LANDLORDS AND TENANTS 



cerned. Yet it was generally recognized that 

 security to the tenant's investments was essential 

 to the promotion of that degree of intensity of 

 culture which was most profitable in the long run 

 both to the tenant and to the landlord. 1 



The long period lease had proved so unsatisfac- 

 tory that especial attention was now given to the 

 perfecting of the "year to year" agreement. The 

 custom of "tenant-right," which had proved sat- 

 isfactory in Lincolnshire, formed the basis for 

 the hope that tenants holding their farms from 

 year to year might be given that degree of security 

 which would promote good agriculture. 



The introduction of agricultural improvements 

 came rather later in Lincolnshire than in many 

 other parts of England, but when the transition 

 did come it was "rapid and striking, perhaps more 

 so than in any other county in England." 2 These 

 improvements were made, too, without the pro- 

 tection of long time leases. They were made 

 under the protection of the Lincolnshire system 

 of tenant-right. "It was very fortunate," says 

 Caird, "that when the time for [the introduction 

 of agricultural improvements] arrived, the lead- 



1 To avoid the necessity of making specific references in 

 great numbers it will simply be stated that the discussion of 

 this period is based upon a Parliamentary Report on Agricul- 

 tural Customs, Parliamentary Papers, 1847-8, Vol. VII ; and 

 Caird's English Agriculture in 1850 and 1851. In these 

 sources the material here used is indexed under "tenant- 

 right." 



2 Caird, English Agriculture, p. 194. 



309 



