94 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Paet III. 



frailties of human nature, that, in a state of civilised society, and of property, legal 

 assistance will sometimes be necessarJ^ The error of country gentlemen consists, not 

 in employing lawyers, but in committing the management of their landed estates to 

 them. 



4279. In the feudal system^ under which every manor court was a court of law, we 

 may perceive the origin of law land-stewards. It is allowed by the best agricultural 

 writers in Europe {Chateauvieux, Thaer, Thouin, Sigismondi, Jovellanos, Young, Marshal, 

 Brown, Coventry, ^c), that these men by their rigid adherence to precedent in the 

 clauses of leases, have contributed most materially to retard the progress of agricultural 

 improvement. 



4280. The land-surveyor is another professional man, whom the superintendant of an 

 estate may want to call in occasionally. Not merely to measure and map the whole or 

 parts of the estate, but to assist in matters of arbitration, and the amicable settlement of 

 disputes ; or to act himself, as valuer or referee. 



Sect. II. Of the Land Steward's Place of Business, and what belongs to it. 



4281. A manager's place of business may be considered in regard to its situation, accom- 

 modation, and appropriate professional furniture. 



4282. The situation of the place of business should be under the roof of the proprie- 

 tor's principal residence ; round which, and in its neighborhood, some considerable 

 parts of his estates may be supposed (as they ever ought) to lie. If a large bulk of his 

 property lie at too great a distance for tenants to attend at the principal office, and on 

 which he has a secondary residence, an inferior office is there required for such detached 

 part. And it may be laid down as a rule, in the management of landed property. 

 Marshal observes, that every distant part of an estate ought to have a place upon it (be 

 it ever so humble) in which its possessor may spend a few days comfortably ; to diffuse 

 over it a spirit of good order and emulation. He has known the most neglected and 

 almost savage spot, such as are many landed estates in Ireland, reclaimed and put in a 

 train of improvement by this easy method. 



4283. The accommodation requisite for a principal office, are a commodious business 

 room, a small anti-room ; and a safe-keep, or strong room fire proof, for the more valuable 

 documents. 



4284. The prof esdonal furniture with which an office of this description requires to 

 be supplied are maps, rental-books, books of valuation, register, legal papers, and 

 some others. 



4285. A general map of the whole estate on a large scale is an obvious requisite ; and 

 portable separate maps, with accompanying registers and other descriptive particulars, are 

 useful in proportion as improvements may be in contemplation, 



4286. Books of valuation are essential, especially where there are numerous small 

 holdings on short terms. In these registers is contained the number, name, admeasure- 

 ment, and estimated value of each field, and every parcel of land, as well as of each 

 cottage, or other building, not being part of a farmstead, on the several distinct 

 parts or districts of the estate. The valuations being inserted in colums, as they arise, 

 whether by general surveys, or incidentally ; headed with the names of their respective 

 valuers, so that whenever a farm is to re-let, these columns may be consulted, and its 

 real value be fixed, in a re-survey, with the greater exactness. 



4287. A general register of timber trees, copsewood, and young plantations is particu- 

 larly wanted where there is much hedge-row timber. Marshal directs to specify in this 

 register the number of timber trees in each wood, grove, hedge-row, and area, with the 

 species, number, and admeasurement of each tree. He also recommends separate 

 pocket-books, containing the particulars of each division, or of a number of contiguous 

 divisions, for the occasional use of the manager and wood-reeve. 



4288. Contracts, agreements, accounts, letters on business, and other documents, should 

 be intelligibly endorsed, dated or numbered, and arranged so as to be easily referred to 

 A book of abstracts, or heads of papers of greater importance, should be made out to be 

 referred to on ordinary occasions^ and likewise to serve as an index to the originals, 

 which require a more secure repository than a common business-room. 



4289. Legal documents, such as title deeds, legal decisions, awards of arbitration, 

 <:ounterparts of leases, securities, cash, bills, passed accounts, &c., as being the most 

 important objects, should be carefully deposited in the safety-chest or strong room. 



4290. Portable registers of the tenanted lands in convenient pocket volumes, with maps 

 on a small scale heading every farm, are a most invaluable description of books both for 

 the manager and his employer. Two opposite pages being appropriated to each farm with 

 its map, the following information should be given : 



