2 BULLETIN 603, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Each of the regions selected for this study is a comparatively old 
dairy section. The one is in Green County, Wis., where dairying was 
first started for the manufacture of Swiss cheese, and the other about 
Elgin, 111., where the first impetus to dairying was the establish- 
ment of butter factories (see fig. 1). In the former region, the 
supplying of milk to condenseries is now encroaching on the cheese 
industry, while in the latter region nearly all of the milk is either 
sold for condensation or to the Chicago market. 
The material for this study was obtained from 84 farm manage- 
ment survey records taken in the Wisconsin region in cooperation 
with the State Agricultural College and Experiment Station, and 
from 59 records taken in the Illinois region, all for the crop year 
1915. Eeference is made also herein to some of the facts obtained 
from 147 survey records taken by the Illinois Agricultural College 
and Experiment Station for the crop year 1912 in the same region 
of this State. 
SYSTEMS OF SHARE RENTING. 
THE HALF-AND-HALF SYSTEM. 
The most common system of share rent of dairy farms in the re- 
gions studied, as elsewhere, is the so-called half-and-half system. 
Under this system the landlord furnishes land, buildings, the greater 
part of the seed and fertilizer, and half the productive stock, while 
the tenant furnishes horses, machinery, half the productive stock, 
part of the seed, and sometimes part of the fertilizer. All stock 
on these farms is fed usually from the grain and hay owned in com- 
mon, and if feed of any kind is bought its cost is shared equally 
between landlord and tenant. In general, each party pays the 
taxes on all property owned by him, including the farm road tax, 
though in many cases in the North Central States all the farm road 
tax is worked out by the tenant. 
Under this system the poultry frequently is owned exclusively, in 
limited numbers, by the tenant, he getting all the proceeds there- 
from, but with this exception each party generally receives half of 
the proceeds of farm sales of all products of whatever nature. 
In the best dairy region of Illinois, that contributing to the market 
milk of Chicago, the landlord in most cases owns all the cows, the 
tenant sharing half the loss by death or sales and the repurchases to 
keep up the herd. Sometimes, in this region, the tenant, instead of 
standing half the loss by death of a cow, gives the landlord a fixed 
amount, from $5 to $15 per head of cows dying. 
THE ONE-THIRD AND TWO-THIRDS SYSTEM. 
Less frequently dairy farms are share-rented on the one-third and 
two-thirds system. Under this system the landlord supplies every- 
thing but the man labor, which is furnished by the tenant. The 
landlord, under this system, gets two-thirds of the sales of all prod- 
ucts and the tenant one-third, and in case feed and concentrates are 
purchased, the tenant pays one-third their cost. 
