TENANCY AND L AN D O WNERS H I P 



France are likewise incomparably richer and bet- 

 ter cultivated than those of the South." 



While only a little more than a third of the 

 tenant farmers of the United States pay a cash 

 rent, this form of tenancy has been increasing 

 more rapidly in recent years than has share ten- 

 ancy. In 1880, 31.1 per cent, of farms operated 

 by tenants were operated by cash tenants ; in 1890, 

 35.1 per cent. ; and in 1900, 37.2 of all such farms 

 were let for a cash rent. 



Landlords who live too far from their land, or 

 are too busy, to give it the needed supervision for 

 making share tenancy a success, usually prefer 

 to let their farms for a cash rent. It is claimed by 

 many landlords that the tenants devote much 

 greater care to their farming under the cash sys- 

 tem of letting land. The feeling that every extra 

 bushel of grain and every extra fork of hay is all 

 his own will naturally make the tenant more 

 painstaking than he would be if only a part of 

 these products were to be added to his own 

 profits. 



This desire to obtain as large a return as pos- 

 sible is, at the same time, the greatest source of 

 trouble in adjusting the relations between land- 

 lords and tenants. The tenant who has a con- 

 tract for but one year is inclined to look too 

 strictly to securing as large a profit as possible 

 for that one year without any regard to the future. 

 As a result of this short-sighted economy, too 

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