The most interesting change of which the Census gives account is the
increase in the number of farms. The number has virtually doubled within
twenty years. The population of the country has not increased in like
proportion. A large part of the increase in number of farms has been due
to the division of great estates. Nor has this occurred, as some may
imagine, exclusively in the Southern States and the States to which
immigration and migration have recently been directed. It is an
important fact that the multiplication of farms has continued even in
the older Northern States, though the change has not been as great in
these as in States of the far West or the South. In New York there has
been an increase of 25,000, or 11.5 per cent, in the number of farms
since 1870; in New Jersey the increase has been 12.2 per cent., and in
Pennsylvania 22.7 per cent., though the increase in population, and
doubtless in the number of persons engaged in farming, has been much
smaller. Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois also, have been considered fully
settled States for years, at least in an agricultural point of view, and
yet the number of farms has increased 26.1 per cent, in ten years in
Ohio, 20.3 percent, in Indiana, and 26.1 per cent, in Illinois. The
obvious explanation is that the growth of many cities and towns has
created a market for a far greater supply of those products which may be
most advantageously grown upon farms of moderate size; but even if this
fully accounts for the phenomenon, the change must be recognized as one
of the highest importance industrially, socially, and politically. The
man who owns or rents and cultivates a farm stands on a very different
footing from the laborer who works for wages. It is not a small matter
that, in these six States alone, there are 205,000 more owners or
managers of farms than there were only a decade ago.
As we go further toward the border, west or north, the influence of the
settlement of new land is more distinctly felt. Even in Michigan, where
new railroads have opened new regions to settlement, the increase in
number of farms has been over 55 per cent. In Wisconsin, though the
increase in railroad mileage has been about the same as in Michigan, the
reported increase in number of farms has been only 28 per cent., but in
Iowa it rises to 60 per cent., and in Minnesota to nearly 100 per cent.
In Kansas the number of farms is 138,561, against 38,202 in 1870; in
Nebraska 63,387, against 12,301; and in Dakota 17,435, against 1,720. In
these regions the process is one of creation of new States rather than a
change in the social and industrial condition of the population.
Some Southern States have gained largely, but the increase in these,
though very great, is less surprising than the new States of the
Northwest. The prevailing tendency of Southern agriculture to large
farms and the employment of many hands is especially felt in States
where land is still abundant. The greatest increase is in Texas, where
174,184 farms are reported, against 61,125 in 1870; in Florida, with
23,438 farms, against 10,241 in 1870; and in Arkansas, with 94,433
farms, against 49,424 in 1870. In Missouri 215,575 farms are reported,
against 148,228 in 1870. In these States, though social changes have
been great, the increase in number of farms has been largely due to new
settlements, as in the States of the far Northwest. But the change in
the older Southern States is of a different character.
Virginia, for example, has long been settled, and had 77,000 farms
thirty years ago. But the increase in number within the past ten years
has been 44,668, or 60.5 per cent. Contrasting this with the increase in
New York, a remarkable difference appears. West Virginia had few more
farms ten years ago than New Jersey; now it has nearly twice as many,
and has gained in number nearly 60 per cent. North Carolina, too, has
increased 78 per cent. in number of farms since 1870, and South Carolina
80 per cent. In Georgia the increase has been still greater--from 69,956
to 138,626, or nearly 100 per cent. In Alabama there are 135,864
farms, against 67,382 in 1870, an increase of over 100 per cent. These
proportions, contrasted with those for the older Northern States, reveal
a change that is nothing less than an industrial revolution. But the
force of this tendency to division of estates has been greatest in the
States named. Whereas the ratio of increase in number of farms becomes
greater in Northern States as we go from the East toward the Mississippi
River, at the South it is much smaller in Kentucky, Tennessee,
Mississippi, and Louisiana than in the older States on the Atlantic
coast. Thus in Louisiana the increase has been from 28,481 to 48,292
farms, or 70 per cent., and in Mississippi from 68,023 to 101,772 farms,
or less than 50 per cent., against 100 in Alabama and Georgia. In
Kentucky the increase has been from 118,422 to 166,453 farms, or 40 per
cent., and in Tennessee from 118,141 to 165,650 farms, or 40 per cent.,
against 60 in Virginia and West Virginia, and 78 in North Carolina.
Thus, while the tendency to division is far greater than in the Northern
States of corresponding age, it is found in full force only in six of
the older Southern States, Alabama, West Virginia, and four on the
Atlantic coast. In these, the revolution already effected foreshadows
and will almost certainly bring about important political changes within
a few years. In these six States there 310,795 more farm owners or
occupants than there were ten years ago.--_N.Y. Tribune_.
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