64 LoN L. Swift of the contract. Undesirable tenants are much more plentiful than reliable and energetic ones. Landowners would rather rent their farms than have them handled by hired laborers, notwithstanding the undesirability of renting. The general opinion expressed is that hired labor constitutes a poorer class of farmers than tenants, and re- quires supervision from day to day. Renting relieves the owner of the responsibility that hiring does not, and the tenant has more interest in the amount and quality of the work done. Hired labor, which is very high-priced in Ore- gon, will, if not closely supervised and directed, eat up all the profits. It is also very unreliable and scarce at harvest time when the demand for farm labor is much greater than at any other season of the year. Farm work is of such a nature that labor has a better opportunity and greater temptation to shirk than in most other occupations, so it must be closely directed by one who is interested in the results produced, or else, at the end of the year, the balance sheet will be large on the wrong side. One man has well expressed the farmers' idea in regard to hired labor by saying that he prefers to let somebody else be worried by hired help. During the last few years, not much change has taken place in what each party furnishes, in the respective shares received by the owner and tenant, or in any other way. The owners of large wheat farms along the Columbia River say that, since the railroad has been put through, those having places within five miles of the railroad receive one-third of the crop instead of one-fourth as formerly. RepHes from different parts of the State say that the amount and also the proportion of cash rent has increased. Attention is also called to the fact that small orchards are charged for extra, which was not the case a few years ago. The large majority of answers claim that no change has taken place recently, thus indicating that the change for the State as a whole has not been marked for several years passed.
In Oregon, the prevailing opinion among landowners is that----
