16 Of Leases. 



2. Period of entry, and regulations connected therewith. These 

 are points which require no small degree of consideration ; and instead 

 of the various, discordant and complicated practices now in use *, 

 which the County Reports have for the first time so fully disclosed, it 

 would be advisable, that some plan were fixed upon, by which the 

 time of entry should be adapted to the different kinds of farms, whe- 

 ther pasturing or tillage farms, and to the situation of the district in re- 

 gard to fuel f and other circumstances. 



It is for the interest of the landlord and of the public, that the term 

 should always be made favourable to the incoming tenant J ; other- 

 wise he may be placed in a most disagreeable predicament for the 

 first twelve, or even eighteen months after his entry , may suffer ma- 

 terially in his interests, and may thence become dispirited, and relax 

 his exertions. 



The points to be considered, respecting this subject, are, when the 

 entry should be : 1 . In hill-pasture farms ; 2. In low-lying grazing 

 farms ; 3. In arable farms ; and, 4. Under what general regulations. 



1. In hill-pasture farms, the incoming tenant wishes to get pos- 

 session of the premises, at a time when he can purchase the sheep or 

 cattle he requires, on the most reasonable terms, namely, immediate- 

 ly previous to the commencement of the grass season. Hence, in the 

 more northern counties of England and in Scotland, about Whitsun- 

 tide is considered to be the most convenient term for that purpose. 



2. In the southern districts of England, the usual time for changing 

 the tenant of a grazing farm, is on the 29th day of September, about the 

 close of the previous summer, or at the season when most of the great 

 stock fairs are holden ; and it is a time which is greatly to be prefer- 

 red for that purpose. It is just before the commencement of the rainy 



* For instance, in Gloucestershire, leases commence at Ladyday, and in 

 that case, in the Vale, the going-off tenant holds a part of the grass- lands till 

 old Mayday, and has likewise the going-off crop of wheat, with the use of the 

 barns till the midsummer following. In this usage there is great inconveni- 

 ence, especially when the new tenant is at variance with the old one, which is 

 not uncommonly the case. Each has an opportunity of distressing and in- 

 commoding the other, in various ways Gloucestershire Report, p. 35. 



f Where the fuel is peat, the entry is at Whitsunday, that the tenant may 

 provide himself with that essential article during the summer, the only proper 

 season for that purpose. Forfarshire Report, p. '251. It has been suggested, 

 that the entry might be made at Michaelmas, or Martinmas, even where the 

 fuel is peat, if it were incumbent on the old tenant to provide the peat, and for 

 the new one to pay the value of it. Remark by Mr Middleton. 



% Undoubtedly this ought to be the case, but in Bedfordshire, and various 

 other counties, neglect on the part of the landlords and their agents, and over- 

 reaching conduct on the part of the outgoing tenants, have long ago introdu- 

 ced the contrary practice, in almost every instance ; and tenants expecting and 

 claiming to quit as they entered, there seems no other means of introducing im- 

 provements in this essential particular, but for the landlords specially to stipu- 

 late for a new mode of quitting, at the time of the next letting ; unless, by al- 

 lowing a compensation, the tenants can be brought to agree, during the pre- 

 sent term, for a different quitting at the end of it, to the entry that commenced 

 it. If the rule be general, the outgoing tenant, if he takes another farm, will 

 be compensated for the loss he may sustain in the former one. 



Aberdeenshire Report, p. 181. 



