Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 72.djvu/47

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the values of land and the per cent, of tenancy. That is, the highest per cent, of tenancy is to be found on the most fertile land. It is not because tenancy tends to increase the fertility of the land or to increase its valuation, because such is not the case, but rather the opposite. But it is due to the fact that the more fertile lands are the best investment for capital and are more eagerly held as investments than any other farm lands. In the fertile counties of the state, where the percentage of tenancy is high, farms that have been inherited by children who have gone to the city to live have been held as investments. They are readily rented, so that they will yield a fair return on the investment, and at the same time the sentiment of keeping the old homestead is observed. In this way they are rented out for cash, or a share of the crops produced, and they thus pass into tenancy. On the less fertile lands of the state, such as are found in the southeastern part, the per cent, of the farms held by