328 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



It was thought that farmers would be more enterprising in 

 Shropshire, if more leases were granted. 1 In Worcestershire, 

 it was believed, both by the landlords and by the tenants, 

 that, where improvements were to be made, a lease for a term of 

 years was necessary. John Friest, the author of the " Bucking- 

 hamshire Survey," made a plea for long leases, especially where 

 improvements were to be made. In Cambridgeshire, where 

 most of the farms were held on yearly tenures, the lack of cer- 

 tainty of tenure was much felt. In general the tendency was 

 for the tenant farmers who held their farms from year to year, 

 to adhere to the old customs and to attempt no new improve- 

 ments ; for the saying : 



He that havocs may sit, 

 He that improves must flit, 



expressed a common belief among the tenant farmers of that 

 day who held their land from year to year. The farmers and 

 the rural economists of the time were quite generally agreed that 

 the adoption of long-term leases throughout the land was 

 essential to the introduction of the desired improvements in 

 agriculture. 



The long-term lease of one hundred years ago reached its 

 highest degree of perfection in the county of Norfolk. The 

 two main objects to be secured by the covenants of the lease 

 were : first, to guarantee to the tenant the continued possession 

 of the farm for a period sufficiently long to encourage invest- 

 ments in improvements, especially such improvements as are 

 made in and upon the soil by careful tilth and by the addition 

 of artificial fertilizers ; and second, to secure the landlord against 

 improper use of the property during the last few years of the 

 tenancy so that the farm would be returned to the landlord 

 in good condition. " No department of the management of 

 an estate gives more uneasiness to both landlord and tenant," 

 says Marshall, " than do removals, or exchanges of tenants ; and 

 every covenant which facilitates this unpleasant business is 

 valuable." 2 



> "Survey," p. 137. 



2 "Rural Economy of Norfolk," second edition, Vol. I, p. 6g. 



