(M674) According to the Code the tenant was bound to keep the land in good condition. His duties included the ploughing or trenching, sowing the seed, snaring or driving off the birds and stray beasts, weeding, watering, and harvesting. Gardens he had to fence. The watering-machines were of great importance and had to be kept in order. They were worked by oxen—often as many as eight oxen were required to work them. A certain amount of stock was frequently leased with the land. It is not clear that oxen were used for the plough; they may have been kept for the watering-machines. (M675) The landlord was in a very real sense a partner with his tenant, though he may be described as a “silent partner”. In the case of the great temple landowners it seems to have been the custom to supply a very large amount of the tenant’s necessities. Seed-corn was frequently furnished, also corn for food for farmer and men, until the crop was gathered. The stock and farm implements were also provided by the landlord. This metayer system of leasing land probably accounts for loans without interest. It is not clear that such a system was already in vogue in early times. (M676) In hiring a field it might be stipulated that the lessee should place a dwelling upon it,(727) _manaḫtu ana eḳlim išakkanu_. Here the field was at a distance from the city, “beyond the upper stream.” If the crop was to be properly looked after, protected from birds, stray beasts, and robbers the farmer must live there some part of the year. There was no dwelling. The lessee was therefore called on to erect a dwelling. Probably a simple edifice sufficed. At the end of the tenancy the tenant was called on to resign this building. (M677) There were two sorts of land. That called _AB-SIN_ or _šeru’_, seems always to have paid six to eight _GUR_ of corn per _GAN_. The other sort, _KI-DAN_, probably read _kigallu_, and certainly meaning land, not cultivated but to be brought into cultivation, was exceedingly variable in quality. It is set down for a rent of from three up to eighteen _GUR_ per _GAN_, but some land is rented at seventy-two _GUR_ per _GAN_.(728)