Polk County news-gazette. (Benton, Tenn.) 190?-191?, 1913-11-20
ASSERTS TENANT
FARMING A MENACE
STATE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICUL
TURE PECK GIVES VIEWS.
Official Says the Farm Renter Ras a
"ShoIt-Sighted Policy" and That
Interest Gees No FuIthe-
Than Present Crop.

/ Na>HAilt.-t mating dbuIL l@AAtiH-
/ generally and the tenant farmer in par
/ ticular, Commissioner Of Agriculture T..
| f. Peck had this TO say:
Il have noticed considerable in the
different newspaper oil the state recent
I " on the above subject. and all agree
that the tenant farmer j. menace to
the development OF the agricultural in
dustry because he is a bird OF passage.
lie seldom STAYS more than one year on
the same farm and it Is his purpose to
get all he can out OF the soil Tor that
wear and never gives any thought to
building it up. Crop rotation is impos,
sible with him. OF course, every rue
has its exceptions. | know very few
tenant farmers who have made good and
have built up the farms they cuitivat
ed, but they were not the oue-year kind.
They continued on the farms for a mum.
Der of years and were intelligent enough
to plan their rotation OF crops, to uti!-
ize the manure made on the farms, to
grow live stock.
The tenant farmer as rule has
shorts GIFTED policy. His interest zoe,
no farther than the pres mt crop and
everything i sacrificed for present coz
veniences. lie will pasture meadow
lands when too wet, will pasture any
kind of land at any time that his stock
can get anything off it. He will rob
permanent fences to provide temporary
fences of a poor makeshitt kind Tor
his immediate needs. He will fill up
ditch with good material to get across
it rather than repair bridge. He never
thinks of cleaning off ditch banks or
fierce rows, but leaves a little more out
of cultivation each year.
Il have observed the average tenant
farmer from year to year, and as rule
it would pay the land owner far bet
ter to get his land under fence and pas
turate it than to allow it cultivated by |
the average tenat. The live stock pas
tured would mean a profit whatever 1t |
amounted to, while the damage to the |
farm and its equipment in many cases
would overrun the value of any crop |
paid by the tenant as rents.
II the tenant FARMER COulu De COL. /
tracted with for a term of years, and |
he could be made to understand that
he was helping himself as well as the
land owner by farming along modern
practical lines. that it was profitable
to him to build up the sol and make
it more productive; that his interests
and the land owners We're identical, then
there might be sonid hope fof the fu-
bure of the tenant farmer, but so long
as the patches for garden, etc, that he
insists on getting rent free gets all the
attention, so long as he Will use fences
for firewood, and let's everything on
he farm 90 to rack and ruin, there is
title hope of solving the problem OF
arm operation through him. The ten
mt farmer is passing. and it is better
hat he should 90. With his exit will
ONE the breaking up of the large plan
the advent of the small farmer,
wning and cultivating his own land, or
corporation farming. 1t would be bet
er for the state and all of its citizens
hat the lands should be individually
wned and cultivated in relatively small
racts where the owner and his fanny
rrnsh the abor for cultivating."