WHY SCOTLAND TOOK THE LEAD. 101 



was stated by one of the witnesses, " the tenants 

 are practically the applicants for improvement 

 loans." They readily meet their landlords much 

 more than half-way in contributing to the repay- 

 ment ; and instead of lagging behind, or waiting 

 to be spurred on to further enterprise, they com- 

 pete even too much with each other for the posses- 

 sion of farms on terms which have now become 

 more remunerative to the land-owners than to 

 themselves. There is not in England, generally, 

 a similar spirit of agricultural enterprise. 



To what is this difference between the two The 



Scotch 



countries to be attributed ? Chiefly to three landowner 



better 



causes, in which the Scotch landowner has the trained 



to his 



advantage : earlier education in, and apprecia- busmess - 

 tion of, the benefits of land improvement ; a 

 better knowledge of the business of landowning; 

 and the general system of leases. To the first, 

 reference has already been made. The better 

 knowledge of their business has naturally flowed 

 from it to the Scotch landowners. They are 

 trained to it by fathers who have been in their 

 day likewise taught to look into the manage- 

 ment of their property. Sir Walter Scott 



