232 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



Not only is the percentage of tenancy low, but the statistics 

 fail to prove any important change in this regard in recent years. 

 In 1882, 15.71 per cent of the farms were composed solely of 

 leased land, and in 1895 the percentage was 16.42 ; but at the 

 same time, 12.88 per cent of all land in farms was leased land in 

 1882 and only 12.38 per cent in 1895. It would appear, there- 

 fore, that there was little change in the status of the farmers with 

 respect to landownership during this period. Indeed Germany 

 is a nation of landowning farmers, while in France 47.2 per cent 

 of the cultivated area is occupied by tenants, and in England the 

 landowning farmer is rarely found. 



Not only is it important that the young farmers who wish 

 to go in debt for land should be able to borrow money at a low 

 rate of interest, but it is equally important that the tenant 

 farmers should be able to invest their savings in a profitable 

 manner, until they have accumulated sufficient capital to 

 enable them to invest in land. Furthermore, it is especially 

 important that farmers who have accumulated funds beyond 

 what they can use in their farming activities be provided with 

 a safe investment other than land, lest they continue to buy 

 farm after farm just as a safe investment, and in this way force 

 the price of land too high for the young farmer. The remedy 

 is to make it easy for every farmer to invest his surplus in 

 federal farm loan bonds which pay a higher rate of return than 

 farms let to tenants have been paying in the region of high land 

 values. 



Integrity as a source of income. The young farmer wants 

 to become the owner of a good farm with fine buildings and 

 splendid equipments. In these days of high land values, this 

 requires a large sum of money. Few can hope to acquire the 

 desired farm by inheritance or even by marriage. These are 

 both poor ways to acquire a farm, for if the farm should come 

 by these means, the pleasure of earning it would be lost, and 

 with it one of the greatest joys of life. 



Those who have made calculations upon the time required 

 to earn and save the modest fortune required in these days to 

 own a farm have too often left out of account certain very 



