1 88 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



and tenant system is kept up, it should not be allowed 

 to be a bar to improvement. If the landlord objects, he 

 does not think a reference as to the suitability of the 

 proposed improvement necessary, but would prefer to 

 leave the improvement perfectly free and open, the 

 tenant to take the risk of a loss. If he erects an un- 

 suitable building, the valuer will not allow him for it. 



Among Welsh witnesses, Mr Owen Price thinks that 

 permanent pasture, improving watercourses, making 

 fences, reclaiming waste land, should be transferred to 

 Part III of the Schedule. 



The proposals of the Central Chamber of Agriculture 

 on this matter take a middle course. The report of 

 their Committee recommends that the following im- 

 provements should be transferred from Part I to Part II 

 of the Schedule and put on the same footing as drainage 

 as to procedure, viz : — Laying down of permanent pasture, 

 making of gardens, orchards, and osier beds, not exceed- 

 ing one acre, improving of roads, of wells, watercourses, 

 water supply, and application of water power, and the 

 reclaiming of enclosed waste land. The landlord's 

 consent is to remain necessary for the rest of Part I, 



It was stated, however, by Mr Lipscomb that the pro- 

 posal to transfer the whole of Part I. to Part II. was 

 originally adopted by the Committee, and only struck 

 out at the final stage of their report. 



The arguments urged to the contrary are that such a 

 right would unfairly restrict the rights of an owner over 

 his own property, and that tenants could, in many cases, 

 by using such a procedure, involve themselves and their 

 landlords in embarrassments and loss. 



Mr Wilson Fox thinks the demand is not made in 

 Lincolnshire or Suffolk. The tenants in the latter 

 county are too impoverished, and even if they could 

 carry out permanent improvements, in many cases they 

 could not recover compensation from owners practically 

 insolvent. 



Mr Stratton thinks it might be a hardship to lay 

 down in grass without some consideration for the wishes 

 and abilities of the landlord. 



