TWENTY-FIVE YEARS' WORK. 13 



condition. Its whole appearance is changed. It 

 would be hard for any one who had not seen the 

 process to believe it is the same land. 



Now as to the effect on the rest of the estate, 

 After the famine years were over, the same course 

 as before was pursued with the tenants. Whatever 

 rents they had promised were punctually enforced, 

 unless for very definite causes, and any tenant that 

 could not pay was considered unfit to remain on the 

 land. On the other hand, they were allowed to 

 understand, that no one paying his rent would have 

 it raised or be dispossessed during his life, unless 

 for gross misconduct. The objections to so long a 

 tenure were not overlooked, but on the whole it 

 was considered an advisable concession to the feel- 

 ings and prejudices prevailing in the country. Of 

 course where a tenant died or gave up, his successor 

 had to make a new bargain, and in this way a 

 steady rise in the rental has gone on. No sale of 

 his interest (as it is called) by a tenant to a suc- 

 cessor was ever allowed, directly or indirectly. The 

 tenants saw before I did that the farm was paying. 

 And the first result was to put an end to all schem- 

 ing. The talk " He will soon be tired of that," 

 gave place to, " No wonder he can make it pay, 

 with capital and no rent to pay." It was useless 

 to pretend poverty and neglect their farms in hope 

 of getting a reduction of rent, or throw them up in 

 order to spite the landlord. They saw that the 



