The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-04-13
Renting Farms.

1t is very rare that good farmers will
rent their land 80 long as they are able to
work it for themselves, says the american
Cultirdtor. Good farmers put great deal
of their own work and selves into their
farm, and after a man has worked for
years to make the old farm easy to manage,
it comes hard to place the fruit OF his labor
in the hands of those who will only in part
appreciateit The good farmer knows only
too well that the natural tendency of farms
is to deteriorate in fertility and available
value. He knows that it is only by the
closest management that this tendency iu
his time has been checked. If the manage
ment be in any way relaxed he knows only
too we'll that the farm will as surely, and
even more surely, tend backward as it has
in his time to tend forward.
The great majority of those who rent
farms do so with the purpose of immediate
advantage, without any regard to main
tanning soil fertility. 1t is comparatively
easy in almost any part Of the country to
buy land, but if the purpose be to make the
most OF one or two crops. rather than to per-
manently improve the farm, renting is better
than buying. Any man, however, who in
tends from the first to make the land more
productive will prefer purchase rather than
rental. There is a good deal in being ones
own master, in doing with farm whatever
he may choose, RAJ her than being guided by
any strict rules, and in ordinary cases the
renter is generally allowed to have his own
way, to crop and sell as may best conduce
to his own advantage. As natural result,
farms long rented are presumably run
down and exhausted of fertility to degree
that is scarcely possible on farm managed
by its owner, and which guards the loss of
fertility as scarcely less important than the
direct loss of money.
There are exceptions to this, but yet only
enough TO prove the rule. After farm has
in term of years proven its capacity to
earn a large rental, it may, with reasonable
certainty, command it. There are always
men willing enough to rent rich land, well
drained, near good market, and certain
from the first to pay good profit on the
rental price. More than this, it is possible
for the owners of such land to demand
terms which shall insure the continuance, if
not the absolute increase, of present fer
tility While the owner Of the Door farm
can only rent to some one who will still
further reduce its fertility, the owner of a
rich farm may easily command conditions
which will insure its continuance under the
same degree of fertility with which it is
taken. Not many years ago John Johnston,
the father of American tile drainage, died.
His farm was in high state of cultivation
and thoroughly underdrained. 1t was COM
paratively easy to rent this farm, not only
for the full interest value of the property,
but under such conditions as insured the
continuance of its present productive ca
pacity. For the very best land, indeed.
there is always a good demand at paying
rates. On the average farm It is impossible
to secure tenants, except at low rates and
under conditions that insure decreasing pro-
ductiveness. Thus, as Of old, the rule holds
good that to him who hath shall be gwen
yet abundantly, while from those who have
not shall be taken even what they seem to
have.
The ordinary experience in renting land is
very different from this. 1t is usually the
last resort after farms have run down until
the owner can no longer work them with
profit. 1t is idle under such circumstances
to expect the renter to maintain fertility
which the owner of the farm has allowed to
depreciate. The rented farm steadily grows
poorer. Its productive capacity decreases
until no one can afford to work it. and ere
long it goes into the list of abandoned
farms, that are no longer worth the labor of
cultivation.