

CONTRACTS USED IN RENTING FARMS ON SHARES. 29 



fied. More labor must be expended on sugar beets, potatoes, tobacco, 

 and grain than on hay. 



On relatively infertile farms the landlord may provide tools and 

 work horses, pay one-half the expenses except labor and take one-half 

 the products. The plain assumption here is that on these poor farms 

 the land is not equal to the labor in productive value but that land 

 and equipment together approximately equal the labor. 



There are a few instances of partnership farming of which an 

 Indiana farm may be taken as an example. On this farm the land- 

 lord furnishes one-half of all equipment, including tools, machinery, 

 cows, other productive stock, and work horses. All expenses, includ- 

 ing even taxes and hired labor, are shared equally, and the proceeds 

 are divided half and half. In this case the underlying assumption 

 evidently is that the tenant's head and hand work is equal in value 

 to the use of the land, for everything except land and the tenant's 

 own labor is shared equally. 



Many lease contracts used in farming by the general half-share 

 system stipulate that the tenant shall furnish all tools, machinery, 

 and work stock, and one-half of the cows and other productive stock, 

 and that expenses shall be shared equally. Here the assumption is 

 that the tenant's labor is not equal in value to the use of the land, 

 but that the tenant's labor plus the use of tools and horses equals the 

 use of the land. 



Thus it appears to be assumed in lease contracts that on average 

 farms labor offsets or balances the use of the land, while on poor 

 farms labor is of more value and on exceptionally fertile farms of 

 less value than the use of the land. This is merely another way of 

 saying that the landlord's share of the crops should vary with the 

 agricultural value of the soil. 



It may be well to discuss further some of the points involved in 

 these assumptions, especially since there is at present an active 

 interest among landowners and tenants in attempts to arrive at a 

 rational basis for lease contracts. 



The assumption that labor offsets or balances the land underlies 

 much of the discussion of tenancy in England and also prevails 

 widely in this country. This assumption seems to involve, as a more 

 precise definition of the amount of labor concerned, an amount suf- 

 ficient to carry on the ordinary operations of a farm under a system 

 of general farming. 



If, therefore, we start with the assumption that the amount of 

 labor necessary to operate a farm for general purposes is equal in 

 value to the productive power of the farm, it would then seem fair 

 to assume that for the equal sharing of all farm produce between 

 tenant and landowner, each should contribute one-half of the 



