66 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 



When properly equipped, and with a tenant who is competent 

 to handle stock, this system is, to my mind, the best. Pasturing the 

 clover is not only a more profitable way to market it and makes a 

 better return on the pasture than the prevailing cash rental, but it 

 also takes off one of the peak loads of the work, namely, that of mak- 

 ing hay; and lightens another, that of harvesting corn by hogging 

 some of it off. It is good for the land, distributes much of the manure 

 where wanted, brings up the returns on the part of the farm that 

 most needs it, and has fewer chances for failure and more chances for 

 success than either a strictly grain or a strictly stock method. 



An investigation was made a few years ago under the direction of 

 the University, to ascertain the number of acres operated per horse, on 

 the typical farms of the state; the reports ranged from seventeen to 

 twenty-eight acres. The same year, on one of our larger farms op- 

 erated as a stock and grain farm we were doing pretty well with one 

 horse to forty acres. 



In seeking a substitute for oats, several things have been tried, 

 with varying success, among them cowpeas, soybeans, buckwheat, and 

 barley. Out of six comparative seedings of oats and barley, two 

 years the returns were about equal and four years the barley made de- 

 cidedly the better showing. 



TENANT RELATIONS 



As to tenants, it has always been a custom to retain a good man 

 as long as he is in sympathy with better farming practises; and some 

 long relationships of that character have existed, several having ex- 

 tended over thirty years, and one tenant has not far to go until he 

 reaches his fortieth year on one of these farms. These are unusually 

 long periods and except for divers reasons these parties would have 

 earned and retired to a farm of their own ; for it has been my pleasure 

 to see a number start from the bottom and accomplish this very thing. 

 In farming as in other lines, however, not all men can accumulate, or 

 circumstance may circumvent them. In spite of all that has been 

 said to the contrary, and there has been considerable agitation against 

 landlords, some of it emanating from sources that should know better, 

 a good farm offered on a fair lease affords to many a young man with 

 a very limited amount of capital an opportunity to go into business 

 for himself under more favorable conditions than are found in almost 

 any other line of endeavor. 



Right here, however, is a question that will stand more study. 

 What sized farm should a tenant rent ? It is not profitable for the 



