Book IV. STEWARD'S ACCOUNTS. 703 



tliat courts of this kind should interfere with the receipt of farm rents ; or that a business 

 of this natur(! should in any way clash with the general receivership of the estate. 

 Employ an attorney to hold courts, as a surveyor to arbitrate disputes, or an engineer 

 to plan works of improvement. 



4310. 2'he propriety of having fixed days for receiving the rents of farms is evident, 

 and some consideration is required to determine on the season of the year for holding 

 them, so as not to oblige the farmer to forced sales of his produce. In England and 

 Ireland, farm rents are generally due at Ladyday and Michaelmas, and in Scotland at 

 Candlemas and Lammas. But the proper times of paying them depend on the market- 

 able produce of an estate, and on the season of the year at which it goes in common 

 course, and with the best advantage to market. A tenant should never be forced to sell 

 his produce with disadvantage ; nor when he has received his money for it, ought he 

 to be at a loss for an opportunity of discharging his debt to his landlord. On corn-farm 

 estates, or those whose lands are kept in a state of mixed cultivation, which comprise 

 the great mass of farm lands in this kingdom, Michaelmas may be considered as one of 

 the worst times of the year, at which to call upon tenants for their rents. It is at the 

 close (or, in the northern provinces, perhaps at the height) of harvest, when the farmers' 

 pockets are drained by extra labor, and when they fiave not yet had time to thresh out their 

 crops to replenish them ; nor is the summer's grass at that season yet consumed, nor 

 oft--going stock, perhaps, yet ready for market. In Norfolk, Marshal found the end 

 of February or beginning of March, a very fit time to pay the half year's rent due at 

 Michaelmas ; and June for paying those due at Ladyday. In some districts of tlie 

 north it used to be the custom not to demand the first half year's rent, till the tenant was 

 a year in his farm, by which means he had the use during his lease of nearly a year's 

 rent in addition to his actual capital. But farmers there, being now considered as 

 possessed of more wealth than formerly, the first half year's rent of the lease is paid 

 nine months after possession, and the last half year's rent of the term on or immediately 

 before its expiry. 



4341. The proper days for receiving rents oxe to be sought for in the local circum- 

 stances of an estate, and the district in which it lies : most especially in the fairs of the 

 neighborhood at that season; and in other stated times, at which the tenants are 

 accustomed, in conformity with the practice of the country, to receive for their dairy 

 produce, or other articles, delivered in to dealers ; fixing the rent days, immediately after 

 these days of imbursement. 



4342. On the subject of arrears, a good deal has been said by Marshal ; but it is one 

 rof those which may very safely be left to the good sense and discretion of the proprietor 

 or his manager. 



Sect. III. Of Keeping and Auditing Accounts. 



4343. Clearness and brevity constitute the excellence of accounts, and these excel- 

 lencies are only to be obtained by simplicity of method. Where lands lie in detached 

 -estates so as to require different receivers, a separate account is necessarily required for 



each receivership ; but to preserve this simplicity and clearness, it is necessary that the 



several sets should be precisely in the sam.e form. 



4344. The ground-work of the accounts peculiar to a landed estate, is the rent-roll : 

 from this receiving rentals are to be taken, and with these and tlie miscellaneous receipts 

 and disbursements incident to the estate, an account current is to be annually made 

 out. 



4345. The receiving rental, or particulars which a receiver wants to see, at one view, 

 when receiving the rents of an estate under judicious management, where rents are 

 jegularly received, and where occupiers pay taxes and do ordinary repairs, are few : the 

 name of the farm, the name of the tenant, and the amount of his half year's rent, only 

 are required. But upon an estate, on which arrears are suffered to remain, and on which 

 matters of account are liable to take place, a greater number of particulars are necessary ; 

 as the name of the farm, of the tenant, his arrears, his half year's rent, any other 

 charge against him, any allowance to be made him, and the neat sum receivable, leaving 

 a blank for the sum received and another for the arrear left. 



434C. Accounts current are required to be delivered in annually by the acting manager, 

 who ought generally to be the receiver. If the current receipts and disbursements are 

 numerous, as where extensive improvements are going on, and woods, mines, quarries, 

 &c. in hand, such accounts may be given in monthly which will show the progress of 

 the several concerns, and simplify the business at the end of the year. 



4347. On the best managed estates it is usual, besides the books which have been 

 mentioned, to keep a ledger j opening separate accounts for farm lands, woods, mines, 

 quarries, waters, houses and their appurtenances, public Works, &c. : and where a pro- 

 prietor has several fietached estates, besides such accounts being kept on each, one master 

 ledger contains accounts for each property. This, indeed, is nothing but an obvious 



