4 BULLETIN 650, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
duration and permanency of tenant tenure seem not to be correlated 
with either a written or a verbal form of lease.1 
Many tenants and some landowners prefer long-term leases, run- 
ning 5 to 10 years. Replies to a questionnaire recently addressed to 
tenants on Kansas wheat farms show that in almost every case the 
tenant would prefer a contract longer than one year. In a survey 
of 143 tenant dairy farms in Wisconsin and Illinois 76 per cent of 
the leases in Wisconsin and 66 per cent of those in Illinois were for 
one year, while 14 per cent of those in Illinois were for five years. 
In the case of certain special conditions a long-term lease is re- 
quired for the successful fulfillment of the contract. When live stock 
is leased it is customary to make a contract for 5 to 10 years. Con- 
tracts with a tenant for clearing land commonly give the tenant 5 
or 6 years to bring the land into condition and receive adequate 
returns for the labor of clearing. On an Indiana farm rented for 
growing nursery stock the lease ran 8 years to enable all nursery 
stock to mature and to allow time for selling the matured stock to 
compensate for the extra preparatory expense of the first 2 years. 
Moreover, in various States an occasional farm devoted to general 
farming is leased for 10 years or- more, rarely under a 15-year 
contract. ; 
METHODS OF SHARING CROPS AND STOCK PRODUCTS. 
FIELD CROPS. 
Corn.—On general farms in the corn belt when the tenant fur- 
nishes working capital and hired labor the landowner commonly 
receives one-half of the corn as well as of other crops. This is the 
prevailing custom in Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, 
Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Mary- 
land, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. 
Considerable variation in the share of corn, however, is to be noted 
in these States. Sometimes the landlord receives only two-fifths, 
one-third, or even one-fourth of the corn. On-certain New Jersey 
1The legal requirements governing the execution and recording of leases are usually 
prescribed by statute. It might be stated as a general rule of law that “All that is 
necessary to the execution of a lease is that it should be signed and delivered. It is not 
necessary that it should be witnessed or acknowledged except for the purpose of en- 
titling it to record.” (L. A. Jones, A Treatise on the Law of Landlord and Tenant.) 
This general rule is modified, however, in one or more particulars by the statutory 
law of many of the States. For example, most States require that leases for three 
years or longer be executed with the usual formality of a deed, while in one State at 
least no lease of land, except it be by deed, is effectual for more than one year. (Re- 
vised Code of Delaware, 1915.) ‘In practically every jurisdiction, by statutory enact- 
ment, every lease of land, or interest therein, for a period in excess of that designated 
by statute, must be recorded in the county where the land is situated, and a failure to 
so record will render the lease void as to subsequent encumbrancers and purchasers 
without notice, and for a valuable consideration, who first duly record their convey- 
ances.’”’ (Encyclopedia of Law and Procedure.) 
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