Land Tcnuvc 



527 



by game, is not very extensive in his ideas about build- 

 ings, nor requires to be paid for unexhausted improve- 

 ments. A therefore lets B the farm in preference to 

 C, who has ample capital, skill, and experience, and 

 withal a respectable man, but who is also embued 

 with some disagreeable notions about right of manage- 

 ment, game, and buildings, and insists on being paid 

 at the end of his tenancy for unexhausted improve- 

 ments made in the shape of draining, liming, artificial 

 manuring ; and for cake or corn used in feeding stock 

 in proportion to the time expired after making such 

 improvements, and using the manuring and feed- 

 ing material. To protect himself, however, against 

 loss from B's management, A inserts in the agreement 

 that the land let shall be managed during the term of 

 letting on a strictly four-course system, consisting of— 

 ist, wheat after clover ; 2d, roots ; 3d, barley ; and 

 4th, clover ; and thinks he has secured himself against 

 ultimate loss, while he pockets the present advance of 

 rent without outlays on buildings, or diminishing the 

 quantity of game; B requests a lease, which is granted, 

 and he goes to work. But, after a rotation or two, it 

 is found that the root crops fall off, and that clover 

 ceases to grow. It is known that lime would do much 

 to set this to rights, but the lease is half run, and there 

 is not time to reap the full benefit of its application. 

 Vet it is detennined to apply it ; but on reference to 

 his cash account, our farmer finds that, notwithstanding 

 his self-supporting system, his ready money is, some- 

 how not increased, and therefore he solicits the loan 

 of a hundred or two ; which, not being obtainable, 

 very much because there is every probability that the 

 landlord will one day take all on the farm for rent due 

 and arrears, all thoughts of improvement by liming is 

 abandoned. The lease is then looked up, to see if it 

 permits of a more extended or varied course of crop- 

 ping ; but no, its provisions are plain enough, and, on 

 reference to his landlord the tenant learns that any 

 modification of the covenants of a lease to suit existing 

 circumstances is not to be expected. An application 

 to have the lease cancelled is also refused, and there- 

 fore there is no other course open to poor B than to 

 return to his already exhausted farm and still further 

 exhaust it, by a continuance in the same course. His 

 path lies in a groove, leading to ruin. He is probably 

 a member of a farmer's club, and there hears a lecture 

 on the rotation of crops, but alas ! the suggestions of 

 the lecturer are not for him to turn to account. He 

 reads some agricultural journal, and learns that the 

 substitution of a pea or bean crop had had a good 

 effect on clover sick land. But his lease rigidly enacts 

 that no departure can be permitted from the celebrated 

 four-field course, which to him is likely to be four-fold 

 ruin, as his cereals now fall off in consequence of the 

 deficiency in his green or cattle crops. Money may be 

 at one or two per cent, but in his case it may as well 

 be twenty ; for by this time the preferential claims of 

 his landlord render borrowing an impossibility. The 

 sequel is soon told ; the lease expires ; the tenant's 

 capital has expired also ; the farm is left on the land- 



lord's hands to cultivate or to let at a reduced rate to 

 some man of means, who crops as suits the condition 

 of the land, and also, protected by his lease, which 

 provides payment for damage done by game, and 

 unexhausted improvements at the end, expends money 

 freely in the purchase of manures and feeding material. 

 He makes a good profit, and leaves the land in a high 

 state of fertility, or he may renew his lease and go on 

 in the path hitherto successful. And thus it is, that 

 a lease may be a benefit or the reverse. Nevertheless, 

 as proved by experience in Scotland, a lease is a solid 

 security for the investment of capital. 



The agriculture of this countiy is year by year be- 

 coming more intensive ; the crops grown on old arable 

 land, the live stock kept, the implements employed in 

 cultivation, and the artificial manures and feeding 

 stuffs used, together with the steady increase of rents, 

 amounts paid for labour and taxes, afford an irresist- 

 able accumulation of proof that an energetic spirit of 

 enterprize prevails. And, under its working results 

 are brought about, by which not only the landlord, 

 tenant, and labourer, but the whole community bene- 

 fit. Nor is there the indication that the employment 

 of capital has been overdone. On many farms, indeed 

 in entire districts, there is ample opportunity for the 

 outlay of larger sums ; and these districts and farms 

 are indications that the conditions of letting require 

 revision in order to attract the necessary amount of 

 capital to raise production to its maximum standard. 



YEARLY TENANCY. 



I may be told that there is much good farming, 

 much spirited cultivation in districts where the land is 

 held yearly ; and that many instances can be pointed 

 to of estates where, under this yearly tenancy, farms 

 remain in one family for generations, and where, coii- 

 sequently, a tenant is practically as safe in his holding 

 as if he had a lease. It may even be possible that 

 men so highly favoured would not care to accept 

 leases were they offered them. This is really very 

 pretty talk, and sounds well in a post-prandial ora- 

 tion, but it is, after all, a baseless fabric on which to 

 build the superstnicture of rural economy. 



I have seen estates let out at very moderate rents, 

 where the tenants vegetated like the plants they cul- 

 tivated, annually, who were the descendants of a line 

 of ancestors, that had been, to use a familiar phrase, 

 "bred on the farm," going on, surrounded by difficul- 

 ties in various forms, apparently without desire for im- 

 provement ; and I have spoken to such tenants about 

 changing their rotation of cropping, of supplying lime, 

 chalk, or marl, where it appeared necessary, and of 

 using cake and com in feeding their stock, and by this 

 means bringing it earlier to maturity, economising 

 their green crops, and enriching their manure heaps ; 

 and I have many times received some such answer as, 

 ' • Well, we are only yearly tenants : if we grow too 

 good crops, our rents will be increased, and without 

 security for the investment, we cannot apply either 



