MANAGEMENT 227 



This has doubtless been due, in turn, to the fact that few of 

 our best farmers have cared to lease land. However that may 

 be, the fact remains that we have not worked out the problem 

 of a system of tenancy which is attractive to a progressive and 

 far-sighted farmer. Our system of short leases, under which the 

 tenant has little control or initiative, is about as well calculated 

 to stifle initiative and enterprise as anything could well be. On 

 the- other hand, it must be said that the interests of the landowner 

 are so poorly safeguarded by our laws and customs as to make 

 it hazardous for him to let his land on a long lease, or to allow 

 any large measure of control to pass into the hands of the 

 tenant. This defect, if it can be called a defect, in our legal 

 system has contributed its share toward making the tenancy 

 system in this country more unpopular than it would otherwise 

 have been. 



Aside from these factors just mentioned, which, as suggested, 

 have nothing to do with efficient agriculture, there are certain 

 undoubted advantages arising from the ownership of the soil by 

 those who cultivate it. It obviates all vexatious questions relat- 

 ing to leases and the interpretation of the terms of the contract ; 

 it frees the cultivator from the irritation of continuous inspec- 

 tion by the landowner, who, in order to protect his land from 

 exploitation, must insist upon proper manuring, weeding, rotation 

 of crops, repairing, etc. ; and it gives the cultivator a permanent 

 interest in the farm and the community, and a sense of respon- 

 sibility which a mere tenant can scarcely feel. 



On the other hand, we have the large and stubborn fact, 

 difficult to argue out of existence, that the best agriculture in 

 the world is carried on under the tenancy system. The most 

 efficient system of general farming is found in England, where 

 the tenancy system prevails ; and the most efficient growing of 

 agricultural specialties is found on the very small gardens in 

 the neighborhood of Paris, where the land is not generally 



