134 DIFFICULTIES EXPERIENCED Bl" 



In Scotland, nineteen years may be granted 

 as sufficient to redeem the outlay, but this pro- 

 ceeds upon the hypothesis that the principal had 

 been invested during the first year of the lease, 

 which every farmer is aware is impracticable 

 in the vast majority of cases. Although houses 

 may be built in one year, it is seldom that the 

 tenant is able to perform all the carriages 

 during this period, especially the first year, if 

 he is an incoming tenant. Improvements con- 

 nected with the soil cannot be performed in 

 shorter time than one rotation, and more fre- 

 quently require two, so that half the currency 

 of the lease is expired before they are concluded. 

 The inference, therefore, is obvious, that the 

 tenant is obliged to resort to illegitimate means 

 in order to keep himself safe, and get his money 

 out of the farm. Hence it is, that a vast 

 amount of improvements are of a very super- 

 ficial kind ; and while the tenant has been 

 meliorating one part of the farm, he has at the 

 same time been reducing in value two parts, 

 by severe cropping, frequently leaving the 

 farm at the expiry of his lease actually worth 

 less rent than at its commencement. We could 

 instance numerous examples where both parties 



