34 BULLETIN 650, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



than in rent. But sheer generosity and charity are no more fre- 

 quently seen in farm lease contracts than in other business transac- 

 tions. Such cases may be left out of consideration, for most lease 

 contracts are intended to be strict business propositions. 



Many farm leases now in operation indicate an apparently satis- 

 factory manner of eliminating all unknown quantities from a lease, 

 reducing it to a simple, specific, and readily understandable form. 

 According to these contracts all equipment, including tools, machin- 

 ery, work stock, productive stock, and other working capital, is 

 owned in equal partnership ; all expenses, including hired labor and 

 taxes, are shared equally, and the proceeds are divided half-and-half. 

 All products taken for family use by either landlord or tenant are 

 charged against the respective parties. This system is obviously fair 

 and explicit. The objection may be raised that it involves much 

 bookkeeping, but farm bookkeeping is desirable from every stand- 

 point. In fact, many lease contracts stipulate that the tenant shall 

 keep a complete daybook in which every item of expense and receipt 

 is entered. 



Such a contract provides a basis for the fair and equal sharing 

 of all crops which may be grown on a farm, however unlike the 

 amounts of labor required for their production, for if all expense 

 for extra and hired labor is shared equally it is obviously just that 

 the proceeds from crops requiring extra labor should be shared on 

 the same basis as those which require little labor. Moreover, the 

 unfairness of requiring the tenant to deliver crops to distant markets 

 is obviated by sharing the expense of the labor thus involved. 



Again, this plan is readily adaptable to cases in which the tenant 

 and landlord furnish working capital in unequal shares. In such 

 cases it is merely necessary to take out of the undivided farm income 

 the interest on each one's share of the working capital and also the 

 operating expenses, after which the remainder is divided half-and- 

 half. Many leases constructed on this plan are in operation. 



Share farming seems to be based on the idea of equal division of 

 the proceeds. In those cases in which the fractions are not half and 

 half, but one-third and two-thirds, one- fourth and three-fourths, or 

 two-fifths and three-fifths the unequal sharing is an adjustment to 

 the fact that operating expenses and the cost of equipment are not 

 borne equally. Even in such cases it would appear preferable that 

 all expenses and interest on the unequal shares of working capital 

 be taken out of the undivided farm income and that the remaining 

 proceeds be then divided equally. The feeling of full and frank 

 partnership between the landlord and tenant would thus be kept to 

 the fore. The tendency would thereby be to avoid reducing the ten- 

 ant to the status of a hired laborer receiving a bonus in the crops as 

 an inducement for extra effort. 



