CHAPTER IX. 



The Relation of Rents to Landlord's Improve- 

 ments, THE Capital Value of Land, and to 

 Mortgages and Incumbrances. 



The relation of the outlay by landlords in permanent 

 improvements and repairs has a material bearing on 

 rents. 



The evidence brought before us, though conflicting 

 on some points, shows generally that the expenditure by 

 many landlords, and especially the owners of large 

 estates, has been heavy and continuous for many years. 



By many witnesses it is stated that this expenditure 

 has increased rather than diminished since agriculture 

 began to decline, except on small estates, or where the 

 owner's income is wholly drawn from his agricultural 

 land. 



In the good times, not only in Wales, but in many 

 parts of England, and frequently in Scotland, a propor- 

 tion of the permanent improvements — not large or 

 constant, but occasional and irregular — was carried out 

 by the tenants themselves. 



" Frequently on the larger farms, in the good times, 

 when money was plentiful, tenants put up a shed or 

 other building, without even asking their landlord to do 

 it, and as for the smaller repairs, the landlords were 

 never troubled about them." ^ 



But since depression set in, tenants have generally 

 ceased from any such outlay, and the whole expenditure 

 on improvements, and also most of that on repairs, 

 previously undertaken in their agreements by tenants, 

 has come upon the landlord. 



Further, on changes of tenancy, new tenants have 

 ' Wilson Fox, Lincoln, p. 14. 



