Yankee ingenuity at work: summer milking stalls on leased pasture land in 

 Franklin Falls resevoir. Note legume-grass seeding in foreground. 



accord these lands residual treatment, others use these lands in a similar 

 [ashion to those they own, either at a low or high level of management. 

 Competitive hidding of itself does not assure that the best operators will 

 receive the leases. Contractual specifications do not assure that tiie lands 

 be used for the best purpose or that the productive capacity of the lands 

 will be maintained. 



The matter of insecurity of leases is of real concern. Many operators 

 point out that it will take them most of the five-year lease period to restore 

 the land on a run-down tract to a higher level of productivity. At that time, 

 they risk losing the lease to someone else who will reap most of the benefits 

 of their work and investment. There are a number of cases where this has 

 happened. The reverse has also happened, i.e., a poor operator has lost a 

 lease to a better one; but here, the better operator can risk rebuilding the 

 productivity with the distinct possibility of losing it in five years. One 

 alternative is leases running for more than five years, thus permitting more 

 year's output at the restored level. In reverse, however, this could also give 

 the poorer operator a longer time in which to mine the soil fertility, let 

 the brush grow up and destroy the desirable cover. Hence, the best answer 

 probably does not lie in longer leases, per se. 



The studied recommendations of other reports relative to leasing and 

 post-construction land management have application to the findings of this 

 study. One study recommended the following:^ 



"Minimize disturbance by leasing to current owner-operators and tenants 

 wherever practical, using leases which are renewable as long as their pro- 

 visions are carried out. 



"Discontinue preferential leases to former owners who have no intention 

 of operating the land themselves. 



1 Local Effects of the Wappapello Reservoir, op. cit., p. iv. 



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