Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 55, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 October 1909 — THE BANNER FARM STATE. [ARTICLE]

THE BANNER FARM STATE.

Missouri Tracts 8mall«r, but In Number They Exceed Others. Missouri has more farms than any other state in the Union. Within her borders are 284,886 farms, which average 120 acres to the farm. The improved land to each farm averages 75 acres, or G2E4 pe* cent. These figures are based on the last census report According to the report of the commerce and labor bureau, the farms ot Missouri are worth $34.75 an acre. Among the states of the middle west Missouri has smaller farms than manj of them. Ohio Is an exception, wher« 276,000 farms only average 88 acres each. Illinois has 264,000 farms of 121 acres each. lowa has 228,000 farms of 151 acres each. Kansas has 173,000 farms of 228 acres. In the United States farms average 146 acres, but only 50 per cent is improved land. F. B. Mumford, professor of animal husbandry in the college of agriculture in the University of Missouri, has prepared some interesting facts about the amount of live stock there is on an average Missouri farm. This is considered a great mule state, and yet there are four times as many horses as there are mules in Missouri. The equipment as Professor Mumford gives it is: Fifteen cattle, four horses, one mule, twenty-six hogs, five sheep and a fraction of a goat. Fully one-third of the state’s population depend directly or Indirectly upon animal products for their existence. The Income from animals and animal products is $130,000,000 annually. Fif-ty-five per cent of the farmers have their principal income from live stock —ln fact, more than $800,000,000 are invested in farms, live stock and equipment for stock raising. Missouri stands third in the middle west as the state having the largest number of renters on the farms. Illinois farms are tilled by 61 per cent owners and 39 per cent tenants. The percentage of tenancy In lowa is 34.9. while Missouri has only three tenants In ten farmers, which means that seven farmers out of ten in Missouri do not pay rent, but have the title of their farms resting In themselves. The percentage of tenancy in Ohio is 27.5, but In Michigan it drops to 15.9. There is said to be a tenant on land of David Rankin, in the northwest part of the state, making as much as SIO,OOO a year on rented land. Tenant farming in Missouri as well as in all the best agricultural states is said to be on the Increase. Missouri does not get so much return from her lands per acre as do many of the other states. According to the last census report, the money made on each acre of improved land in Missouri was $9.58 an acre. This is much less than in any of the best states surrounding Missouri. The return per acre in Ohio was $13.36: Michigan, $12.42; Illinois, $12.48; lowa, $12.22.