702 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



be deteriorated or prevents their improvement; the connection between landlord and tenant 

 is formed upon other views, and regulated by some other principle, than the general one 

 on which we think it should be founded. 



4333. Restrictive covenants are always necessary to the security of the landlord, notwith- 

 standing the high authority of Dr. Smith to the contrary, and in some cases beneficial to 

 the tenant. Their expediency cannot well be questioned in those parts of the coun- 

 try where an improved system of agriculture has made little progress. A landholder, as- 

 sisted by the advice of experienced men in framing these covenants, cannot adopt any easy 

 or less offensive plan for the improvement of his property, and the ultimate advantages of 

 his tenantry. Even in the best cultivated districts, while farms continue to be let to the 

 highest responsible offerers, a few restrictive covenants cannot be dispensed with. The 

 supposed interest of the tenant is too feeble a security for correct management, even dur- 

 ing the earlier part of a lease, and in the latter part of it, it is thought to be his interest, in 

 most cases, to exhaust the soil as much as possible, not only for the sake of immediate pro- 

 fit, but frequently in order to deter competitors, and thus to obtain a renewal of his lease 

 at a rent somewhat less than the lands would otherwise bring. 



4334. With tenants at will, and such as hold on short leases, restrictive covenants are more necessary 

 than with tenants on leases of nineteen or twenty years ; but in many instances, they are too numerous 

 and complicated, and sometimes even inconsistent with the best courses of modern husbandry The 

 great error lies, in prescribing rules by which a tenant is positively required to act, not in prohibiting 

 such practices and such crops as experience has not sanctioned. The improved knowledge, and the 

 liberality of the age, have now expunged the most objectionable of these covenants ; and throughout 

 whole counties, almost the only restriction in reference to the course of crops is, that the tenant shall 

 not take two culmiferous crops, ripening their seeds in close succession. This single stipulation, combined 

 with the obligation to consume the straw upon the farm, and to apply to it all the manure made from 

 its produce, is sufficient not only to protect the land from exhaustion, but to ensure in a great measure 

 its regular cultivation ; for half the farm at least must, in this case, be always under either fallow or green 

 crops. The only other necessary covenant, when the soil is naturally too weak for carrying annual crops 

 without intermission, is, that a certain portion of the land shall be always in grass, not to be cut for hay 

 but depastured. According to the extent of this will be the interval between the succession of corn crops 

 on the same fields ; if it is agreed that half the farm, for instance, shall always be under grass, there can 

 be only two crops of corn from the same field in six years. In this case not more than two-sixths being 

 in corn, one-sixth in green crops or fallow, and three-sixths in clover or grasses, it becomes almost im- 

 possible to exhaust any soil at all fitted for tillage. There are few indeed that do not gradually become 

 more fertile under this course of cropping. It is sufficiently evident, that other covenants are necessary 

 in particular circumstances ; such as permission to dispose of straw, hay, and other crops from which 

 manure is made, when a quantity of manure equal to what they would have furnished is got from other 

 places ; and a prohibition against converting rich old grazing lands or meadows into corn lands. In this 

 place we speak only of general rules, such as are applicable to perhaps nine-tenths of all the arable land 

 of Britain, and such as are actually observed in our best cultivated counties. 



4335. For the last four years of a lease, the same covenants are generally sufficient, 

 only they require to be applied with more precision. Instead of taking for granted, 

 that the proportion of the farm that cannot be under corn will be properly cultivated, 

 from the tenant's regard to his own interest, it becomes necessary to make him bound to 

 this effect in express terms ; the object generally being to enable the tenant, upon a 

 new lease, to carry on the cultivation of the lands, as if the former lease had not 

 terminated. What these additional stipulations should be, must depend in part on the 

 season of the year at which the new lease commences, and in part on the course of crops 

 best adapted to the soil, and the particular circumstances of every farm. 



4336. With respect to the form of a lease, as no one form would suit every district, 

 nothing specific can be laid down with advantage. The lawyers of every estate have 

 particular forms, and it is easy for them, in concert with the proprietor or manager, to 

 obliterate useless or injurious restrictions, and substitute such as may be deemed best 

 for the estate, or in harmony with the progress of the age." (^Sup. Encyc. Brit. art. Agr.) 



SuBSECT. 5. Of receiving Rents. 



4337. The business of receiving the rents and jyrofts of a landed estate, simple as it 

 may seem, is subject to analysis, and entitled to consideration. Indeed, on large pro- 

 perties, on which not farm rents only, but various other profits are to be received ; as 

 cottage rents, tithe compositions, chief rents, and perhaps, quit rents of copyhold lands ; 

 the business becomes so complex as to require to be methodised and simplified, in order 

 to obtain the requisite facility and dispatch. This is generally best effected by appoint- 

 ing distinct days, or distinct parts of the day, for each receipt, so that the different 

 tenants and suitors may know their hours of attendance. 



4338. The business of holding manor courts depends on whether they are held of right, 

 or merely by custom. If the copyhold tenure is so far worn out in any manor, that 

 there are not two ancient or feudal tenants remaining within it, the court has lost its 

 legal power ; it cannot by right, take cognizance of crimes, nor enforce amerciaments. 

 Nevertheless, manorial courts have their uses, in regulating farm roads, driftways, and 

 watercourses, and in preventing nuisances of different kinds within a manor ; and it is 

 generally right to preserve the custom of holding them for these purposes. 



4339. Where copyhold courts remain in force, and where legal forms are to be observed, 

 a law " steward of the manor" is proper to hold them. It is not necessary, however. 



