TENANCY AND L A ND O WNER SHI P 



Under this system, the landlord has absolute con- 

 trol of the kinds of crops to be grown and of the 

 system of crop rotation. The land is usually let 

 for but one year. A serious objection to this 

 system of letting land is the fact that a large share 

 of the product is taken from the land and sold or 

 fed out on another man's land. 



The share system becomes somewhat more com- 

 plex when the landlord furnishes a house and barn 

 and garden-patch for the tenant. If the tenant 

 desires to keep but little live stock, let us say a 

 team, a cow, a few hogs, and some poultry, his 

 living upon the place will not make a great differ- 

 ence in the system ; but if he desires to keep suffi- 

 cient live stock to consume his share of the crop, 

 and especially if he wishes to keep cattle, the sys- 

 tem becomes more complicated. The tenant's de- 

 mand for pasture land is often met by leasing to 

 him for a cash rent, a certain amount of land to 

 be used for grazing purposes. The feeding of 

 the crop on the farm is an important advantage of 

 this method of letting land. In tenancies of this 

 description, the contracts are most commonly 

 drawn for but one year with the understanding 

 that a satisfactory tenant may renew his contract 

 indefinitely. 1 



In the United States, tenant farmers are largely 

 young men, however, who do not as a class pos- 

 sess a great amount of wealth which can be in- 



1 See Appendix A at the end of this chapter. 

 265 



