CHAPTER XXV 



RELATIONS BETWEEN LANDLORDS AND TENANTS IN 

 ENGLAND 



So long as a country has an abundant supply of productive 

 land, and its agriculture is characterized by the extensive use 

 of the natural fertility of the soil, the adjustment of the relations 

 between landlords and tenants is a comparatively simple matter. 

 But when some of the elements of this original fertility have 

 begun to show signs of exhaustion, or when the increasing 

 demands of a growing population make it necessary that each 

 acre of land shall yield a larger product, so that it becomes 

 necessary to introduce a more intensive system of culture, 

 involving investments which cannot be realized upon for several 

 years, the tenant problem becomes a serious one. 



The same progress which makes intensive farming necessary 

 tends also to augment the numbers of those who must hire the 

 land which they cultivate. With the growth of population, com- 

 petition for the use of land becomes more and more keen and 

 drives the price of land higher and higher. This makes it ever 

 more and more difficult for the succeeding generations of farmers 

 to acquire the ownership of land. Other things remaining 

 equal, with the progress of society the tenant problem becomes 

 more general as well as more difficult to solve. 



England is preeminently the land of tenant farmers. Less 

 than 14 per cent of the farm land of that country is reported as 

 operated by its owners, and in most cases such land is operated 

 by hired farmers, or bailiffs as they are called. About 86 per cent 

 of the farm land of England is operated by tenants who pay a 

 fixed rent for its use. Share tenancy is not practiced in England. 



It was more than a century ago that the progress of English 

 industrial society had reached the stage of development where 



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