248 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



land in Scotland has in my own time been tripled; and I have no 

 doubt that by adopting them the value of Mr. Wadsworth's prop- 

 erty would be increased in the same ratio ; but I was unable by this 

 argument or by any other to persuade him to change his system of 

 tenancy." * 



This criticism by Captain Barclay, made in the face of the 

 fact that he had been entertained in the house of this American 

 country gentleman of the English type requires some explana- 

 tion. The original James Wadsworth of Geneseo, while travel- 

 ing in Europe in connection with the sale of lands in western 

 New York, formulated the plan of establishing himself in the 

 Genesee Valley after the fashion of an English landlord. It 

 is fair to assume, therefore, that he was not without knowledge 

 of the English system of leasing land. That he should have 

 modified his system to conform to American conditions is a 

 mark of his sagacity. Furthermore at the time when James 

 Wadsworth was falling in love with the English landed estates, 

 letting land from year to year was the rule in England, but 

 a cash rent was the rule instead of a share of the crops. It 

 should be noted also that seventy years of experience has 

 proved that Captain Barclay's view on the subject of long 

 leases has not been adhered to in Great Britain. 



Whatever truth there may have been in Captain Barclay's 

 criticism to *he effect that the Wadsworth in charge of the 

 estate in 1841 was much wedded to old customs, the system of 

 rent paying on the Wadsworth estate had materially changed by 

 1867 and more or less in conformity to the suggestion of Barclay, 

 at least the rent had become a fixed charge instead of a share, 

 though the payment was partly made in kind. 



In writing of tenant farming in 1867, a correspondent of the New 

 England Farmer residing in Orleans County, New York, said : 



"Probably one of the best systems of tenant farming in this coun- 

 try is that adopted on the Wadsworth farms, in western New York, 

 which are only let from one year to another. But then no tenant is 

 turned off without cause; the rule being never to turn off a good 

 tenant, nor keep a poor one. These farms are managed by an ex- 



1 "Agricultural Tour in the United States," pp. 36, 38, 44. ' 



