Agricultural Capital and Profits 55 



often occurred to me that in some cases 

 some adaptation of this form of lease might 

 be advantageous under present conditions. 

 We are told on all sides that small farms 

 ought to be increased in number, but that 

 those who might make successful farmers 

 have no capital. Leaving on one side the 

 controversy on the possibility of the success 

 of small farms at present in this country, 

 and assuming that there are landowners 

 willing to make the experiment, and also 

 suitable tenants, the farms might be started 

 with a land and stock lease. 1 There are, 

 however, two practical difficulties that did 

 not exist in the mediaeval period. In the 

 first place, the mediaeval peasant was content 

 to live in what was little better than a 

 mud hovel with no windows, no chimney, 



1 A form of the land and stock lease is actually in use in 

 some parts of the United States e.g., in Wisconsin. See 

 H. C. Taylor's "Agricultural Economics," p. 278. 



