8 DEVONSHIRE, DORSETSHIRE, 



Dci'onsJtirc. — Farms arc usually given up at cither Lady-day or 

 Michaelmas. In a Lady-day holding, the tenant has no awaygoing 

 crop ; he gives up everything -when he leaves. The incoming tenant 

 generally puts in the wheat and ploughs up the wheat eddish by a 

 provision to that effect in the lease. If he has no such agreement there 

 is no custom to give him a right of entry at all, and he has to compen- 

 Bate the outgoing tenant for seed and labour. The outgoing tenant 

 has no claim for improvements that he has made on his farm, nor for 

 cake, except by special agreement. Where they arc tenants-at-will 

 from year to year, the tenant is subject to six months' notice; and 

 whenever the six-months' notice is given, there is an auction, and the 

 tenant sells oif everything, including the manure. There is scarcely 

 any general agricultural custom existing in the county. The tenants 

 are not allowed to sell hay or straw, the covenants restrain them ; but 

 they sell reed. A tenant when he is going out never sows wheat 

 himself by the custom of the country, but by agreement. There is no 

 custom as to machinery, thrashing machines, &c. Cider presses are 

 sometimes the property of the tenant, and he takes them away : if not, 

 he leaves them ; and it is the same with thrashing machines. 



DorscWiirc. — The time of entry upon farms is generally Lady-day, 

 On April Gth the incoming tenant enters the meadows with the land 

 for turnips ; on July Gth all other pasture or down lands, with land of 

 two years' ley for wheat; on October 10th the remainder of the arable 

 lands; and on July Gth of the following year the remainder of the 

 house, barns, stables, &c. He is allowed stabling and straw for food 

 and litter for a certain number of horses, and the use of the yards for 

 turning up manure : he has also a cottage for the carter and shepherd, 

 with part of the farm-house, and other offices therein. The outgoing 

 tenant generally takes the following wheat or barley crop, unless there 

 is some special agreement; it is valued on the ground, and is generally 

 worked off by the outgoing tenant. The manure belongs to the in- 

 coming tenant, whether it be made with oilcake, or whether it is mere 

 straw and water, and he usually takes any hay that may be left at a 

 valuation. As a general thing, there is no compensation for improve- 

 ments to outgoing tenants, and none for artificial manures, chalking, 

 marling, claying, buildings, fences, orchards, &c. Mr. Sturt's " Tenant 

 Security Rules," however, provide a scale of compensation to tenants 

 for unexhausted improvements, extending in the case of liming to the 

 seventh year, and in the case of draining to the eighth year. By rule 

 loth, "For conversion of all pasture land into arable, the outgoing 

 tenant is to U alloiml IS-s. in the pound for paring and burning before 



