SHALL I BE A FARMER? '20 



are constantly changing. Cash rent involves more atten- 

 tion and on the average brings a little more returns than 

 mortgages. Share rent, particularly if the animals are 

 shared, involves much more attention on the part of the 

 landlord and brings considerably higher returns. In each 

 step, the landlord is coming nearer to going into business 

 with his money, and so is entitled to greater returns. In 

 Tompkins County, New York, when money was being 

 loaned on mortgages at 5 per cent, landlords who rented 

 for cash made an average of 5.2 per cent, and those who 

 rented for a share of all products made an average of 9 per 

 cent. 1 



THE BACK-TO-THE-LAND MOVEMENT 



23. The aims of the movement. Much of the back- 

 to-the-land movement is an attempt to send persons to 

 farms in the hope that this will result in more produce and 

 so decrease the cost of living. Some of it is a desire of the 

 city to get rid of its paupers. The subject is much con- 

 fused, because many persons call a patch in the suburbs a 

 farm. Men of wealth have country homes on which they 

 play at farming. The alluring articles on the subject have 

 led some persons of small means, who do not have the 

 capital or experience necessary for success in farming, 

 to buy farms whose value they were even less qualified to 

 judge. Much of this exploitation has been encouraged 

 by the mistaken idea that any " little farm well tilled " 

 will support a family. The real estate dealer does not 

 know any better, or if he does he does not tell. He has 

 been very willing to find the attractive bargains desired. 

 The farmer who owns the land consents to part with it 

 when he gets enough more than it is worth for farm pur- 



1 New York, Cornell Bulletin 295, p. 541. 



