A FULL REWARD FOR THE TILLER. 371 



year, he either made no improvement or, speaking gener- 

 ally, so little that the difference of produce from year to 

 year was so gradual and imperceptible that the farmer 

 kept nearly the whole advantage to himself." Tenants 

 are now entitled to " compensation for improvements." 

 However the year-to-year renting, which for well-known and 

 good reasons has become so common, stands in the way 

 of a settled and continuous plan of improvement, and the 

 value, or even existence, of an " improvement " is not 

 always easy to prove. What the tenant holds to be an 

 " improvement " may in the landlord's eyes be the exact 

 reverse. Speaking of the local custom prevaihng in Kent, 

 to compensate for fruit trees planted by the tenant, Mr. 

 A. D. Hall says : " Compensation is sometimes given when 

 death or accident has voided a tenancy before the occupier 

 has obtained a return for the work he has done ; but cases 

 are not unknown where the rigour of the law has been 

 enforced and the outgoing tenant has got nothing for the 

 improvements he has made." The tendency of tenancy 

 farming certainly is, in the majority of cases, to discourage 

 continuous improvement and keep the land in its actual 

 condition, if not, indeed, to impoverish it by " robbing." 

 It is Uke an industrial undertaking faiUng to increase the 

 value of its goodwill and laying by no reserve. 



However, the present is not a question merely of " rapa- 

 city." " Rapacity " apart, the generahty of landlords, 

 however kindly disposed they may be, are unfortunately 

 not in a position to play a kind Providence to their tenants, 

 to deal sparingly with them and to meet their wishes in 

 the way of improvements. Mr. A. D. Hall has, rightly 

 enough, found fault with tenants for occupying land in 

 excess of the measure for which their means suffice. The 

 same reproach is at least as applicable to a goodly number 

 of landlords, who hold much more land than they have 

 capital for. The true fact is, that the practice of laying 

 together vast areas of land in immense estates, which are 

 to remain in the family — being a relic of feudal and sub- 

 feudal times — has caused the larger part of our ^narrowly 

 limited allowance of land to be held by owners or Ufe tenants 



