M, Rent. 



quality. Indeed, where the produce is inconsiderable, or 

 the quality much inferior, the whole, or nearly the whole, 

 may be swallowed up by the expense of labour, and no rent 

 whatever can be afforded, more especially in adverse seasons. 



The duration of the tenure must have a considerable ef- 

 fect, in fixing the rent. No farmer can afford to pay the 

 same sum for land on a short, as if he held it on a long lease. 

 The covenants, also, which are in fact a species of rent, 

 must influence the money payments. 



Rent must also in some degree depend on the capital in- 

 vested in the cultivation of the farm. Thus, if a farmer can 

 lay out only L.4 of capital per acre, he may not be able to af- 

 ford for it a higher rent than 10s. per acre ; if he lays out 

 L..7 he may pay 14s. ; and with a capital of L.10 per acre, he 

 may be enabled to pay 18s. or 20s. of rent Hence the ad- 

 vantage of wealthy tenants; and hence the justness of the 

 maxim, " That capital in the hands of the tenantry, is of 

 " as much consequence as the quality of the land ( l81 )." 



But though poor tenants, it is said, make poor farms, yet 

 on the other hand, an exuberance of wealth is often pro- 

 ductive of indolent farmers. If therefore a landlord wishes 

 his land to be fairly treated, he must not, on the one hand, 

 exact from his tenants an oppressive rent, nor, on the other, 

 let them have their farms at so easy a rate, as to afford 

 them a more than fair opportunity of becoming overgrown 

 and negligent. The former practice deprives them of the 

 means of manuring their land properly, and giving it a fair 

 culture ; the latter induces them to intrust the management 

 of their farm to those who will not give it the attention 

 that its importance demands. The ancients, according to 

 their rustic writers, had a great objection to a tenant, who 

 would not live on his farm, and who trusted its culture to a 

 bailiff. 



A frequent change of tenantry is also attended with incal- 

 culable mischief, and landlords ought to retain upon their 

 estates, those industrious tenants that were bred on or near 

 them. Notwithstanding the covenants of a lease, there are 

 few farmers, who will not be dishonest enough to lightly ma- 

 nure, or drive, (as it is termed), the land, by growing re- 

 stricted crops during the two or three last years of their 

 lease, especially if they know long beforehand, or even sus- 

 pect, that they are going to be removed from it at its ex- 

 piration. 



Besides, tenants who, with their forefathers, have been 

 wholly brought up under one landlord, or his ancestors, ve- 



