68 OUTLINES OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



impairment in the property ? Is there any simple way of measuring 

 the value of such items ? How about slow-acting fertilizers ? 



3. "The principal reason why there are not more tenants renting 

 under the stock-share lease is to be found in the tenant's and land- 

 lord's dislike for any method of renting which requires common counsel 

 and close co-operation. The tenant chafes under the landlord's 

 supervision, and the landlord distrusts the integrity and ability of the 

 tenant." Do you observe similar conditions in your community? 

 Why is it the case ? How can the situation be remedied ? 



4. "We are still in the period of development of American agri- 

 culture when we are using much of the original equipment of American 

 farms. It will be when present equipment has passed its usefulness 

 that the real significance of the transition from ownership to tenantry 

 will become apparent. Either old, tumble-down houses, the ghosts of 

 a former prosperity, inhabited by a low-grade population willing to 

 live in inferior quarters, will survive, or a new type of houses built for 

 tenants will appear." Explain what this means in terms of your own 

 community. Do you agree with the same writer's further conclusion 

 that "alleviative policies, such as planning tenant houses or devising 

 tenant contracts, cannot offer a permanent solution of the problem; 

 we should seek to*remove the causes that have made the appearance 

 of a tenant class in America possible"? What are these causes? 

 How are they to 'be removed ? Might the last word in the quotation 

 be changed to "inevitable"? 



5. "Half of the farm lands in Texas are included in 2 .7 per cent 

 of the farms." What are likely to be the results of this condition? 

 Is the same situation found in other states ? Why ? 



6. "We cannot think straight on the land problem if we are going 

 to assume that there is anything morally wrong in owning land. This, 

 that, or the other individual landowner may abuse his power; but the 

 general institution of private property in land is a question of expe- 

 diency not morals." Do you agree? Does the socialist ? Does the 

 single-taxer ? Point out why you believe it expedient or not expe- 

 dient that we have private ownership of land upon existing terms. 

 State any modifications in the present system which you believe would 

 be expedient. 



7. (a) "The same progress which makes intensive farming neces- 

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

 land which they cultivate." (b) "Tenancy is not the normal state 

 of man, and we have been accustomed to look on the American farmer 

 as necessarily the owner of the acre he tilled." Is there a clash of 

 opinion between these two statements ? Explain each of them and 

 set forth the truth of the matter. 



