334 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



knows the difficulty of procuring a good tenant, would wish to dis- 

 charge him? And no such tenant will readily leave the farm he is 

 settled upon, if he find proper treatment. Even should notice be 

 given, in consequence of any misunderstanding between the parties, 

 three years allow time for reflection; and, before they expire, re- 

 sentment may die away, and cordiality be restored. If, however, 

 either party remain dissatisfied, he has an easy way of dissolving the 

 connection. Or if a proprietor or a superintendent is desirous to 

 make fresh arrangements on an estate; or to regulate its rent roll, 

 by the existing value of money; he need not wait many years to 

 fulfill his desire. For if the tenant in occupancy will not agree to 

 pay a fair rent, he has three years before him to choose one who will ; 

 another valuable advantage of the tenancy proposed. 



" Thus, a lease on this principle has a decided preference by a pro- 

 prietor, to long leases. And its advantage over annual holdings is 

 not less considerable. The lands of an estate are well worth from 5 

 to 10 per cent more, to a tenant, under the former, than under the 

 latter, tenancy. So that, besides the conveniences mentioned, a 

 proprietor may be immediately adding very considerably to his in- 

 come, by this principle of management. 



" This species of tenancy I have had the happiness of being the 

 means of introducing, upon some considerable estates, in England, 

 in Wales, and in Scotland ; with, I believe, the mutual satisfaction 

 of the men of fortune who possess them, and of their tenants." 



While this system proposed by Marshall might solve the 

 problem of adjusting the amount of rent to changes in real 

 rental values, and while it might encourage the tenant to make 

 such improvements as he could realize upon in three years, it 

 lays down no scheme for determining the value of unexhausted 

 improvements, and, indeed, does not even propose that a tenant 

 shall have remuneration for the investments made upon the land 

 during the last three years, and on which, if he farms in a hus- 

 bandmanlike manner, he cannot realize all of the benefit. 

 Thus it seems that Marshall failed to solve the most permanent 

 difficulty which the tenant problem presented ; for the unsettled 

 condition of the money market became less important in the 

 course of time, while the problem of unexhausted improvements 

 has been of increasing importance as the years have gone by. 



