TENANCY IN THE WESTERN STATES 545 



Though we have many tenants, we do not have, outside of a 

 few instances, a tenant system. The relation of tenant to land- 

 lord is an uncertain one, and very frequently one unsatisfactory 

 to both parties. Such it must remain until the landlord is willing 

 to content himself with a reasonable rate of income on the in- 

 vestment rather than to hope for something more than ordinary 

 income, something in the nature of speculative gain to be realized 

 only by selling the land. On the other hand, the tenant must be 

 given some assurance that he may stay, if he wishes, more than 

 a year or two on the same farm. Men fail to become landowners, 

 or postpone for years the time when they become owners, because 

 farming as they pursue it does not pay well enough to enable 

 them to buy land. The reason it fails to pay better is doubtless 

 because the tenant as a rule is not a good farmer ; but the fault 

 is not altogether his. The owner of the land leases it under such 

 terms that the tenant is not encouraged in the use of scientific 

 methods. The tenant is far from being a conservationist. He is 

 interested in immediate results, and immediate results are obtained 

 by exploitation. Moreover, the tenant does not even produce the 

 best crops ; he lags behind the farmer who tills his own soil. From 

 two standpoints, then, society has cause for complaint ; for society 

 has a right to expect good results in the yield of crops and such 

 care of the soil that it will continue at its maximum productivity. 

 Furthermore, society is concerned with the relation of every in- 

 dividual to the community ; but the tenant is little disposed to 

 assume community responsibilities. 



To complain of the growth of tenancy is useless. The serious 

 question is that of a remedy. A remedy, if there be one, must be 

 in the nature of a plan by which a young farmer can buy land. 

 With the land high in price, the purchase must be mainly on 

 credit. True, the products of the farms are also high in price, 

 but our bunglesome system of distribution returns to the farmer 

 but half or two-thirds of the price the consumer shortly pays. 

 Could the farmer overcome this expensive way of getting his 

 wares to the market, he could more easily own the land on which 

 they grow. Another great problem is that of agricultural credit. 



