128 ON THE AGEICULTUEE OF 



or not rents will fall. The almost nnprecedentedly bad weather 

 of recent years, coupled witli foreign competition both in grain 

 and meat markets, has, naturally enough, disheartened Scotch 

 farmers, and led many of them to take a somewhat gloomy view 

 of matters. Tljere is not the faintest risk of Scotch farming 

 coming to a standstill. It must and will go on and prosper as 

 before. "VVe are not sure, indeed, but that foreign competition, 

 and these times of adversity in regard to weather, which it may 

 be hoped are merely temporary, will ultimately establish not 

 only Scotch, but British farming generally, on a sounder basis 

 than it has ever before been. There is no blinking the fact, 

 however, that the large majority of farms let within the last two 

 or three years have brought lower rents than were paid for them 

 before. It is undoubtedly a fact that rents have got a decided 

 check ; and there is even prospect of their receding somewhat. 

 Indeed, a landed proprietor in Kincardineshire, who has a prac- 

 tical and accurate knowledge not only of the agriculture of this 

 county but of farming and business matters generally, gives it 

 as his opinion that rents will fall about 10 per cent. The rent 

 for sheep farms has risen since 1855 at about the same rate as 

 that for arable land. 



Leases. — The nineteen years' lease holds sway almost all over 

 these two counties. There are a few " improving " leases of 

 twenty-five or more years' duration ; while on the Airlie estates 

 the land is held under fourteen years' leases. Crofts are as a 

 rule held from year to year, but in some cases under ten, four- 

 teen, or nineteen years' leases. About ten or fifteen years ago 

 " life " leases were pretty numerous in Forfar, the large majority 

 being on the Panmure estates. The last, however, expired six 

 or seven years ago. Generally speaking, few changes take place 

 among the farmers of these counties, and only in exceptional 

 cases do tenants remove from one estate to another. In Forfar- 

 shire the Martinmas term of entry to farms is the most general ; 

 Kincardineshire being almost equally divided between that term 

 and Whitsunday. Where entry is olDtained at Martinmas, the in- 

 coming tenant has, as a rule, to take over, at valuation by arbiters 

 mutually chosen, one half or the whole of the growing crops of 

 grain, and the whole of the turnip crop, but no potatoes or hay. 

 The incoming tenant has to harvest the grain crops, but is paid 

 for his work by the outgoing tenant. Tenants entering at Whit- 

 sunday usually take over at valuation all the grain crops, the 

 grass, and dung. Pients are paid on almost all estates half 

 yearly, the majority at Candlemas and Lammas, — the first half 

 at Candlemas, fifteen months after entry. In a good many 

 cases Martinmas and Whitsunday terms are the rent days. 

 Forehand rents are the exception. On Mr Baird's estate of 

 Piickarton, in Kincardineshire, forehand rents have been paid 

 from time immemorial by a considerable number of tenants — at 



