LEASE. 



LEATHER-WOOD. 



earliest overtopped by succeeding ones. The ( 

 roots are aromatic, and used by sportsmen in 

 Alpine countries against giddiness. 



LEASE (from locatio, letting, or dimissio; 

 from the French laisser, i. e. dindftere, to depart 

 with). "A lease," says Woodfall, in his Law 

 of Landlord and Tenant, "is a contract for the 

 possession and profits of lands and tenements 

 on the one side, and a recompense of rent or 

 other income on the other; or it is a convey- 

 ance of lands and tenements to a person for 

 life, or years, or at will, in consideration of a 

 return of rent or other recompense. The party 

 letting the land is called the lessor or landlord, 

 and the party to whom the lease is made the 

 lessee or tenant. The connection between 

 landlord and tenant has gradually improved 

 from that of master and slave into a state of 

 almost total independence and mutual interest 

 in the soil. 



"The beneficial effects, both to the landlord 

 and tenant, of leases of a sufficient duration to 

 encourage men of capital and skill to properly 

 cultivate the land need hardly be pointed out. 

 And it will be very desirable to have as few 

 restraining covenants introduced into these as 

 possible. They merely retard and annoy the 

 pood farmer, and rarely improve the practice 

 of the unskilful. 



. "In the northern part of England, custom 

 and expediency have very generally fixed the 

 duration of the lease at about 20 years. Ex- 

 perience will evince that the time is not always 

 more than enough to allow the possessor of the 

 land to conduct and mature a profitable system 

 of management, and to pay to the owner an 

 adequate rent. All the great operations of the 

 husbandman have a prospective result as re- 

 gards the profit to be derived. The capital ex- 

 pended in such cases is only to be drawn back 

 by periodical returns after the lapse of time. 

 In the providing of extraneous manures, in the 

 adoption of rotations of crops, which, to be effec- 

 tual to the purposes intended, must be extended 

 through many seasons, in the draining of the 

 land, and the like, time is necessary, both to 

 effect the operations, and to recover with a fu- 

 ture profit the capital employed. When, indeed, 

 land is of very rich quality, and at once pro- 

 ductive, without other outlay than the ordinary 

 expenses of tillage, or when it has the mean's 

 of fertilization near to it, and abundant, as in 

 the vicinity of cities, the duration of the term 

 may be comparatively short. But in other and 

 dissimilar cases, this cannot be without a sacri- 

 fice of present income; and a landlord will 

 scarcely fail to experience, that if there be not 

 a sufficient period of secure possession accord- 

 ed to the occupier, the necessary expenditure 

 on the cultivation of the ground will not be 

 hazarded; but more than this, a person of good 

 capital will, like every trader, regard as a 

 benefit the power of carrying on his business 

 undisturbed, and will set a pecuniary value on 

 security ajid independence/' (Quart. Jvurn. of 

 dgr. vol. i. p. 795.) With regard to a lease in 

 general, and its covenants, see a good paper 

 (Ibid. vol. ii. p. 134). In speaking of rents, the 

 author remarks, "As to the kind of rent to be 

 paid, constant experience proves that the best 

 and most satisfactory is a fixed rent in money. 



To rents payable in grain, or in money regu- 

 lated by the prices of grain, there is this ob- 

 vious objection, that the tenant will generally 

 be required to pay the highest rent when he is 

 least able to do so, that is, when prices rise 

 from a deficiency in the produce of the crop." 

 And when speaking of the lease and its pre- 

 cautionary covenants, he observes, "the great- 

 est error consists in vain precautions and at- 

 tempts to provide against every possible con- 

 tingency which, from the nature of the trans- 

 action, and the unforeseen events to which it 

 may give rise, it is impossible to do. All that, 

 can be done is to make as precise as possible 

 the conditions which experience shows to be 

 necessary. The terms of the contract should 

 be few and simple, and easily understood and 

 complied with. Not only are hurtful cove- 

 nants to be avoided, but such as are unneces- 

 sary, since to increase the number of them too 

 much serves but to perplex the lessee, and 

 give birth to future quarrels, and since all ex- 

 perience on the subject shows that the interests 

 of either party may be sufficiently guarded with- 

 out multiplying too much conditions, penalties, 

 and restriction." 



LEASH. A term applied to game, &c., by 

 sportsmen, and which implies three; as three 

 hares, partridges, &c. It also signifies a line 

 to hold a dog by. 



LEATHER (Germ, leder; Dan. Idder). The 

 prepared skins of animals. The principal 

 object of the art of converting skin into leather 

 is to render it strong and tough, durable, and 

 often water-proof, and to prevent its destruction 

 by putrefaction. The skins are first cleansed 

 of hair and cuticle, then impregnated either 

 with vegetable tan and extract, as in the pro- 

 duction of what is called tanned leather. In 

 this process the tannic acid, which is the active 

 principle of the astringent vegetables employed, 

 combines with the gelatin of the skins, and 

 forms an insoluble tannate of gelatin. It is 

 this formation which renders the skins imper- 

 meable to water, and checks the tendency to 

 decomposition which they, in common with all 

 animal matter, possess. Instead of tan, some 

 leather is prepared with alum and other salts, 

 as for tateed leather. These processes are 

 sometimes combined; and tanned leather often 

 undergoes the further operation of currying, or 

 impregnation with oil. As instances of these, 

 different results, thick sole-leather is tanned ; 

 white kid for gloves is tawed; the upper-leather 

 for boots and shoes is tanned and curried ; and 

 fine Turkey leather is tawed and afterwards 

 slightly tanned. Morocco leather, as it is 

 called, is chiefly prepared from sheep-skins. 

 Shammoy leather is generally sheep or doe-skin, 

 prepared by dressing, lining, &c., and dyed, if 

 necessary, and then finished in oil. Russia 

 leather acquires its peculiar odour from birch 

 tan. There is an excellent abstract of the ma- 

 nufacture of different kinds of leather in Ure's 

 Dictionary of Arts, fyc., which those who wish 

 to pursue the subject further may consult. The 

 leather manufacture of Great Britain is of very 

 great importance, being inferior, in point of 

 value and extent, only to those of cotton, wool, 

 and iron. 



LEATHER-WOOD (Dirca palustris). This 



705 



