NEW VALUATION OF UNBUILT ON LAND 1 47 



Special contracts a complant in the case of vineyard leases are met with 

 in various departments, especially in Loire-Inferieure and la Vendee. By 

 these contracts, which come under the head of metairie contracts, land is 

 granted to the farmer for a period limited only by the life of the vines, on 

 the twofold condition of planting or keeping up the vineyard and giving 

 the landlord a definite portion of the crop. These leases are hereditary and 

 give the farmer the right of disposing of his original usufruct by sale, be- 

 quest or grant. 



Contracts a bordage, peculiar to the Perche district, give a stock farmer 

 {bordier) the right to lodge and pasture his livestock on a holding, cultivated 

 either by the owner or a tenant former, who only retains posession of the 

 corn, as the owner of the livestock has a right to the forage and straw on 

 which he feeds his stock. 



According to the contracts of terres a marche in the Somme, the tenant 

 on taking possession gives the proprietor a certain sum and he is then de- 

 barred from selling or letting to any one else except the tenant, any of the 

 real estate leased, unless it be with the tenant's consent. 



Again all these contracts, whatever their form, are very frequently com- 

 plicated by special clauses which influence the rent itself, by the reserv- 

 ation of certain advantages to the parties or by the imposition of certain 

 charges. 



Among the clauses most frequently met with are those referring to 

 the stock (supply of livestock and farm requisites by the proprietor) : 

 payment of taxes of every kind on the land and insurance premiums ; the 

 performance by the lessee of services (ploughing, carting etc.) or the pay- 

 ment by him of dues (eggs, poultry, vegetables etc.) to the lessor. 



Independently of these general clauses there are others special to cert- 

 ain districts. Such are, for example, in the department of Cotes- du-Nord, 

 supply by the lessor to the lessee of certain quantities of straw, hay and 

 dung, on conditions of equivalent quantities of the same being returned 

 on expiration of the lease ; in the department of Manche, the obHgation 

 on the part of the tenant to plant apple trees in the meadows, on condition 

 of the landlord paying the price ; in the arrondissement of Millau, the 

 clause binding the tenant to continue the supply of milk for making 

 Roquefort cheese, whilst the landlord undertakes to guarantee to keep the 

 price of the milk the same for the whole term of the lease. 



Naturally, the Ministerial Instructions of December 31st., 1908 could 

 not consider all the clauses and conditions that might be inserted in con- 

 tracts of lease ; they were limited to indications as to the course to be pur- 

 sued by the agents in order to ascertain the net revenue in the cases most 

 usually met with. 



As regards metairie contracts, which, in certain regions, represent almost 

 the only system of lease, order was given to find out the average amount 

 of grain and other produce annually delivered to the landlord by the metayer, 

 regard being had to the proportion laid down in the contract and then to 

 calculate, in accordance with the official list of prices adopted bj* the regis- 



