132 ECONOMIC ESSAYS IN HONOR OF JOHN BATES CLARK 
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wnership of Land. Land tenure as a part of land economics 
deals mainly with the human relationships involved in systems 
of property rights and with the effect of those relationships upon 
the utilization of natural resources. On the basis of this analysis 
certain policies of land tenure find general acceptance. From the 
istorical point of view the evolution of land systems is traced 
with special emphasis upon the relations between landlord and 
tenant, the economic effect of enlarging or contracting the sphere 
of public and private property, and the economic desirability of 
xtending or curtailing the social side of private property, refer- 
ring to the public control of private rights to use land. 
The prevailing sentiment of land economists is distinctly favor- 
able to private ownership of most types of land, particularly 
agricultural and urban land, with some measure of public owner- 
ship and a still larger measure of public control over private 
rights. The attitude toward tenancy is that public tenancy in 
hese classes of land is on the whole undesirable, but that some 
private tenancy is both desirable and normal. Jan 
Real progress is being made in getting at principles underlying 
agricultural land tenure. The Bureau of Agricultural Economics 
of the United States Department of Agriculture and some agri- 
cultural colleges have made some careful studies in regard to 
tenure and ownership of farms. The Institute for Research in 
Land Economics and Public Utilities is conducting very eile 
and minute inquiries in regard to tenancy and ownership In 
selected areas, taking, for example, a section where there is pr 
tically no tenancy and other sections where there is a large 
amount of tenancy. It has also given some attention to the 
inheritance of farms. Instead of broad and misleading state- 
ments to the effect that tenancy is an evil, we know something 
about its proper place in a desirable system of land tenure and 
have some ideas as to what may be a desirable amount of tenanc 
and also as to what is good and bad tenancy. 
he ideal policy is to encourage home ownership and owner- 
operation of farms, using tenancy, which is properly regulated in 
the interests of both tenants and landlords, as a means of reaching 
the status of ownership. 
While we do know something about tenancy and home owner- 
ship in rural districts, we know very little of scientific value 
about home ownership and tenancy in cities. What proportion