174 



Farms on Leases. 



Vol. VII. 



rious it would be to his interests, for the 

 owner of his house to compel him to a pur- 

 chase or a sale, or the peculiar management 

 of any part of his business, — every fetter, 

 therefore, which at all interferes with the 

 farmer's search after the latent treasures of 

 the earth, injures his success. 



" When a tenant takes a farm on lease, 

 he ought to value the gross product of the 

 same, not at what it will produce by superi- 

 or management, but at what it has produced 

 in its present condition; if he can, by supe- 

 rior skill, make it produce one fourth more, 

 his lease insures him the benefit of it, and 

 encourages him to continue his improve- 

 ments; and when a depreciation of prices 

 takes place, if his produce does not fetch as 

 much as formerly, he finds that he has more 

 in quantity; so that the aggregate value 

 shows in his favour ; but should brisk mar- 

 kets come, he has both good prices and an 

 increased quantity of produce. On a lease 

 of twenty years the tenant is left at liberty 

 to manage as he thinks best, so as to give full 

 scope to his skill, industry and capital ; and the 

 result will be seen, in the more judicious sys- 

 tem of arrangement in regard to rotation, 

 draining, &c. The evidence of Mr. R. 

 Hope, a tenant on lease, shows this express- 

 ly ; for he says, he farms 650 acres of land ; 

 he has deep-drained the whole of it ; has 

 limed the whole farm at an expense of $50 

 per acre, — total cost, 32,500 dollars ! — and 

 furrow-drained to the amount of $1200 du- 

 ring the last two years. But this would 

 never have been done, if he had had no lease ; 

 and the evidence of every other agricultur- 

 ist is corroboratory; all showing great im- 

 provements, and all ascribing them to the 

 protection afforded by leases." 



And what disadvantage would accrue, 

 were a land-owner to rent his estate on a 

 lease of 14 or 20 years to a responsible ten- 

 ant, — one who; by his good management 

 would be adding yearly to its intrinsic value"? 

 In the rental of a house even, is it deemed 

 injurious to the owner's interests, or detri- 

 mental to the sale of it, that it is rented on 

 lease for a fixed sum, to a tenant who is 

 punctual in the payment; who keeps it in 

 repair and is continually improving it by judi- 

 cious additions to its conveniences? It is true, 

 there might be an individual who would be 

 desirous to purchase, with a view to a resi- 

 dence; but there would be, in all probability, 

 ten others, ready to give its full value, as a 

 safe investment, of capital, rather than pur- 

 chase elsewhere, with the chance of the 

 premises lying for a season unoccupied and 

 going to decay ; with the fear of the tenant's 

 clandestine removal before rent-day, or rent- 

 pay, — the danger of which is so well known 



and the reality so often experienced. But 

 in the case of a. farm, the land is continually 

 and materially improving in value by being 

 tenanted, and let to a responsible person on 

 a lease, sufficiently long to justify an outlay 

 of ingenuity or capital, in the purchase of 

 lime and manures of different kinds, the ex- 

 pensive but profitable process of under-drain- 

 ing, clearing, planting and pruning; all 

 which, as we have seen above, would wil- 

 lingly be undertaken by a tenant who has 

 the security of a lease to proceed upon. 

 Now, two tilings are certain, — no man ever 

 yet did the honest thing by a farm, that is 

 rented from year to year, and no land ever 

 could do the generous thing by a yearly ten- 

 ant. What say our land-owners, — are they 

 willing to put the question fairly to issue? 



One question more, and I have done. I 

 have now in one eye, a farm of 45 acres of 

 land that has been let upon shares until it is 

 as poor as death, the owner all the while 

 complaining, that he has never been able to 

 meet with an honest tenant, — one who would 

 do the land justice. In the other, a man 

 who is possessed of every requisite to raise 

 the farm to the highest pitch of improve- 

 ment, except a capital to stock it and carry 

 it on. Now, what objection could be made 

 to the proposal, that the land-lord should 

 stock the farm and let it on a lease of 14 or 

 20 years to this man, at the sum for rent 

 that he has received on an average of the 

 last seven years, or if you please, a little 

 more? He would hold, as his own, the stock 

 for security, and charge interest for the same ; 

 as also, an additional per centage on the sum 

 so expended, to cover possible contingencies, 

 but guarantying to the tenant the use of 

 the stock, until he is able to redeem it at a 

 price agreed upon. Will it be thought that 

 the tenant would derive too great an advan- 

 tage from such an arrangement? I conceive 

 not, if it be remembered that to his labour 

 and ingenuity the estate is to owe all its im- 

 provement, and not to the landlord's money- 

 capital, as, for the use of that, he will have 

 to pay interest. But I seem to hear some 

 one exclaim, "who would be willing to take 

 all this trouble?'''' I answer, would to heaven 

 that I had been favoured by Providence with 

 the means, I would soon find the way to ac- 

 complish the end, and consider it a. pleasure. 

 In my next, I will endeavour to cast up the 

 quantum of good that might be accomplished 

 in this way, by showing how small a sum of 

 money would be sufficient to settle a man for 

 20 years as an intpnral part of the soil, and 

 the paradisaic effects that would be sure to 

 emanate from such a pure source of enjoy- 

 ment. VlR. 

 27th Dec. 1842. 



