uld even outrun concentration in manufacture. This predicted
absorption of the small farms by the larger, and the average increase of
farm acreage, has not, however, been fulfilled to any great degree. An
increase in the number of small farms, and a decrease in the average
acreage, is shown in almost all the states. The increase of great
estates shown by the census figures probably bears little or no relation
to real farming, consisting mainly of great stock grazing ranches in the
West, and unproductive gentlemen's estates in the East.

Apparently, then, the Socialist theory that "the big fish eat up the
little ones, and are in turn eaten by still bigger ones," is not
applicable to agriculture. On the contrary, it seems that the great
farms cannot compete successfully with the smaller farms. It is
therefore not surprising that writers so sympathetic to Socialism as
Professor Werner Sombart and Professor Richard T. Ely should claim that
the Marxian system breaks down when it reaches the sphere of
agricultural industry, and that it seems to be applicable only to
manufacture. This position has been taken by a not inconsiderable body
of Socialists in recent years, and is one of the tenets of that critical
movement within the Socialist ranks which has come to be known as
"Revisionism." Nothing is more delusive than statistical argument of
this kind, and while these conclusions should be given due weight, they
should not be too hastily accepted. An examination of the statistical
basis of the argument is necessary.

In the first place, small agricultural holdings do not necessarily
imply economic independence, any more than do petty industries or
businesses. When we examine the census figures carefully, the first
important fact which challenges attention is that, whereas of the farms
in the United States in 1880, 71.6 per cent were operated by their
owners, in 1900 the _proportion_ had declined to 64.7 per cent. In 1900,
of the 5,739,657 farms in the United States, no less than 2,026,286 were
operated by tenants. Concerning the ownership of these rented farms
little investigation has been made, and it is likely that careful
inquiry would elicit the fact that this is a not unimportant phase of
agricultural concentration, though not revealed by the figures in the
census reports. It remains to be said concerning these figures, however,
that they do not lend support to the theory that the small farms are
being swallowed up by the