202 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



" fertility," being the natural property of the soil, should 

 belong to the landlord, while " condition " is what really 

 is caused by and should belong to the tenant. He does 

 not, therefore, object to the proviso. 



On the double ground that the inherent capabilities 

 are already paid for in rent, and that the proviso offers 

 an indefinite opportunity for whittling down a tenant's 

 claim without adequate and producible evidence, the 

 Central Chamber are probably right in wishing that the 

 words should be struck out. 



Several witnesses strongly favour the older principle 

 that compensation should be based on outlay, and hold 

 that the principle of the Act that the "value of an 

 improvement to an incoming tenant " is too vague and 

 unsatisfactory a standard to work upon. 



Thus Mr Kay thinks that the words of the Act lead 

 to misunderstanding and to the ignoring of improve- 

 ments, and that compensation should be awarded on 

 some schedule stipulating a return to the outgoing 

 tenant of some fixed proportion of his outlay. 



Mr Dobson thinks it would be desirable to keep the 

 schedules in a new Act. The valuer might specify for 

 which class of improvement the compensation was 

 awarded, and then, if necessary, a further sum for 

 general improvements beyond the items mentioned. 



But the great mass of authoritative evidence is alto- 

 gether the other way. Thus Mr Scott : — " If it were 

 enacted that a certain portion of what the outgoing 

 tenant had spent would be repaid to him, that w^ould be 

 still worse than the present Act, which does not 

 sufficiently take into consideration the improved condi- 

 tion and fertility of the soil," 



The able group of men in Northumberland, with whom 

 Mr Scott has been identified, have tried to get just 

 valuation of quality, as well as quantity by classification. 

 Their object was to grade compensation according to 

 the skill and thoroughness with which 'any improvement 

 was carried out, and the cleanliness and good cultivation 

 accompanying it. By combining time 'scales of exhaus- 

 tion with a division into three classes, of excellent, 



