188 REPORT ON THE AGRICULTURE OF PERTHSHIRE. 



in the hands of even the best men are always rising in condition 

 during the early part of the lease, and falling towards its close, 

 not from miscropping, but by cropping according to the lease, and 

 by not applying such extra manure as such a course of cropping 

 necessitates. It is the same thing as if horses were jobbed for 

 six months, and kept on four feeds of corn per day in the first 

 four months, and on two feeds, with the same work, during the 

 two last. It is probably not very distinctly seen in this light by 

 many landowners, for if it were, surely some plan would be 

 adopted to correct the evil. The best remedy, and the one most 

 likely to lead to steady advancement in the condition of land, 

 would be by a renewal of leases when the land is in good fair 

 condition before the wearing down has begun, and it would pay 

 a tenant then better to give an advance for a fifteen years' lease, 

 after the expiry of the current lease, than to take it at the old 

 rent, or even less, at the termination of the lease. Until some 

 such plan is generally adopted, and tenants feel more security 

 than they have at present that the money they spend in putting 

 and keeping their land in condition will not be lost to them at 

 the end of their leases, we cannot expect any great improvement. 

 At present the English tenant-at-will from year to year feels 

 much safer of a permanent connection with his farm than the 

 Scotch tenant with his nineteen years' lease. The English 

 tenant knows that if he votes with his landlord, and stands a 

 little game damage, he will never have any question raised about 

 the rent he pays. The Scotch tenant, with his lease, may have 

 the luxury of quarrelling with his laird for the whole term of the 

 lease, if so inclined, and whether he quarrels or not, he knows 

 that the bargain ends at its termination, and he must then go or 

 make a new one, under stiff competition, with men perhaps very 

 inferior to himself. It may be doubted, in short, whether the 

 state of agriculture in Scotland is so much consequent on the 

 system of letting on lease as is generally believed, and whether 

 it is not mainly due rather to the perseverance, energy, and 

 frugality that mark Scotchmen in all occupations and in all 

 countries. If the English system had prevailed in Scotland with 

 the same confidence between owner and occupier, it may be 

 argued that the same, or even greater, improvement would have 

 been made, and that Scotchmen in England have farmed on 

 yearly tenure as well or better than even they did in Scot- 

 land. On the other hand, in Scotland it is well known that 

 good farms, held on favourable leases by successive liferents, 

 have been badly farmed ; but these cases were probably excep- 

 tions, and there will always be bad farmers under the most 

 favourable circumstances. There can be no doubt, however, that 

 good farmers would farm much better if they felt greater security 

 in regard to renewal of their leases on fair terms ; not that this 



