244 LAND REFORM 



have such conditions attached to them — claims, notices, 

 counter-claims, valuations, arbitrations, reserve for 

 the "inherent quality of the soil," etc. — as to make 

 a prudent man hesitate, on account of expense and 

 uncertainty, before putting them into operation. 



Nevertheless, this legislation is of great value, for 

 the reason that, whereas in former times the landlord 

 claimed practically everything placed on the land, the 

 tenant has now a recognized legal right to certain 

 things that belong to him, and he is thus enabled to 

 make terms on leaving his farm. At a recent meeting 

 of the Central Chamber of Agriculture the following 

 resolution was moved: "That the Agricultural Hold- 

 ings Act being the basis on which farming is con- 

 ducted, should be so amended that the capital which 

 the farmer invests in his holding is as safe as if the 

 holding belonged to him, and that nothing should 

 stand in the way of the tenant making the land 

 produce all it can." This resolution is well conceived, 

 but it is absolutely impossible to carry it into law. 

 The question is full of complications. A farmer may 

 be a man of good judgment or bad, and to enact that 

 he should receive compensation on leaving his farm 

 for all that he has done, without the consent of his 

 landlord, in the way of what he considers to be im- 

 provements would lead to difficulties and certainly to 

 litigation. Some of the outlay he had made might be 

 considered by an incoming tenant, as well as by the 

 landlord, as useless or of small value. Other work, 

 such as the planting of orchards, etc., would require 



it as much as they could ; and when it is appHed, the result is, that 

 instead of a tenant leaving his farm in the highest state of fertility, he is 

 bound in liis own interest to leave it passably foul and miserably poor." 

 ("Mark Lane Express," 7 March, 1904.) 



