Page:Quarterlyoforego10oreg 1.djvu/173

 Land Tenure in Oregon. 59 is divided equally between lessor and lessee. The lessor fur- nishes sires, bulls, rams, half of wool sacks, half of dipping material; tenant furnishes hay, fodder, pasture, range, and does all the work. This, in general, is the system employed throughout the State for renting stock on shares. Pasture land is usually rented separately from grain land for so much an acre, or else the owner retains the pasture for his own use. Sometimes the lessee is allowed enough pasture for a few stock. In the wheat belt along the Columbia River, the pasture is a secondary consideration and the lessee is often allowed the free use of it for the few stock he may have. Straw is generally the property of the lessor the same as the pasture, but it is often divided equally beetween owner and tenant. Up till harvest, the horses are sometimes fed from the un- divided hay and grain and sometimes not. No rule prevails in regard to this, for it is about as often one way as the other. During harvest, however, they are more often fed from the undivided produce than not; and hay is more often fed in this way than grain. An agreement is seldom made in regard to poultry, but in a very few cases, the eggs are divided equally between lessor and lessee. The lessee is generally allowed to keep what poultry he wishes as long as they do no particular damage to crops, which agreement is commonly understood and no speci- fied agreement is made in regard to this matter. Cash rent is generally figured on five per cent of the value of the land. For grain land it varies from two to five dollars, according to the fertility of soil, distance from market, and other conditions. Hay rents from two to six dollars an acre, alfalfa bringing the highest rent ; wild grass, the lowest. When grass is seeded, lessor furnishes the seed. Pasture land rents from one to two dollars an acre, but poor quality is some- times let at a lower rate, dry land in the eastern part of the State demanding only $.25 to $1.00 an acre. A report from Josephine county says that ordinary farming land in that sec-