Improvement of Waste Land in Suther lands hire 



365 



is required. Such land, when put into fit condition 

 for the investment of a large tenant capital, would 

 readily command from 20s. to 30s. per acre rent. How 

 little of our land is really in a fit condition for the 

 profitable investment of tenant capital ? Where are 

 the good roads and fences, the covered yards, good 

 labourers' cottages, the suitable residence for a well- 

 capitalled tenant ? Is not draining still to be done on 

 ii-i2thsof our land requiring it ?— so says a great 

 authority, Mr Bailey Denton, therefore I feel justified 

 in saying that on well-conditioned reclaimable land a 

 considerable rent might be obtained from a dependable 

 tenant. 



There need be no outlay on the part of the land- 

 owner, for the interest charged by the Company, which 

 finds money for the improvements at 6% per cent, 

 interest, would cover ordinary principal and interest 

 in, I believe, twenty-six years, so that, at the termina- 

 tion of this period, there would be no longer any charge 

 upon the land. How much of the 6}4 per cent, is to 

 be paid annually, in fair proportion between the land- 

 owner and tenant is an affair of agreement. In one 

 matter, draining, if the tenant paid it all, he would 

 still be a considerable gainer, although that would be 

 hardly equitable, because I look upon draining at 4 

 feet deep in strong clays as an almost permanent im- 

 provement, provided that the work is well done, and 

 the outfalls carefully watched, which is too often not 

 the case, and for which the tenant should be made 

 responsible. My experience teaches me that the drains 

 in strong soils should be nearer to each other in a 

 pluvial than in a dry climate, 30 feet being the maxi- 

 mum, and 14 feet the minimum distance. As to the 

 period of lease to a tenant who effected all these con- 

 versions and improvements at his own cost, I consider 

 that thirty years would not be more than, on such con- 

 ditions, he would be entitled to, paying of course only 

 a waste-land rent during that period. 



All these matters could be well calculated by some 

 of our well-known able and equitable land valuers. 

 I cannot agree with your lordship's opinion about 

 tenant-right, because I look upon it as the basis of 

 improved agriculture. No one, I think, can doubt it 

 who has read the digest of the evidence on this subject 

 taken before the late Mr Pusey's House of Commons 

 committee in 1849. This digest was prepared by 

 Messrs Shaw & Corbet, of the London Farmers' Club 

 and being reprinted may, I believe, be obtained at Mr 

 Tuxford's, 265 Strand, price 3s. 6d. It contains the 

 evidence of fifty eniinent landowners, land valuers, and 

 farmers. 



In the case of your Irish tenantry, it appears from 

 your letter that they alone have effected the conversion 

 and improvement of your waste lands, and are, there- 

 fore, justly entitled to their fair share of the resulting 

 advantages. In strict equity your lordship could only 

 claim the enhanced rent which the land, still unim- 

 proved, would have now commanded by the efflux of 

 time and change of circumstances. 



My experience, as regards the veracity of the lower 



orders of Irish, corresponds with yours, for as a 

 magistrate of London, in numerous cases of assault, 

 battery, &c., from the Irish colonies within the City, 

 I have often been puzzled and amused by their easy 

 conscience in the matter of oaths, for which, however, 

 due allowance should be made. 



We have unmistakeable and satisfactory proof in 

 Lincolnshire of the national importance of tenant- 

 right by its great encouragement of ample and in- 

 creased production. The custom of the country there 

 renders the question of leases quite secondary, because 

 a tenant can safely farm well up to the last moment 

 of his occupation, and then enter upon another holding 

 also well farmed and unexhausted. This is a matter 

 of great advantage to the nation, for the full production 

 of food by good farming is continuous, while, under 

 the ordinary system, several years are occupied in 

 exhausting the land, and as many more in endeavour- 

 ing to restore the lost fertility. 



Even with the Scotch nineteen years' lease, which 

 has caused so much improvement, this "taking-out" 

 system prevails, because there is no compensation to 

 the tenant for any portion of his unexhausted im- 

 provements. 



It is to be hoped that in the course of time some- 

 thing like a systematic and uniform practice of valua- 

 tion at outgoing may take place, where the conditions 

 are similar. If the Legislature once enacted a general 

 principle of valuations for tenants' unexhausted im- 

 provements, our able land valuers would soon shew 

 themselves capable of estimating at their fair value the 

 proper allowances. In many parts of Ireland the 

 tenant has dug and reclaimed the land, built his own 

 hut, house, or sheds, the land- owner having only pro- 

 vided the bare waste. Is it not natural, under such 

 circumstances, that the tenant should look upon his 

 own improvements as his own property, and that the 

 feelings of irritation and injury upon eviction or greatly 

 increased rent, should, in the absence of a legal valua- 

 tion of unexhausted improvements, and in the case of 

 a vivacious and excitable people, find vent in illegal 

 proceedings ? For in Ireland it is almost to the land 

 alone that the population look for subsistence and em- 

 ployment. We all know that in towns and cities no 

 tenant would be so unwise as to effect improvements 

 without a lease long enough to recoup himself for his 

 outlay, or a valuation of such improvements. I can 

 readily perceive why your lordship's feelings about 

 tenant-right are adverse. Your lordship, in your own 

 county, is known and esteemed as a clear-headed 

 man of business, with perfectly equitable feelings, and 

 a right sense of a landlord's duties and responsibilities. 

 Your tenants, if worthy men, may be said to have an 

 almost certainty of the renewal of their leases on 

 equitable terms ; you assist them in their improve- 

 ments, and are anxious to adapt your property to 

 modern requirements. Many other noble owners do 

 the same, but in too many instances all this is wanting, 

 and as, in business matters, people are not saved by 

 faith, but liy the want of it, we must lay down '^as a 



