504 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



farms, where it was a very important source of income, even 

 though not the leading one. The tenants are in charge of about 

 four-fifths of their proportional number of distinctively fruit farms, 

 but in quantity of fruit produced they rank much lower. Of small 

 fruits the tenant grows comparatively little, and the same is true, 

 to an even greater degree, of grapes, and hardly less so of peaches 

 and pears. Apples are more generally grown and are found to 

 some extent on almost all farms in the East, thus bringing the 

 proportion grown by the tenant a little above that of the other 

 fruits. Fruit growing and tenant farming are not compatible. The 

 best results in fruit growing demand continuous and consistent 

 plans extending over a period of years, a condition necessarily 

 absent in the usual case of tenancy. Something more than the 

 moderate extension of period of occupancy noted in connection 

 with the dairy tenants would be required to make it feasible for 

 the tenant to become a successful fruit grower. The tenant can 

 leave the ordinary farm in a sufficiently discouraging condition 

 after his own interest in it has ceased, but a fruit farm under such 

 circumstances would suffer vastly greater deterioration. For ex- 

 ample, a vineyard left unpruned or a strawberry bed neglected is 

 not likely to be a source of profit during the first year following. 

 Even orchard trees are the objects of constant solicitude where 

 good results are obtained. It is therefore not a matter of sur- 

 prise to find ownership high and tenancy low in districts where 

 fruit is a leading crop. 



It must be remembered, of course, that the price of land in 

 census reports includes the value of all perennial plants growing 

 upon it. Hence these reported values may cover up the fact that 

 land not already planted to fruit, but suitable for such use, may be 

 had at a comparatively low price. In this possibility of buying 

 land, usually in small tracts and at a low price, lies a great part 

 of the explanation of ownership as opposed to tenancy. It is pos- 

 sible under such conditions for a man of small means to acquire 

 ownership. But after developing such a farm he hesitates to lease 

 it to a tenant, well knowing the difficulties and care involved in 

 keeping it in running order. And the tenant on his part is seldom 

 ambitious to undertake the management of such a farm. If he 



