20 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



In the first place, the necessary ploughings and till- 

 ages given to land since the preceding Michaehnas, when 

 a green crop has not been taken. This portion of the 

 valuation will include the ploughings and tillings of all 

 lands considered as fallows, or producing green crops, 

 as tares, rye, and such crops as are consumed by cattle 

 during the preceding summer, and of all land prepared 

 for the growth of roots, as mangel wurzel, Swede and 

 common turnips, rape, cabbages, and crops of a like 

 description. The course of cultivation of these crops, 

 in addition to the ploughings and tillings as before 

 stated, must be estimated and paid for at a such a sum 

 as they may be valued at, without reference to the value 

 of the crops, unless any defective management has pro- 

 duced such a result, and which must be determined by 

 the valuers appointed. 



In the next place, the manure ought to be valued at 

 what it may be worth, taking the expenditure for oil- 

 cake and corn in the preceding year into consideration, 

 a fair proportion of such corn or oil-cake to be allowed 

 over and above the ordinary value of the dung, to the 

 extent of one-fifth of the entire cost only, upon proper 

 vouchers being produced of its having been consumed 

 upon the farm from the preceding Michaelmas, and to 

 insure good cultivation to the last an allowance upon 

 the oil-cake consumed the preceding year to the extent 

 of twenty per cent., in my opinion, oxght to be allowed. 



We have not treated of manure produced by ex- 

 traordinary means, and it remains only to show that the 

 ordinary manure produced upon the farm, and not ap- 

 plied to the production of grain crops, should or should 

 not be paid for, together with the labour of carrying out 

 and preparing, as well as carting and spreading upon the 

 land, be paid for according to its value, which must depend 

 upon the number of cattle and horses kept upon it, and 

 the description of food upon which they have been fed ; 

 in no instance, however, should any manure be paid for 

 unless made since the preceding Michaelmas, so in fact 

 that the manure only of one year should in any case be 

 valued, nor any portion be valued if a grain crop had 

 been since taken from the land to which it had been 

 applied. 



We now come to an important item— the straw and 

 hay of the previous year's crop. As regards the former, 

 it ought to be considered as the property of the land- 

 lord, and not removable from the estate at the expira- 

 tion of the term ; the tenant having an interest therein 

 by feeding it, and for which he ought to be compensated. 

 Thus in many counties is it computed by the cost of 

 thrashing and carting out the crop, the former being 

 paid for by the incoming tenant, at such a sum per qr. 

 as the valuers may agree upon, the incoming tenant 

 carting out the grain a distance not exceeding ten miles 

 in addition : in other cases the wheat straw being esti- 

 mated at per ton, at its market value at the barn, half 

 that price is paid ; barley being taken at two-thirds ; 

 and oats, if well harvested, at three« fourths of the value j 

 beans and peas at half that amount. Supposing, there- 

 fore, that the wheat straw is worth 24s. per ton 123. 

 would be paid as the feeding value ; barley at' two^ 

 thirds, or 8s. ; oats at 9s. ; and beans and peas at 6s. : 

 if measured by the quarter, say wheat thrashing 2s. 6d. 

 and carrying Is. per quarter, this at four quarters per 

 acre will be 14s. ; barley, at 2s. 6d. and carting 8d., at 

 five quarters, lis. 8d. ; beans, four quarters, at Is. 6d 

 and cartmg Is., 10s. per acre, and so on. This is one 

 of the most ready modes of settling, and is very fair as 

 the mcommg tenant, having the horses upon the farm, 

 IS enabled to carry out the corn without much incon- 

 venience. 



The hay is the next consideration. The market 

 value bemg found, one-third is deducted to meet the 

 cost of marketing and carting out, and bringing back a 



suitable quantity of manure if sold, an allowance of one- 

 third partly meeting the question. 



These items will be found to comprise all the subjects 

 that ought fairly to be valued, and which constitute the 

 ordinary valuation. To provide for the well-cultivation 

 of the farm to the end of the term, permanent improve- 

 ments, carried out during the preceding four years, 

 ought to be allowed and paid for. Draining, if done by 

 the tenant within that period, should be paid for to half 

 the cost ; and so of any like permanent improvement, 

 such as would extend throughout an entire term of four- 

 teen years. It would, however, not be desirable to 

 burden the landlord, on the one hand, with too heavy 

 payments of this nature; but the tenant should, not- 

 withstanding, be partly compensated by way of induce- 

 ment to proceed, so that, either event occurring of quit- 

 ting or continuing the occupation of the farm, he may 

 be placed in such a position that the least possible loss 

 should accrue to himself or to the farmer. 



I believe I have now adverted to the principal items 

 ordinarily coming under valuation, and I propose, in an 

 appendix, to show how such valuation would be best 

 carried out, and the proportion per acre that they would 

 carry out upon the entire farm ; and it has been my study 

 not to increase the amount of valuation beyond the 

 actual necessity of the case, at the same time paying to 

 such an extent -as to insure equable cultivation to the end 

 of the term. 



It has happened throughout my practice to observe 

 that tenants, farming under leases, for the most part make 

 a large investment in the soil at first, which they 

 gradually exhaust as they approach the termination of 

 the lease. Now, it must be apparent to every one con- 

 nected with farm management, that a farm ought to con- 

 tinuously advance in improvement ; and, under due 

 restrictions and a well-defined lease or custom, such 

 would be the case. But tenants are too apt to imagine 

 that in such event their rents would be advanced, inas- 

 much as the improvement remaining would be a suf- 

 ficient inducement for a stranger to give an advanced 

 rent in consequence. This certainly ought to be ob- 

 viated to some extent by the mode I have recommended, 

 and which applies only to the termination of the lease ; 

 but the restrictive covenants of the latter frequently de- 

 prive the tenant of the advantages he ought to derive 

 under good management. I will now consider what the 

 nature of such covenants ought to be, to insure it. It is 

 advisable in all teases that a lease should exist : the 

 mere custom of a district is never sufficiently defined to 

 admit of an occupation being carried throughout to the 

 close in a satisfactory manner. But a lease for a long 

 term is to some extent an unsatisfactory bargain. The 

 landlord might suffer by parting with his estate for the 

 period stipulated ; prices might so alter as to render it a 

 bad bargain, either for one party or the other : to obviate 

 this, the rent should be subjected to a rise and fall in 

 amount annually to meet the occasion. A corn rent, 

 however, depending entirely upon the price of wheat or 

 grain, would in many cases not operate beneficially. 

 Grain might fall so low from the peculiar circum- 

 stances of season, blight, or other causes, as to mate- 

 rially affect the income of the landlord ; whilst at other 

 times it might rise so high as to affect the tenant in 

 like manner, by calling upon him to pay a greatly in- 

 creased amount of rent at a time probably |when he did 

 not derive a proportionate advance in his produce. In 

 a work lately published, entitled " Bayldon on Valuing 

 Rents and Tillages," as editor I treated upon this sub- 

 ject, and advanced in principle what in my experience I 

 had found to work well, viz., to pay a moiety of the en- 

 tire rental in money, and the other moiety to be depen- 

 dent upon the price of grain. By this arrangement the 

 fluctuation would be lessened, and neither party become 



