698 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



4313. Leases for a te^-m of i/ears, as seven, fourteen, twenty-one, or a greater num- 

 ber of years, certain ; but without the power of assignment, unless \^'ith the consent of 

 the lessor. 



4314. Leases for lives ; as one, two, three, or more, without the power of assignment. 

 In Britain, life leases of this description are now rarely granted. In Wales and Ireland 

 they are still prevalent; the rent being there settled according to the value of the land at 

 the time of letting ; as on granting a lease for a term. And in the western extreme of 

 England, what are termed life-leases are still common. But they are rather pledges for 

 money taken up, or deeds of sale for lives, than leases. For nearly the whole of the 

 estimated sale value of the land, during the life term, is paid down at the time of pur- 

 chase ; the seller reserving only a quit rent, or annual acknowledgement. 



4315. ^ lease for a term of years, or for two or more lives, can alone be favorable for 

 the progress of agriculture. A farmer holding at will, or from year to year, may 

 plough, sow, and reap ; but he will, if a prudent man, be very careful not to make im- 

 provements, well knowing that the first effect would be, a rise of rent or a notice to 

 quit. Leases for a single life have the great disadvantage of uncertainty as to duration, 

 both as landlord and tenant ; and though the latter may insure a certain sum on his life 

 for the benefit of his family, yet it were l>etter that he should lay out that money in im- 

 proving the farm. Leases on lives, renewable, are for all purposes of culture as good as 

 freehold ; but they have this disadvantage to a tenant, that they require a considerable 

 part of his capital paid down, and a further draught on his capital on the falling in of 

 any of the lives. Even the first of these payments would embarrass the great majority 

 of professional farmers, and disable them from bestowing proper cultivation on the soil ; 

 but to a farmer with a surplus capital no description of lease can be better, as he lays out 

 his surplus capital at the market rate of interest, and is, as it were, his own annuitant. 

 To the landlord such leases cannot be advantageous, because, there being fewer who can 

 compete for them, lands let on these conditions, do not fetch their full price. 



4316. Tlie fundamental jyrinciple from which both the duration and conditions of leases 

 are established is evidently this : A. agrees to lend to B. a certain article for his use for 

 an equivalent in money ; but such is the nature of this article, that in order to use it 

 with advantage, B. must possess it during a considerable time ; he, therefore, requires 

 a security from A. to that effect ; and A. on his part requires a security from B. that he 

 will return the article at least in as good condition as when it was lent to him. The 

 term of years for which the article is to be lent, and the precautions taken to ensure its 

 return without deterioration, are founded on experience, and vary according to the pe- 

 culiar circumstances of lender and borrower. In general, however, this is obvious; that 

 where the period of lending is not sufl^cient for profitable use ; or the conditions re- 

 quired for ensuring the lender an undeteriorated return of the article unreasonable, the 

 value of the loan or rent will be proportionably diminished. {Sup. Enc. Brit, art. Agr.) 



4317. In recurring to what actually exists in the best cultivated districts, we shall quote 

 the excellent observations of an experienced farmer and approved public writer. *' The 

 general principle which should regulate the connection between landlord and tenant seems 

 to be, that while the farm ought to be restored to the owner at the expiration of the 

 tenant's interest, at least without deterioration, the tenant should be encouraged to 

 render it as productive as possible during his possession. In both of these views, a lease 

 for a term of years is scarcely less necessary for the landlord than for the tenant ; and so 

 much is the public interested in this measure, that it has been proposed by intelligent men, 

 to impose a penal tax on the rent of lands held by tenants at will. 



4318. That the value of the property is enhanced by the security ivhich such a lease confers 

 on the tenant, will be put beyond all doubt, if the rents of two estates for half a century 

 back are compared ; the one occupied by tenants at will, and the other by tenants on 

 leases for a moderate term, and where the soil and situation are nearly alike in every 

 respect. If the comparison be made between two tracts, originally very ditlerent in point 

 of value, the advantages of leases will be still more striking ; while that which is held by 

 tenants at will remains nearly stationary, the other is gradually, yet effectually, improved, 

 under the security of leases, by the tenants' capital ; and, in no long period, the latter 

 takes the lead of the former, both in the amount of the revenue which it yields to the 

 proprietor, and in the quantity of produce which it furnishes for the general consumption. 

 The higher rents and greater produce of some parts of Scotland than of many of the 

 English counties, where the soil, climate, and markets are much more favorable, must 

 be ascribed to the almost universal practice of holding on leases in the former country, 

 in a much greater degree than to any of the causes which have been frequently assigned. 

 Less than a century ago, what are now the best cultivated districts of Scotland were very 

 far behind the greater part of England ; and, indeed, had made very little progress from 

 the time of the feudal system. It is not fifty years since the farmers of Scotland were in 

 the practice of going to learn of their southern neighbors an art, which was then very 

 imperfectly known in their own country. But in several parts of England there has been 



