Freedom and Progress 83 



manuring and cultivating, and took everything they could out 

 of the land.. When a new tenant came in he had to spend six or 

 seven years in bringing the land back into good cropping con- 

 dition. This practice of letting the fertility down kept the 

 standard of production low. 



It was 1875 before a law such as Blith recommended was passed. 

 The Agricultural Holdings Act of that year recognized that 

 a tenant on leaving a farm had a right to compensation for 

 unexhausted improvements, and it made provision for securing 

 this. Unfortunately it allowed the landlord and tenant to make 

 a bargain that the latter would not ask for the fulfilment of this 

 right at the end of the lease. Landlords in so many cases pressed 

 this bargain on the tenant that the Act was practically useless, 

 and in 1883 a new Act was passed making it illegal to contract 

 out of the obligation to pay compensation. 



In 1880 the Ground Game Act was passed. The opening 

 words of the Act are : ' Whereas it is expedient in the interests 

 of good husbandry, and for the better security for the capital 

 and labour invested by the occupiers of the land in the cultivation 

 of the soil, that further provision should be made to enable such 

 occupiers to protect their crops from injury and loss by ground 

 game . . . Every occupier of land shall have, as incident to and 

 inseparable from his occupation of the land, the right to kill and 

 take ground game thereon, concurrently with any other person 

 who may be entitled to kill and take ground game on the same 

 land.' Under the Agricultural Holdings Act of 1908 occupiers 

 are allowed compensation for injury done to crops by game which 

 they are not allowed to kill or take. 



During the prosperous time from 1853 to 1876 the condition 

 of the labourers was still unsatisfactory. Almost anything was 

 better than the old system which encouraged them to become 

 paupers. But the use of the Poor Law for such mistaken purposes 

 during so long a period had given rise to far-reaching evils. 



F 2 



