Compensating a Retii ing Tenant. 



295 



Norfolk. The late Lord Leicester granted 

 leases of twenty-one years, and there was no 

 estate of such large extent (some 60^000 acres) 

 ii^ better order than that was. If yearly 

 holdings must be continued, the best substi- 

 tute for the lease that he could suggest was 

 that ot yearly agreements, with a stipulation 

 that two or three years' notice should be 

 given previous to quitting the farm. It was 

 absurd to suppose that any compensation 

 likely to be submitted to could recoup the 

 tenant who was suddenly turned out of his 

 farm at six months' notice. As it could not 

 be provided for in any general lease, or any 

 system of custom, the large outlay made by 

 the tenant in permanent improvement should 

 be done under special agreement. 



STEAM PLOUGHING — LOCAL TAXATION. 



There were other resources for the relief of 

 the agricultural interests which required the 

 attention and consideration of Chambers of 

 Agriculture, there being for example, the de- 

 velopment of machinery and the reduction 

 of burthens on land. That powerful engine, 

 the steam plough and grubber, would, he 

 believed, eventually economise in tillage 

 more than the increased amount of wages 

 likely to be established. Two years ago he 

 witnessed on a farm of thirteen hundred 

 acres all the stubbles grubbed at seven 

 shillings per acre by steam power, and the 

 work was more efficiently performed than 

 could have been done by any amount of 

 horse power. All expenditure contingent on 

 the cultivation of a farm must be recouped 

 out of the produce, and consequently every 

 additional burthen must add to the cost of 

 production, and fall on the great necessaries 

 of life, viz., bread, meat, butter, and milk. 

 It mattered not whether it was manual 

 labour, tradesmen's bills, tithes, rates, or 

 taxes, all must be paid before a shilling went 

 into the pocket of the occupier, to hand over 

 to the owner as rent, which rent was simply 

 a portion of the surplus profit. If a shilling 

 in the ^ was to be collected as a national 

 education late, and another shilling for 

 sanitary organization, the cash must be ex- 

 tracted from the total returns of the farm, 



and would fall chiefly upon the tenant. The 

 Birmingham politician might as well argue 

 that the cost of machinery and all other ex- 

 penditure necessaryfor raising the productions 

 of the farm came out of the pocket of the land- 

 lord as to say that the additional local taxation 

 burthens would. As the greater portion of 

 the land in England was inferior soil, it was 

 clear that a very small increase of burthens 

 would not only swallow the whole rent, but 

 would also throw that low class of land out 

 of cultivation. The loss that the owners ot 

 personal wealth would then sustain would be 

 more than the payment of an equitable share 

 of local taxation, the amount of which was 

 already 20 per cent, on real property, and if 

 spread over every other class of wealth would 

 be about 3 per cent. Under any other cir- 

 cumstances he warned them against legisla- 

 tive interference between the owner and oc- 

 cupier. The mention of such interference 

 reminded him of the Prime Minister who 

 summoned a deputation of merchants before 

 him, and when they appeared he asked them 

 what he could do for them to benefit their 

 interests. Their reply was, " Let us alone ; 

 we can manage our own business better than 

 you can for us." Similarly with other trades 

 and professions, the progress and prosperity 

 of agriculturists depended upon their own 

 energy and intelligence, and if those who de- 

 voted the whole of their time to agricultural 

 development could not discern what was really 

 to their own advantage, then their case was 

 hopeless. He remembered many years since, 

 when Lord Althorp was Chancellor of the 

 Exchequer, the Government earnestly at- 

 tempted to promote the interest of the agri- 

 culturalists, and after much inquiry they found 

 the only assistance they could give was to 

 take the tax off the shepherds' dogs. He men- 

 tioned these facts to show how unlikely they 

 were to derive help from any extraneous 

 sources. 



THE NATURE OF A FARMING AGREEMENT : 

 THE NORFOLK CUSTOM. 



On entering into an engagement for a farm 

 the transaction was a voluntary arrangement 

 between two private individuals. In that 



