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MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS AND NOTICES. 



Vn. — Cultivation and Tenure of Land in Scotland and the Channel 

 Islands. Communicated by CHARLES BOWYER Adderley, M.P., 

 Hams Hall, Coleshill, 



Extract of a Letter, 



October 20, 185G. 



I HAVE, within the last few weeks, visited Scotland and the 

 Channel Islands, and I cannot say how much I have been struck 

 by the contrasts which those extremes of the United Kingdom 

 exhibit in their rural economy. I had heard much of the pro- 

 gress which the system of giving leases and letting farms by 

 tender had made of late years in Scotland, but I had no idea of 

 the extent to which it has been already carried. I believe it is 

 now as rare to find a farm unl eased in Scotland as to find one 

 leased in England. The usual term is either 19 or 21 years, 

 and the farmer no more considers that he lias a claim to renewal 

 at the end of it than he has to the fee-simple of the land. He 

 makes his calculations entirely on the basis of keeping the farm 

 so long, and no longer ; if he looks to getting a renewal, it must 

 be by paying at least as high a rent as can be got in the market, 

 for he knows that tenders will be advertised for, and, cceteris 

 paribus, the highest taken, 1 he sums invested by farmers in 

 permanent improvements on certain, though limited tenures, 

 guaranteed by lease, are almost incredible. A very intelligent 

 Tweedside farmer told me that a neighbour of his, a tenant of Sir 

 Thomas Brisbane's, had invested 40,000/. (including stock) on a 

 farm of 1000 acres, for which he paid 21. 2s. an acre. This is 

 probably an extreme case, but 20/. an acre is by no means uncom- 

 mon. Yet all agree that no business has paid better than farm- 

 ing for the last ten years. Under the new system rents have 

 risen enormously, in many cases 50 per cent., and it is satisfac- 

 tory to find that the labourers have shared in the general prosr 

 perity, wages having risen from 10^. or ll,s. to 14^. or 15^. in 

 the agricultural districts. One farmer told me he gave in harvest 

 18^. and food. It is strange that in Scotland, where so much of 

 feudal sentiment has lingered so long, and indeed still lingers, 

 this purely commercial system of land-letting should have esta- 

 blished itself, while in England it is hardly known. The cause, 

 I think, lies not in any deliberate change of opinion or feeling, 

 but in the necessities of the Scotch landlords, who have been 

 driven to turn their property to the most profitable account, 



