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In 1900, 92 per cent of the farms operated by their owners were owned free of indebtedness. Ten years later and after an increase of 333 per cent in the value of land only 58 per cent of the same farms remained unmortgaged.
The New Feudalism.
The same economic forces which have separated the mechanic from the ownership of his tools are even now robbing the farmer of the ownership of the soil.
The privately owned farm gives-to the operating owner the product of his toil, but when the farm passes into the hands of a non-farming landlord, it becomes a means of depriving the farmer of the product of his labor.
Owned by the farmer, the soil is a means of production. Owned by the landlord it is a means of exploitation. In agriculture we find the same transformation from private to capitalist owned property as observed in industry.
But let us ask the question, is this transformation in the direction of social production, and consequently towards social ownership? Are the capitalists buying up the soil to repeat in agriculture the same magnificent process witnessed in the development of capitalist production? How long will it be before we see the farmer reduced to a wage worker, toiling on gigantic farms under the direction of hired managers, scientists and soil experts for the benefit of absentee stock-holders?
To all these questions there can be but one answer, and that is the evolution in agriculture is not towards social production and capitalist ownership. Instead of striving forward towards capitalism, we are really returning toward feudalism.
The farmers are losing the land to the capitalists, The separation between ownership and labor is taking place, but the farmer is not entering a higher stage of production as a wage worker, but is cast into-a lower one—tenantry.
If the Census figures prove anything then it is that there is no tendency towards bonanza farming in this country. The size of the average farm is remaining practically stationary, and the number of capitalist farms operated by managers is actually decreasing.
| Average number of acres per farm: | |||
| Year | Number of acres per farm | ||
| 1850 | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 202 | |
| 1860 | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 199 | |
| 1870 | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 153 | |
| 1880 | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 133 | |
| 1890 | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 136 | |
| 1900 | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 146 | |
| 1910 | . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 138 | |
