862 SUCCESSFUL FARMING 



What the Lease Should Contain. — Bulletin 198 of the Wisconsin 

 Agricultural Experiment Station gives the results of investigations relative 

 to methods of renting farm land in that state. As a result of these investi- 

 gations the author gives the following considerations: 



"A. The contract should vary with the farm, the tenant and the land- 

 lord. The three chief requisites of the tenant are honesty, efficiency .and 

 capital. The capable and fair-minded landlord gets better tenants, higher 

 rents and has many more friends than the grasping type of landlord. In 

 choosing a farm, fairness of rent, suitability to type of farming mcst con- 

 genial to tenants, location with respect to markets, schools, etc., are of 

 primary importance to tenant. 



"B. What the lease should contain: A dozen or more phases of the 

 contract are discussed in detail. Some of the phases will be merely enumer- 

 ated, while a brief summary of others will be given : 



" 1. A description of the farm as found in the deed. 



"2. Uses of property should be stated specifically. 



"3. Disposition of products regulates crops that are to be produced 

 and the forms in which they are sold. Restrictive clauses should be 

 accompanied by supply of credit to comply with restrictions. 



"4. Manure should not be removed from the farm. 



"5. Purchase of feed and fertilizers should be encouraged by compen- 

 sating the tenant for exhausted fertility added to the land. ' 



"6. Noxious weeds should be destroyed before maturity. 



"7. Duration of lease should be longer than one year. Extensions of 

 one year or more make it possible for less loss in division each year, and 

 afford the tenant time to realize more fully on labor and investments he 

 has made. Compensation for unexhausted improvements is the remedy for 

 many of the evils of the short term lease. 



"8. The amount of rent to be paid depends upon the usefulness of the 

 land and the scarcity of land of this grade. 



"9. Time of paying rent should be adjusted to the time of the tenant's 

 sales. 



" 10. Guarantee that the rent shall be paid should be obtained either 

 by statutory law or by agreement. 



"11. The agreement should provide for closing the tenancy at the 

 end of the current year in case either party fails to perform his part. 



" 12. Notice to terminate a lease is used where a contract remains in 

 loice as long as it is mutually agreeable." 



Time of Lease. — The tenant on the one-year lease has little interest 

 in the fertility of the soil. His chief object is to realize on what fertility 

 is there. It is not to his interest to turn from grain to livestock farming. 

 The land, on the other hand, is entitled to stock and the pasture on which 

 stock should graze. On the one-year lease, it seldom gets it. 



The long-term" lease increases the interest of the tenant both with 

 reference to keeping up a good appearance of the farm buildings and 



