THE EETIEED FAEMEB 245 



destruction, as much of them are being headed in 

 that direction by a thoughtless method of farming. 

 But we have already called attention to this hin- 

 drance to the business of farming, and have given 

 the remedy which will largely correct it. 



There is another deplorable state of affairs ob- 

 taining in many portions of our fair land to-day 

 that means a greater menace to the business of 

 farming. In most any city of two thousand in- 

 habitants, and over, and in most all our villages of 

 less than two thousand inhabitants, we find al- 

 ready erected or in the process of erection, innu- 

 merable houses of no mean design and dimension, 

 which have been erected or are being erected by 

 farmers who have, and are retiring from their 

 farms and leaving them in the hands of tenants. 

 And it is a distressing fact that the larger per cent, 

 of these farmers must depend upon the returns of 

 their farms for their support, and a deplorable 

 fact that their farms are leased under the one year 

 plan that means certain death to any farm. More 

 than thirty per cent, of the farm lands of our 

 country are in the hands of tenants already, and 

 the percentage is increasing at an alarming rate. 



This state of affairs can and does mean nothing 

 else than the awful fact that the acres of these 

 rented farms will be put under the lash, and the 

 "whip and spur method of f arming " will obtain 

 upon them, and they will be forced to produce 

 every dollar they can that both tenant and land- 

 lord may live. Not even the thought of soil con- 

 servation or fertility maintenance will ever be al- 

 lowed to enter the minds of either tenant or land- 

 lord, and year by year, under such methods of 



