Agricultural Capital and Profits 85 



subsisted ; or, on the other hand, to induce 

 the owners to take land into their own 

 hands or to sell it on purely mercantile 

 principles. 



The English system of landlord and 

 tenant, in the light of this history, is seen to 

 have played a great part in the development 

 of English agriculture, and the essence of 

 the system has been the mutual confidence 

 between landlord and tenant. In the words 

 of the latest American authority 1 : " In spite 

 of the fact that tenancy is the rule, the 

 agriculture of England is, in many ways, 

 worthy of our emulation, and this advanced 



1 Henry C. Taylor : "Agricultural Economics" (p. 321). 

 Macmillan & Co., 1905. The writer shows (p. 241) that 

 in the United States there has been a decline in the 

 percentage of farms " operated " by the owners from 74-5 

 in 1880 to 647 in 1900 the "cash" tenants having 

 increased from 8-0 per cent, to 13-1, and the "share" 

 tenants from 17-5 per cent, to 22-2. The growth of the 

 "share" tenants is interesting in view of what is said 

 above on the " land and stock " lease. 



