GAME AND THE GAME LAWS. 173 



is likely to render the transaction more just than where it partakes 

 more of an accidental or arbitrary character, where one party may 

 be led by his caprice to demand too much, or be betrayed by his 

 ignorance to obtain too little ; or the other party may be driven by 

 his necessities, or led by a mistaken judgment of the capacities of 

 the farm, to take it upon very hard terms. The taxes and tithes 

 are usually paid by the tenant ; but their amount is always con 

 sidered in determining the rent, so that, properly speaking, they 

 are paid by the landlord, and not by the tenant. The leasing of 

 farms, in the United States, is quite rare, and but in few cases is 

 it arranged by any established rule. In New England, in such 

 cases, matters are conducted most loosely. Farms are frequently 

 11 taken to the halves,&quot; which is understood to imply that the 

 farmer returns half of all the produce grown to the owner ; but 

 the landlord is almost entirely in the power of the farmer ; and, 

 after the farmer has, as is but too common, applied to his own 

 use about half the produce, he divides with the owner the half 

 which remains. If the owner furnishes implements, the farmer 

 returns them as good as he received them ; and, if he furnishes 

 stock, as on a breeding or a dairy farm, the tenant pays the legal 

 interest upon the cost, makes good the stock received when he 

 quits the farm, which is generally settled by valuers or appraisers, 

 and divides with his landlord one half the increase. Our prac 

 tices, in this matter, are various and unsettled ; and, as long as 

 the hiring of farms continues with us to be so infrequent, and 

 it is likely to continue so while land remains as easy to be pur 

 chased as it now is, no exact method will be introduced. 



XXL GAME AND THE GAME LAWS. 



The farmers in the United States are happily free from one evil 

 which presses heavily upon the English farmers ; and that is, the 

 nuisance of what is here called game, and the curse of the game 

 laws. Pheasants, partridges, grouse, hares, and rabbits, are here 

 called gamej and are protected, by the most severe laws, for the 

 benefit of sportsmen who either own or lease the territory on 

 15* 



