526 



Tlic Coiintrv Gcntleiiiaiis Magar:inc 



rest, they "are no longer required in these days of arti- 

 ficial manuring, of feeding stock with concentrated 

 food along with grass and roots, of practice with 

 science. 



To my mind, restricting a farmer to a definite course 

 of cropping, is but another method of preventing him 

 from availing himself of that knowledge of his art he 

 has attained by experience and observation. In a 

 word : than the clauses as regards cropping inserted 

 in many agreements, there could, in my opinion, be 

 no better means taken to prevent the application of 

 capital to the cultivation of land. 



It were easy to fill a goodly chapter with quotations 

 from agreements, having for their object the mutual 

 advantage of landlord and tenant, but which only 

 tended to impoverish both them and the soil. Some 

 of them might take fair rank in a curiosity shop— such 

 as, for instance, where a clause is inserted by which a 

 tenant must either grind all the corn used on the farm 

 at his landlord's mill, or pay him toll when it is ground 

 elsewhere ; the performance of 'a certain amount of 

 labour by horses and men, or the payment of a certain 

 number of eggs and chickens, will now-a-days raise a 

 smile of derision, when mentioned in connexion with 

 letting a farm. Such were, however, gravely insisted 

 upon at no very distant date, by men who called them- 

 selves enlightened landowners. They may fairly be 

 set down as remnants of a bygone age, when feudalism 

 exerted its withering influence on everything connected 

 with the soil. 



The commutation of tithes, however, gave the all 

 but finishing blow to this class of absurd and vexatious 

 covenants, and opened the way to the free application 

 of capital. Still, it has been the fashion to consider 

 farming as a baby in leading strings, and quite unfit 

 to be trusted to go alone. I knew an estate where it 

 was absolutely forbidden under the leases on it to draw 

 off any portion of a root crop for consumption in the 

 yard, to grow wheat oftener than once in four years, 

 or to take two straw crops in succession. All which 

 are practised by men who have liberty, with advantage 

 to themselves, and without deteriorating the soil. 



The landlord is, undoubtedly, fairly entitled to pro- 

 tection. But I opine that the principle of sale, rather 

 than growth, is the true basis on which protection 

 should rest. It is quite time that all such time-worn 

 bonds were cast aside, and that commercial principles 

 should dictate what is necessary in this direction. 



To lay down a rule which should be generally appli- 

 cable is simply absurd. The soil and climate of the 

 Trincipality is sufficiently various to indicate methods 

 of management more conspicuous for applicability to 

 particular farms than for their uniformity. 



You are probably aware, all of you, that in Scot- 

 land, land is so invariably held on a lease that excep- 

 tions are hardly known. Whether agriculture in 

 Scotland is progressing faster than it is in districts 

 where yearly holdings are the rule, and leases the ex- 

 ception, I need not stop to inquire ; because it is a 

 fact which does not admit of doubt, that the agricul- 



ture of Scotland has reached a high degree of perfec- 

 tion, that its farms are generally held by an intelligent 

 tenantry, and that its labourers are skilful, and, for 

 their class, well-informed, intelligent, and tolerably 

 educated . 



Of late years much draining has been done there 

 with money borrowed from Government, which has to 

 be repaid by the owner or occupier in a given time. 

 But much land has also been drained, limed, and 

 otherwise improved by cultivation at the cost of the 

 tenant, whose sole protection for his capital so invested 

 is a lease for a given number of years, say nineteen or 

 twenty-one. And thus it is clearly shewn that land 

 held on a lease attracts capital towards it, and affords 

 it complete shelter. It would, however, attract more 

 than it now does, did not the law give the landlord 

 too much preference over their creditors. For, imder 

 Scotch law a landlord can not only secure himself for 

 rent not yet due, but he can follow grain, and fetch 

 back the value when it has been bought and paid for. 

 [This power was abolished by the Hypothec Amend- 

 ment Act of last year.] Now, only imagine what a 

 position the tenant occupies under this law. To be 

 safe, the corn dealer would require a certificate from 

 the landlord that the rent had been paid. I do not 

 give you this bit of insight into Scotch law for the 

 purpose of raising a discussion upon it, but to serve as 

 an illustration of the fact that over-protection to the 

 landlord operates prejudicially to the best interest of 

 the tenant, by limiting his means of acquiring capital, 

 and by so much militates against success. It stagnates 

 improvement and fictitiously raises the price of land, 

 because the landlord, under its provisions, need not be 

 so apprehensive of losing rent, and, therefore, he can 

 let his land to the highest bidder, even when some- 

 what deficient in capital. 



I do not think it is desirable that a landlord should 

 be placed on a perfectly equal position with other 

 creditors. But I certainly do think that it would tend 

 to his own and his tenant's advantage, were his rights 

 limited to the current six months, without any pre- 

 ferential claim over more arrears of rents than one 

 half-year. The business of farming would come more 

 within the scope of mercantile transactions, and money 

 would be obtainable for temporary purposes on nearly 

 the same terms as in commerce. 



The restriction of the landlord's preferential rights, 

 too, would necessarily lessen the competition for land ; 

 the undue pressure of which, as I have already said, 

 raises rents to a point not warranted by its value, and 

 obliges tenants to submit to restrictions in regard to 

 management, too often at variance with the interest 

 of all connected with a farm. To put a case : — Sup- 

 pose that A has a farm to let, and that B appears 

 among the list of applicants for it. B is known to A 

 as a respectable man, and a skilful experienced farmer, 

 but short of the capital required to thoroughly culti- 

 vate the land to let. He is, however, willing to give 

 a somewhat higher rent than others, and has none of the 

 new-fungled notions about payment for damage done 



