196 QUIT RENTS. 



are spices, and certain descriptions of fruit. But 

 many years must elapse before the trees will 

 bear, during which the leaseholder is involved 

 in a necessary and unavoidable expense, which 

 his undertaking may finally be unable to repay. 



' ' The case may not be so applicable to lands 

 suitable for the cultivation of grain or vegetables, 

 which are speedily raised, and require but small 

 outlay, yet even these could not, from their 

 cheapness, realize a profit whenever the land 

 should become chargeable with a rent of ten 

 dollars an acre. 



" The periodical leases, renewable after fifteen 

 years, seem to be considered by most as of little 

 value ; they afford no security for fixed property 

 in the soil, as a grant on one of these leases is 

 liable to be resumed by government, ' with all 

 buildings thereon,' should the lease-holder or 

 his heirs not choose to comply with the terms of 

 the new lease. A permanent lease, on the con- 

 trary, establishes the property in the leaseholder's 

 family, and he is induced, through a certainty of 

 security for the future, to invest and risk more 

 means in endeavouring to render his land pro- 

 ductive, than he could prudently do, when the 

 lease is only periodical. But the excessive rate 

 of the present rent acts as a formidable prohibi- 

 tion to many, who woidd, were the rent reduced, 



