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TJic Country Gentleman' s Magazine 



of the disabilities under which farmers now 

 suffer will have to be removed, for it may be 

 that in the inevitable course of events there 

 are some burdens which, as time goes on, will 

 be found to increase rather than diminish. It 

 has frequently occurred to me that an im- 

 proved form of lease might be adopted on 

 the system of what is termed renewable leases 

 — combined with a tenant-right, or, in other 

 words, for a term of years, with specified 

 breaks or periods. We will suppose a twenty 

 years' lease to be agreed upon. I would 

 propose that it be so framed as to allow it 

 to terminate, if necessary or expedient, at 

 the expiration of every five years, either 

 at the instance of the landlord or the tenant, 

 the conditions of lease not being in the mean- 

 time affected. There are many reasons which 

 appear to render such a course desirable ; pro- 

 minently among these, the event of death. 

 But, from whatever reason out of many which 

 will suggest themselves, a tenant-right pro- 

 portionate as to time in permanent and other 

 improvements, or heavy outlays which may 

 have increased the rental value of the land, 

 should be recoverable. Such a system would 

 offer great inducements to men of capital 

 freely to expend it in the cultivation of their 

 farms, for they would have the satisfaction of 

 knowing, while so doing, that if they remained 

 upon the farm they would eventually reap 

 the benefit of their outlay, while if the lease 

 was brought to a premature conclusion, such 

 capital as remained unexhausted they would 

 still ha\»e a proportionate interest in, and 

 which would be recoverable as tenant- 

 right. There is another advantage also 

 which might be made to work well with such 

 a plan, viz., that at the expiration of — say 

 fifteen or sixteen years, a mutual arrangement 

 could be arrived at between the landlord and 

 his tenant as to the renewal or otherwise of 

 the lease, and the terms, or alteration of terms, 

 if any, to be then and there settled. This, it 

 will be seen, would be very desirable, ob- 

 viating, as it should, the system of scouring 

 or running out the land during the last 

 rotation. If the lease is to be re- 

 newed, then it is obviously to the in- 

 terest, of the occupier to keep up the pro- 



ductiveness of his land; if otherwise, then 

 there is the tenant-right to fall back upon, 

 the landlord and incoming tenant sharing in 

 such proportions as they may arrange, such 

 outlays as may have been incurred in lime, 

 bones, and linseed-cakes, buildings, drainage, 

 and other improvements, calculated upon 

 such a scale as shall recoup the outgoing 

 tenant his unexhausted interest in them. Our 

 honoured friend, Mr Alderman Mechi, than 

 whom few men have possessed clearer or more 

 intelligent notions in all matters relating to 

 agriculture, has pointed out that there need be 

 no limit in reason to the amount of capital 

 expended in land, and I fully believe that we 

 may some of us live to see the old notion of 

 ;^8 or pTio per acre regarded as a relic of 

 mediaeval times, coeval with flails and sickles. 

 " The land is a good bank," many a capitalist 

 may exclaim, "and shew me that I have 

 proper security and I will freely invest in it." 

 Thus, under the system I have advocated, the 

 details of which will readily be understood, a 

 stimulus would be afforded for the outlay of 

 money. 



ABSOLUTE SECURITY TO THE FARMER : LEGIS- 

 LATION. 



Arthur Young very long ago considered 

 Lincolnshire the " Garden of England," and 

 if his panegyric was uttered on good grounds, 

 then we must believe that it had resulted in 

 great part from that tenant-right, or, in other 

 words, security of capital, which must ever be 

 the greatest incentive — the vitality of all pro- 

 gress and improvement. How can a prudent 

 man be asked or expected to embark large 

 sums of money — perhaps his all — upon a 

 venture the issue of which depends not so 

 much on his own energy and ability as upon 

 the stability of mind of his landlord, without 

 some definite assurance that he may be 

 allowed to reap the benefit of it ; or, if not 

 that, that he may at least get his own 

 again ? And yet, under our present system, 

 an energetic and improving tenant has no 

 assurance, save his landlord's word, that he 

 may even do that. And in this assertion it 

 will be understood that it is far from my in- 

 tention to call in question the integrity and 



