66 GREAT BRITAIN - AGRICULTURAL IvCONOMY IN GENERAL 



were the lack of capital from which both tenants and landlords suffered ; 

 and the lowered price of grain after the repeal of the corn laws which made 

 arable land less profitable than pastureland. This is to leave out of account 

 the almost ridiculously large rents which tenants have for many j^-ears been 

 more and more willing to pay for shootings in Scotland during the autumn, 

 and which have placed a premium on under-cultivation. 



A third circumstance which has made Scotland a field for agrarian exper- 

 iments is political. The rate of emigration has increased alarmingly since 

 the middle of last centiir>'-, and the increase has been accentuated during 

 the last decade, in which the contrary phenomenon has been produced in 

 England and Ireland. Emigrants are drawn from no particular district 

 and from no particular class of the agricultural population but from all 

 alike. Between 1871 and 1911 the agricultural population declined by 22 

 per cent. ; and between 1909 and 1911 the number of emigrants rose from 

 33,368 to 61,328. It is true that Scotsmen have always been attracted to 

 remote parts of the world and successful in them ; but it is probable that 

 something might be done to arrest the tide of their emigration if further 

 improvements were wrought in the agrarian conditions they enjoy at home. 



§ 3. Eegislative Reforms. 



a) Reforms general in scope. 



The conditions of Scottish farming leases in general have been mainly 

 modified by the Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Act of 1883, amended and 

 completed in 1908. It was provided at the latter date that tenants, and 

 in particular market gardeners, should have compensation for their improve- 

 ments, and compensation for damage done by game and for " unreason- 

 able disturbance*' due to a landlord's refusal to renew their occupancy. They 

 received moreover the right to bequeathe the remainder of a lease and 

 greater freedom as to their system of crops. 



b) Reforms having particular reference to small holdings. 



The grievances of crofters and small tenants were much alleviated by 

 the Crofters' Holdings Act and the Small Eandholders Act. The former, 

 which was passed in 1886, applied only to crofts within the crofting counties 

 rented at no more than £30 a year. It pro^dded that a crofter might not 

 be removed from his holding except for the breach of certain statutory re- 

 gulations. It gave him the right to have his rent fixed fairly by a public 

 authority ; and the right, if he gave up his holding or were removed from it, 

 to receive compensation for his improvements and those effected b^' mem- 

 bers of his family who had held it before him. The execution of the Act 

 and the fixing of fair rents were entrusted to a specially constituted body, 

 the Crofters' Commission. 



Experience showed that there was a demand for more small holdings 

 and that some of those in existence were too small for the needs of their 

 tenants. In 1897 the Congested Districts' Board was established in Scotland 



