AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



large a proportion of the land is often devoted to 

 exhausting crops and the larger profit of the one 

 year is obtained at the expense of the profits of 

 future years. The cash tenant sacrifices the long- 

 time-average returns in order that his net profit 

 for the one year may be increased. 



By proper regulations with respect to the pro- 

 portion of the land which shall be devoted to cer- 

 tain crops, this difficulty can be more or less suc- 

 cessfully overcome, but such regulations are al- 

 ways annoying to the tenants. The granting of 

 a lease for several years is thought by many to be 

 all that is necessary to meet the difficulties arising 

 from the short-sightedness of the tenants, but 

 many landlords object to making a contract for a 

 period of any great length. With all the diffi- 

 culties which may beset this system, cash tenancy 

 is preferable to share tenancy wherever the man- 

 agement of the farm is to be left almost entirely 

 to the tenant, and where agriculture is extensive 

 and where the use of commercial fertilizers is un- 

 known the letting of land for cash is a fairly suc- 

 cessful method. 



Where intensive culture and the use of com- 

 mercial fertilizers have become necessary the ten- 

 ant problem takes on a more acute form. If we 

 would study to advantage the problems which 

 arise under these conditions, we must turn our 

 attention to an older country than our own, where 

 the tenant problem has been a more serious one, 

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