RELATIONS BETWEEN LANDLORDS AND TENANTS 341 



tunately no provision was then made to keep the landlords from 

 requiring the tenants to contract themselves out of the right 

 to claim compensation under the law, and while the law was 

 beneficial in that it systematized and brought greater uniformity 

 into the practice of granting compensation where tenant-right 

 was recognized, it was not generally adopted. Even the author 

 of the bill asked his tenants to contract themselves out of the 

 benefits of the law which he himself had framed. 



In 1883 a new bill, the Agricultural Holdings Act, was passed. 

 This Act contained a clause making it illegal for a landlord to 

 contract himself out of the conditions of the law. The law of 

 1883, with the slight modifications of the Acts of 1900, 1906, 

 1908, 1913, and 1914, is still in force, and it will be worth while to 

 examine it with considerable care. The law enables the tenant 

 farmers to obtain from the landlords as compensation for 

 improvements at the termination of their tenancies, " such sum 

 as fairly represents the value of the improvement to an incoming 

 tenant." 



The improvements for which compensation could be claimed 

 under this law were divided into three classes. The first class 

 includes all those improvements to which the consent of the land- 

 lord is required if the payment of compensation is to be enforced 

 by law. This class includes the following list of improvements : 



(1) Erection, alteration, or enlargement of buildings. 



(2) Formation of silos. 



(3) Laying down of permanent pasture. 



(4) Making and planting of osier beds. 



(5) Making of water meadows or works of irrigation. 



(6) Making of gardens. 



(7) Making or improving of roads or bridges. 



(8) Making or improving of watercourses, ponds, wells, or reser- 

 voirs, or of works for the application of water power or for supply of 

 water for agricultural or domestic purposes. 



(9) Making or removal of permanent fences. 



(10) Planting of hops. 



(11) Planting of orchards, or fruit bushes. 



(12) Protecting young fruit trees. 



(13) Reclaiming of waste land. 



