THE AGrJCULTURAL HOLDINGS ACT. 43 



qiiiiting his fann, is guided entirely by tlic agreement wliicli is made 

 between them on entry. The incoming tenant pays for the manure 

 left on the farm; sometimes the crops are taken at a valuation, and 

 if they cannot agree, the outgoing tenant thrashes the corn, leaving 

 the straw on the farm. The turnip crops are generally taken by valua- 

 tion. Where tlicre is a fallow, so much per acre is charged for work- 

 ing it ; and that, as well as clover-seeds sown, are paid for by the in- 

 coming tenant. 



Radnorshire. — In this county, the smallest in South Wales — so 

 small, indeed, as to have been styled from the Bench, " that little 

 sheep-walk, which calls itself a county," — no established tenant-right 

 can be said to exist, as the customs widely differ, even in neighbouring 

 parishes. A very large portion of the north-west side of the county 

 consists of open mountain, and is farmed as a sheep-walk. In this 

 district an almost feudal relation exists between landlord and tenant : 

 the landlord is looked upon as the owner of the flocks, and the tenant 

 receives a certain proportion of the profits in return for his labour and 

 attendance. In the more cultivated districts the incoming tenant 

 usually takes possession of the land at Lady-day; but the outgoing 

 tenant does not quit the premises till February ; he, however, gives up 

 possession of all the land, with the exception of one field sufficient to 

 keep a cow. The country on the east side, in the neighbourhood of 

 Knighton, is very fertile, and the Herefordshire system of farming is 

 prevalent. In the more remote districts leases are not uncommon, 

 those for lives preponderating over those for a term of years. 



THE AGRICULTURAL HOLDINGS ACT. 



This Act, .38 & 39 Vict. c. 92, was passed for the protection of 

 tenant farmers in England, and with the intention of providing a 

 remedy for a supposed grievance under which the tenant farmers had 

 long laboured. 



Leases in this country are no doubt the exception and not the rule, 

 and unless a tenant had a lease he was liable under the old system to 

 be turned out of his occupation at six months' notice, which notice 

 would probably expire at Michaelmas, without receiving any com- 

 pensation for his unexhausted improvements. These improvements 

 might consist of permanent buildings, drainage, value of unexhausted 

 manures, etc., and it was argued that no tenant could be expected to 



