Ij6 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



relaxed. " As long as a man pays his rent, and keeps 

 his farm in fair condition, he can now do as he likes." 

 " Landlords and agents shut their eyes." 



And this is not merely yielding to the pressure of the 

 times. It is probably also matter of policy. Some of 

 the more recent agreements in Lincolnshire do not 

 require more than " good and husbandlike " farming 

 according to the custom of the country, and " not to 

 take any two crops of the same kind in succession." 

 The Duke of Richmond gives freedom to yearly tenants 

 as well as to leaseholders, except during the last four 

 years of the tenancy. The same rule prevailed in the 

 leases on Leicester's estate, and apparently on the 

 estates of the Duke of Bedford. 



On the Crown lands, " when a tenant is farming well, 

 it is considered desirable to allow him to do very much 

 as he likes, provided he will leave his farm in a proper 

 state of cultivation at the end of the period." 



Mr Stratton thinks that the restrictive covenants are 

 now obsolete, and practically abandoned, and are only 

 effective or necessary as regards the last two years of 

 tenancy. 



Again, the opinion was freely expressed that the best 

 farmers, if given a free hand, would largely carry out the 

 order of crops which covenants impose on them. 



It is urged that it is economically wasteful to insist 

 on the consumption of straw, and in some cases hay, 

 when the market value is three, four, or more times 

 greater than its manurial value. The same restoration 

 of fertility may be more cheaply made, and a profit 

 obtained in addition. 



It is also argued that it is suicidal to tie tenants down 

 in these times to methods of farming, like the four-course 

 system, which can no longer be made to pay. 



And, without doubt, in many of the instances of 

 success in the bad times, absolute freedom in the 

 management of the farm, as well as practical sagacity, 

 has been a main cause. 



Mr Front's success at Sawbridgeworth, while violating 

 the two most cherished restrictions, viz., that wheat shall 



