74 



Hints for the Improvement of Agriculture. 



Vol. VII. 



country, were the tenant able to make him- 

 self certain of reaping the reward of his la- 

 bour. As it is, however, we may set it down 

 as an incontrovertible fact, that the farmer 

 can never be benefited, as he ought to be, 

 by modern improvements, until he becomes 

 a free agent — and that he never can become, 

 while another possesses absolute power over 

 his capital ; for whether or not this power is 

 used, it is the same ; he can have no real 

 confidence while exposed to so many con- 

 tingencies, the happening of any one of 

 which, robs him and his family. 



" Now when we take these tilings into con- 

 sideration, and connect them with the pecu- 

 liar disadvantages that the farmer has to 

 contend with ; when we reflect that under 

 the most favourable circumstances, his ordi- 

 nary outlay of capital is two years before it 

 returns to him with interest ; that this capi- 

 tal is all the time at the mercy of fickle sea- 

 sons, from one end of the year to the other ; 

 that he has, after all, to stand the chances 

 of the market, and that, in addition, under 

 the year to year tenancy, he has no certain- 

 ty but that the talent which he invests may 

 be taken by another, there is no wonder that 

 lie should be slow to adopt improvements, or 

 that he should be loath to put more on his 

 farm than he can recover in a short time — 

 indeed, under such a system there must be 

 a large proportion of bad farmers, for the 

 bold and intelligent man cannot prudently 

 carry out all he knows; he cannot depend 

 upon the future, and is compelled to decline 

 those permanent outlays, which, in the course 

 of time, would be of permanent profit, and 

 to turn his attention merely to the exigencies 

 of the present. And on the other hand, the 

 fearful and anxious tenant manages, as it 

 were, from hand to mouth ; invests no capi- 

 tal that he cannot call buck quickly, and 

 holds himself always ready ibr the worst: 

 under these conditions, therefore, the farmer 

 is a speculator upon terms peculiarly disad- 

 vantageous; he has difficulties, knovm and 

 certain, greater than any other trader; but 

 as a tenant-at-will, he has an uncertainty 

 which represses his exertion by far the most; 

 for the former he sees and prepares to grap- 

 ple with, but the latter hangs over his head 

 like the .-word of Damocles — as by a thread 

 — and he fears it may come upon him when 

 Least ho knows: under its influence, there- 

 fore, all his efforts are paralyzed. Such, 

 then, is the evil of yearly tenancy; it gives 

 no security to the tenant for any outlay; he 

 is bound to risk his capital in the face of 

 many contingencies, or to make as few im- 

 provements as possible; and the consequence 

 is, that where one has the blind faith to em- 

 ploy his capital liberally, there are ten, whose 



caution conquers the spirit of improvement 

 altogether. 



1 And there are other evils attendant on 

 the system which are not uncommon ; one 

 is, the facility which it affords to men without 

 skill or capital, to get farms; and another, 

 the temptation it holds out to the needy man 

 to make a temporary convenience of a farm. 

 Thus, as regards the first, how often on the 

 occasion of a farm being at liberty, do we 

 see applicants, who know nothing of its na- 

 ture or of the capital it requires, hurrying 

 to take it, on the presumption, that if the 

 late tenant paid the rent, they can ; and in 

 regard to the second, a man is often impelled 

 to make such an engagement, although not 

 exactly to his mind, as a convenience, and 

 until he meets with something that suits 

 him better; and the results may be easily 

 defined ; for if the farm be out of order at 

 first, the tenant who takes it as a conveni- 

 ence, and on a determination to get all he 

 can from it without cost, soon finds that it 

 won't bear robbery; but he finds likewise, 

 that it won't do to expend money on it — he 

 is therefore content to take what it gives, 

 and to return it nothing; and he robs it, or 

 it robs him, until there is no more left to 

 rob. In the other case, a tenant finds him- 

 self on a farm with a supply of capital be- 

 low the demand; his farm wants improve- 

 ment, but it must bo done bit by bit ; ' he 

 must see how it answers;' and of course, as 

 under this sort of management it grows 

 worse, his land goes half stocked, his crops 

 fail, and he finds himself in difficulties before 

 he knows how to turn himself; the capital 

 he had, has melted, and that without making 

 any reform in the condition of his farm, and 

 in a short time he is left in penury and in 

 the possession of a farm, which, after such a 

 course of negligence, requires a capital dou- 

 ble what it ought to do ; and these are by no 

 means supposititious cases. To prevent all 

 those evils, let us remove from the tenant 

 his doubts ; let us secure to him and his 

 family the interest of his capital ; let us af- 

 ford him a model-ate length .of tenure on his 

 farm; and by thus making him independent 

 of contingencies, and giving him time to 

 rally against any unforeseen and untoward 

 circumstances, he will be taught to make 

 the best and quickest of his capital in the 

 permanent improvement of his farm, and 

 what is necessary will then become politic ; 

 there will be no anxiety in making the out- 

 lay, and no fear of reaping the benefit." 



Now, knowing that my neighbour and ex- 

 cellent manager, Josiah Long, held his farm 

 on yearly tenure, I called on him last even- 

 ing, and read to him the above extracts, 

 upon which he exclaimed, " that's a true 



