Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-01-10
Agricultural Help
The Right Renter.

II has been said, and Well said, that
renters have been a curse to Ameri-
can farms. The average renter takes
no more interest in the farm he lives
on and cultiVates than the traveller
does in the railway train that carries
him from one city to another. The his
tory of renting in this country is one
long and sad story of shiftlessness, low
plane of family life and wanton soil
depletion. The. average farm that
has been skinned alive" by the renter
for a few years is ready to be turned
ON To wilderness again for brush and
weeds to cover its gullies and hardpan
surface. Ii looks like furniture gone
through fire, and is scarcely worth
more 4
Did you ever own or see a farm talk
en- hold of by the ordinary renter and
note how soon the buildings begin to
look shabby, the fence to rot and
tumble down, the orchard to go to
ruin and the fields cease to yield
harvest worth harvesting? The man
who rents from another says that he
can not afford to make improvements
and practice rotation. He must get
all lie can out of the farm in order to
pay his rent and make a living for his
family. The land owner must look out
for repairs and improvements, if any
are made. Usually there are none
made
But if you had a farm with old and
inadequate buildings and repairs
scarcely worth mentioning, how would
you like to secure a renter who would
move onto the farm and Immediately
begin To improve it? What would
you think it the new renter would tear
down the little old tumble down stable
and in its stead erect a barn and sta
BILE combined at cost of a thousand
dollafs2 Perhaps you would think the
man crazy. What would you further
think if he should erect good fences
where poor fences or no fences existed
and cleaned up the farm in general till
It shone like a new silver dollar? And
added to- all these. What would you
think if this new renter should save
all the manure made, purchase feeds
and use all feeds grown on the farm to
make tons and tons of manure. and
use it to make the land much richer
than it was when you left it, You
never could grow alfalfa OF any of the
special crops on this land. But to
your uttermost surprise your new
renter begins experimenting with al
falfa He purchases high priced seed.
tons of lime and bone meal for treat
ing your land He puts intelligence a
lot of extra work and costly fertilizers
into Your soil which you yourself
never did. As a result, he succeeds in
establishing a good field of alfalfa or
Your land, and the first year after
seeding harvests $50 worth Of this
choice feed TO the acre. He is paying
vod 81 IN acre rental. and with corn
after a few 9ears by manuring and in
teiligeGt cultivation haryests seventy
five bushels of husked corn to the
acre, with potatoes and other crops
including clover, in proportion.
Were You ever in the embarrassing
position of having to take off your hat
to your tenant? If you have been,
your case is an exceptional one. The
following story is of an actual renter
on a fifty-acre farm, who has done
just such things as have been stated
above.
Mr.. and Mrs. John George, now in
utc hitt''e age ol me- Win Il good
sized family of children. are renting a
farm about two miles from the town
of Valley Park. Mo. They have been
living on and working this farm for
twelve years. and expect to stay as
much longer, if not compelled to va
cate. Unfortunately for them, how
ever the owner died last year and
this farm. together with a large body
of surrounding land. mas fallen into
other hands. Just what the new own
ers will do with the land or what con-
sidcration they will show this partcu-
lar tenant is not known. The tenant
at present has no written lease, but
has been told 10 go ahead as he has in
the past.
Mr. and Mrs. George are r1lnlline n