RENTING ON IMPROVEMENTS IO9 



evidence and reports, but these sufficiently indicate the 

 vitally important issue raised by many of the most 

 energetic and capable agriculturists now occupying 

 farms. 



That issue is that when the terms of a new letting of 

 a holding are considered, and the new rent fixed, the 

 new rent ought not to include that portion of the letting 

 value which is due to the tenant's improvements, unless 

 the landlord has paid for the improvements. The 

 injustice of including in the rent the tenant's interest in 

 his improvements, where the improvements were of a 

 permanent character like buildings or drainage, would 

 be obvious, and such improvements, where made by the 

 tenant, are sometimes protected by agreement. But it 

 would appear from the evidence that in the case of high 

 continuous cultivation increasing the fertility of the soil, 

 the improvements are usually ignored, when the rent is 

 reconsidered on a renewal of the tenancy, and the 

 tenant is too frequently charged the full sum his farm 

 would fetch in the market. 



This complaint is usually met with the arguments — 

 (i) that the tenant, if he remains on the holding, has the 

 enjoyment of the improvements, and thus reaps their 

 full remaining value in the operations of farming, and 

 (2) that in these times of depression, and of approximate 

 bankruptcy among agriculturists, landlords are obliged 

 to accept any terms in order to retain old or get new 

 tenants, and that therefore the farmers are masters of 

 the situation. 



But if the landlord, in re-adjusting the rent on renewal, 

 charges the tenant the full annual value, including the 

 annual value added by the tenant himself, without paying 

 some equivalent for the latter, it is absurd to contend 

 that the" tenant is left in the enjoyment of that annual 

 value. On the contrary, the tenant has first paid out of 

 his own pocket the cost of the improvements, and is then 

 asked to pay a second time in the rent for the improve- 

 ments. His reward for improving his farm is, that his 

 natural disinclination to leave is made the screw by 

 which to force him to pay interest on his own outlay to 



