income from each farm,
because in the aggregate his income is sufficient for his needs, while
the retired farmer who must live off the proceeds of a single farm is
apt to drive a hard bargain and may not be over particular concerning
the maintenance of said farm. The writer knows a farmer who owns a
good farm purchased from the proceeds of a rented farm. He continues
to live on the rented farm and rents his own, because, it is said, his
landlord is willing to make him more favorable terms than he makes to
his tenant.

The more capable the tenant the more favorable the terms he may exact.
Certain tenants are in demand and can have their choice of farms. A
prosperous-looking man was pointed out recently as an example of a
tenant capable of buying a farm in one of the most highly developed
counties in the United States. It was stated that as a renter he could
have his choice of any farm in the county, but that he did not have a
dollar invested in farm land. Possibly he invests his surplus earnings
in stocks and bonds.

It is not the present purpose to determine the relative merits of the
different systems of land tenure, but to try to be helpful to the
beginners by discussing the usual practices in order that he may know
whether the arrangement he is considering is customary and whether it
is likely to prove satisfactory.

Every third farm in the United States is rented under one of three
methods:

1. A definite money rent may be paid, ranging from $2 to $6 an acre
for land on which the ordinary, staple crops are raised. Perhaps $3 to
$4 is more commonly paid for such land.

2. In the South it is common for the landlord to require a definite
number of pounds of cotton per acre or a certain number of bales of
cotton for a one or two-mule farm, as the case may be. This is
classified by the census authorities as "cash rent," but will here be
called "crop rent." Crop rent is less common than either cash or share
rent in the northern and western states, although perhaps the most
common form in the South. Crop rent, however, is met with in some
sections, as in western New York where certain large landowners
require a definite number of bushels of wheat, oats or maize and make
certain stipulations as to hay and straw. They charge a cash rent for
pasture.

3. Much the most common form of tenancy, however, is that where a
certain percentage or share of the product is given the landlord for
the use of the land.

Before en