Page:Quarterlyoforego10oreg 1.djvu/162

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

48 LoN L. Swift products came from land cultivated by this class of farmers. Owners, therefore, maintained about an equal percentage of live stock and products in proportion to the value of the land which they cultivated, and a higher per cent of each than the relative value of the land on which they farmed, making it evident that they were a thrifty, productive class of farmers, and that no one class of agriculture was especially followed by those who operated the farms which they owned. What was true of Oregon in this respect was equally true of the other geographical divisions. Tenants, on the whole, in each of the five divisions, reported a smaller per cent of live stock than valuation of farm property operated by them, but almost an equal ratio of farm produce. In Oregon, their percentage of farm output, though less in live stock than in produce, was especially small in both. Tenant farming may be said to be unfavorable to the raising of live stock and better adapted tO' the production of cereals and other crops; but, in Oregon, it is not a success in either. Farms operated by owners, which represent two classes of farms, owned and rented, form a go-between of renting and ownership, holding about an equal ratio in output to valua- tion. This class of renters, however, are, doubtless, more self- reliant and earnest farmers than other tenants. Yet in Oregon, the farm output of part owners was in 1900 lower in percent- age than the valuation of the farms. Farms operated by managers had a very high valuation of live stock in proportion to the value of the land controlled by them, and the value of products raised on these farms was not below the average. This means of farming, unlike ten- ancy, is exceedingly favorable to the raising of live stock, and is not altogether bad for the production of cereals and other crops. It has produced better results in all kinds of farming in Oregon than have been obtained through renting. Owners and tenants, the third class of farmers, have not specialized in any particular lines of farming, nor have they proved overly

successful.----