338 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



their investments, there was a very prevalent dislike to long 

 leases on the part of both parties concerned. Yet it .was gen- 

 erally recognized that security to the tenant's investments was 

 essential to the promotion of that degree of intensity of culture 

 which was most profitable in the long run both to the tenant 

 and to the landlord. 1 



The long-period lease had proved so unsatisfactory that espe- 

 cial attention was now given to the perfecting of the " year 

 to year " agreement. The custom of " tenant-right," which had 

 proved satisfactory in Lincolnshire, formed the basis for the 

 hope that tenants holding their farms from year to year might 

 be given that degree of security which would promote good 

 agriculture. 



The introduction of agricultural improvements came rather 

 later in Lincolnshire than in many other parts of England, but 

 when the transition did come it was " rapid and striking, perhaps 

 more so than in any other county in England." 2 These im- 

 provements were made, too, without the protection of long- 

 time leases. They were made under the protection of the 

 Lincolnshire system of tenant-right. " It was very fortunate," 

 says Caird, " that when the time [for the introduction of agri- 

 cultural improvements] arrived, the leading landlords [of Lin- 

 colnshire] were liberal and intelligent men. . . . They saw 

 the advantage of encouraging tenants to embark their capital 

 freely ; and as leases were not the fashion of the county, they 

 gave them that security for their invested capital, which is 

 termed ' tenant-right,' or compensation for unexhausted im- 

 provements. Though this tenant-right may not be a strictly 

 legal claim, it is universally admitted in Lincolnshire, the land- 

 lord paying it when a farm falls into his own hands, and refusing 

 to accept a tenant who declines to comply with the custom. It 

 varies, however, considerably in the different parts of the county, 



1 To avoid the necessity of making specific references in great numbers it will 

 simply be stated that the discussion of this period is based upon a Parliamentary 

 Report on Agricultural Customs, Parliamentary Papers, 1847-1848, Vol. VII; and 

 Caird's "English Agriculture" in 1850 and 1851. In these sources the material 

 here used is indexed under "tenant-right." 



* Caird, " English Agriculture," p. 194. 



