CONTRACTORS. 147 



liver in name of rent, a certain portion of the 

 crop in bulk. 



Under this system the land is robbed of the 

 straw which ought to be converted into ma- 

 nure, and consequently, year by year, must be- 

 come more and more deteriorated ; and at last 

 finding it has been nearly worked out, and 

 rendered no longer capable of making him a 

 due return for his trouble, the contractor 

 leaves it, and in the wide range of the States, 

 seeks and readily finds another lot, to be 

 ploughed and cropped and impoverished in its 

 turn. 



That this system is an improvident one is 

 very obvious, and it is equally so that the evil 

 consequences inseparable from it, might be 

 averted by an arrangement of the land into 

 proper sized farms, of from 200 to 500 acres, 

 according to the means of tenants erecting 

 upon them suitable buildings both for the ac- 

 commodation of the tenants and for housing 

 their stock and granting leases for a term of 

 years sufficient for ensuring a return of the 



