Average Value of Land and Buildings per Acre, 1910...... 77
XIII. The Percentage of Increase in the Value of Land and Build-
ings per Acre, 1900-1910.....

79 XIV. The Percentage of Tenant Farms Rented for Cash, 1910........ 84 XV. The Percentage of Owners (and Part Owners) Operating under Mortgage Encumbrance

XVI. The Percentage of the Value of Mortgaged Farms Represented by the Mortgage Debt, 1910.

XVII. The Direction and Percentage of Change in the Number of Inhabitants Dwelling Outside of Incorporated Places, 1900-1910

XVIII. The Average Value of Buildings per Acre.........

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CHAPTER I

A SKETCH OF LAND TENURE IN THE UNITED STATES

From the earliest date of colonization the land in the territory of the United States has been held under a system of tenure distinguished for its simplicity. The feudal tenure of Europe never obtained much footing in the United States and was influential chiefly in that Americans reacted against it.1 In place of a complicated system of legal fictions and customary relations and charges, the land system of the United States may be said to consist simply of two forms: ownership; and tenancy, whether on a cash, share, or combined basis. The ownership is that which is known technically as allodial, that is, ownership in fee simple, free from any requirement of rent or service and from any other restriction except that reserved by the state in its right to tax, to exercise police power, and to force sales by virtue of the power of eminent domain.

Between the years 1782 and 1790, six of the seven confederated states which had claims to lands west of the Appalachian mountains had their cessions accepted by congress.2 This laid upon Congress the responsibility of disposing of the Western lands. Congress in 1785 and 1787 passed resolutions which established the foundations of the national land policy. The principles laid down were that the land should be alienated by the government to settlers; that non-resident land owners should not be taxed higher than resident land owners; that the New England rectangular system should be employed; that the lands should be surveyed prior to settlement, and sold in small minimum parcels at low prices; that registry should be cheap, and conveyance simple; that the property of persons dying intestate should be equally distributed among the children. These provisions, together with the abundance of the lands, have 1See article by Taylor, H. C., in Cyclopedia of American Agriculture, IV, 174-175.

2New York, 1782; Virginia, 1784; Massachusetts, 1785; Connecticut, 1786, and North Carolina, 1790. The offer of Georgia was made and rejected in 1788 and a satisfactory agreement was not reached until 1802. See Treat, P. J., The National Land System, 1785-1820, 15.

exercised a most democratic influence upon the agricultural, social and political life of the nation.3

The public domain of the United States grew by conquest and purchase at a most phenomenal rate. To the quarter of a million acres ceded by the states prior to 1803 there was added to the public domain in that year over three quarters of a million acres. Acquisitions in Florida and in the Southwest increased the public domain by a half billion acres, and the Alaskan purchase brought the total land acreage owned by the United States government to nearly two billion.*

These lands were disposed of at a rate sometimes appalling.5 During the period, 1831 to 1840, the annual acreage sold exceeded six million on the average. During the next forty years the land sold averaged two-thirds that amount annually. From 1881 to 1888 over twelve million acres left the hands of the government in an average year.

From 1888 to 1900, the annual amount of land taken up underwent a rapid decline, however, and since 1900 very little of the public domain has been sold or given away.

Under such conditions there is little wonder that during the earlier days the major part of the population devoted itself to agriculture. The census enumerations show that in 1820, 83.0, and in 1840, 77.5 percent of the "occupied" population was engaged in agriculture."

Not only did agriculture employ the energy of the larger part of the American people up to the middle of the last century, but the greater part of the free farm families was undoubtedly in full ownership of their farms and homes. The land was taken up, in most cases, in tracts of a size suitable for almost every one to own a farm, and the owners were usually in such an economic condition that they needed the full return from their land instead of the small fraction which they could receive as rental incomes. Furthermore, urban life had not developed to a point where land owners were induced on any great scale to leave their farms so as to reside in the cities. Under such conditions, even though farm rents were low, tenancy had only a small place in American agriculture.

The path to land ownership needed at most to have no more than three stages, that of farm laborer, followed by a period of Ibid., ch. II.

4Sato, Shosuke: History of the Land Question in the United States, 6. Taylor, H. C. Syllabus of Lectures on Agricultural Economics, 78. Census, 1900, Occupations, xxx.

operating leased land, and ending in the ownership of one or more farms. The passage from a propertyless to a propertied condition was one almost certain in its possibility of accomplishment by any able-bodied, industrious individual. In many cases, the laborer entered land directly without having to pass through the tenant status. Where tenancy was resorted to as a step to land ownership, it was a status from which the individual could usually rise in a few years.

THE TREND OF TENURE, 1850 TO 1880

Whether tenancy was becoming more or less prevalent during the generation before 1880 is a question. The estimates and opinions on tenancy before 1880 are hard to free from the prejudice prevailing when they were expressed.

Possibly the most definite opinions offered on the trend of tenure in the United States before 1880 are those of Dr. L. G. Powers who supplied some statistics on land tenure for the period, 1850 to 1870. Dr. Powers also gave some statistical estimates for the year, 1880, which bear some relation to the tenure statistics of the census of that date. The estimates he gave are as follows:

STATISTICAL ESTIMATES OF LAND TENURE IN THE UNITED STATES, 1850-1880, AFTER L. G. POWERS.8

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From these estimates it appears that the increase in the number of farm owning families was over twice as great as the increase in the number of families of tenants and laborers, (including slaves in 1850). The percentage of farm families "The American Statistical Association Publications, Vol. V, 329-344. American Statistical Association Publications, V, 344

"An error of 1000 was made in these figures.

10This is 300,000 in excess of the number of tenant farms as reported by the Tenth census.

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