No. 4.] EURAL LAW. 165 



property. The keys of a house, and the window blinds, 

 though easily removed from the premises, are constructively 

 attached to the real estate, and are treated as a part of it. 

 Water has never been considered real estate, from the very 

 nature of that element, — its movable character. It is 

 incapable of being fixed, and is constantly changing. 



If I wished to make a deed of an absolute title in a fish 

 pond, I should describe the property as so much land 

 covered with water, for the description of so many acres 

 of water would amount to simply a license to fish in the 

 pond. 



Emblements. 



The old French word emhleer means "to sow wheat." 

 From that comes a term frequently employed in the law of 

 real estate, " emblements," which means crops growing on 

 the land; that is, products which grow annually by "great 

 manurance and industry," as the old phrase has it, such as 

 rye, oats, corn and other grains, but not the fruit of trees 

 and grass. 



Questions frequently arise between tenants for life and 

 tenants for years, which call for the application of the law of 

 emblements. The original rules of the common law in refer- 

 ence to these have been considerably modified by statutes in 

 the various States. In a general way, the rule may be stated 

 thus : the heirs of a tenant for life are entitled to the emble- 

 ments, because the law allows him to assume that he will 

 live long enough to harvest his crops ; but a tenant for a 

 specified term is not entitled to emblements, because he 

 knows the exact time when his tenancy will terminate. In 

 other words, tenants for uncertain terms, that is, for life 

 or at will, are entitled to the benefit of the crops they have 

 planted, if their estate is terminated by their death or by 

 the act of the lessor ; and this right to emblements extends 

 to all crops of annual planting and cultivation except grass 

 or fruits of trees ; and the rule goes still farther, so that, 

 if there be an oral agreement for the sale of the land, and 

 the buyer is allowed to take possession by the owner and to 

 plant crops, but is afterwards ejected by the seller, the 

 buyer may claim the crops, even though he cannot enforce 

 the parol contract for the sale of the land. 



