AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



which is the same thing, granting leases for six years cer- 

 tain ; with a condition that if neither party give notice to 

 quit, before the expiration of the first three years, then the 

 term to be prolonged to nine years; and so on, from three 

 years to three years .... until three years after notice has 

 been duly given, by either party to the other. 



This gives room for a tenant "to turn his hand in," and 

 a loose to his exertions. He has, in reality, a fresh lease of 

 six years granted him, every third year. This is sufficient 

 to encourage him to keep his lands, continually, in a hus- 

 bandlike state. And if he execute at his own expense, any 

 of the higher improvements, such as [improving waste 

 lands, etc.] it is but reasonable that he should have, when- 

 ever he may quit his farm, an equitable remuneration for 

 the remainder of such improvements. Thus, the tenant is 

 placed on sure ground. He may till, manure, and improve, 

 with much the same confidence, as if the lands in his occu- 

 pation were his own property. 



In return for such advantages, the tenant cannot re- 

 fuse to covenant, that, during the last three years of his 

 term, he will manage his farm in a husbandlike manner, 

 and, at the end of the term, will leave it in such a state of 

 cultivation and repair, as will induce a good tenant to take 

 it, at a full rent ; or suffer the proprietor to put it in such 

 a state, at his (the outgoing tenant's) expense. 



An estate which is under lease, on these principles, and 

 under attentive management, cannot be let down to an un- 

 profitable state. It must continually remain under a 

 regular course of husbandry, and in a state of cultivation 

 and repair. If the acting manager do his duty, even the 

 changing of tenants cannot interrupt its prosperity. The 

 incoming tenant (under attentive management) steps into 

 his farm, with the advantages that he would have enjoyed, 

 had it been under his own direction for the three preceding 

 years. 



But, with a lease on this principle, and with a proper 

 choice of tenants, removals can rarely happen. What super- 

 intendent, who knows the difficulty of procuring a good 

 tenant, would wish to discharge him? And no such tenant 



302 



