346 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



in Scotland for more than a century. The system of " corn 

 rents," already referred to, proved an effective means of adjust- 

 ing rents to prices at the time when this problem was proving 

 disastrous to the long-term lease in England. At the present 

 time the Agricultural Holdings Act of Scotland is practically 

 the same as that in force in England. While it continues to be 

 the custom among Scottish landlords and tenants to have long- 

 term leases drawn, it has become the common thing to include 

 a clause which makes it possible for either the landlord or the 

 tenant to bring the tenancy to a close at certain periods, as for 

 example, at the end of the fifth, tenth, or fifteenth year, or at the 

 end of the second, fourth, sixth, etc., year, by giving proper 

 notice to the other party. In effect, therefore, the long-term 

 lease is passing away, for the same object is now attained through 

 the Agricultural Holdings Act. 



In another connection the writer had occasion to publish the 

 statement that, " the relation between landlord and tenant is 

 very satisfactorily arranged, the farmers are, as a rule, contented 

 with the present system, and the fields of England prove that 

 landownership on the part of farmers is not essential to good 

 agriculture." This statement has occasioned surprise on the 

 part of some American readers, but an eminent agriculturist 

 of Great Britain, Mr. John Speir, says this statement " expresses 

 briefly and concisely the position here." The writer had no 

 thought of minimizing the importance of landownership on the 

 part of farmers, but rather to emphasize that in spite of the fact 

 that tenancy is the rule in that country, the agriculture of 

 England is, in many ways, worthy of our emulation, and that 

 this advanced position of English agriculture is due, in a great 

 measure, to an excellent system of adjusting the relations 

 between landlord and tenant. 



That Americans may profit by the experience of their British 

 cousins should be evident from the foregoing pages. That they 

 will be willing to draw upon the experience of the English will 

 scarcely be questioned. The Americans have become inde- 

 pendent in thought and action, and have become leaders in 

 nearly every line to which they have turned their attention, 



