SCOTLAND. 291 



which I shall speak more particularly when I come to 

 Ireland. Suffice it to say here, that in Scotland opinion is 

 unanimous in respect to avoiding all unnecessary charges 

 upon the incoming tenant, so that his capital may be as 

 little diminished as possible. The usual term for renew- 

 ing leases is Whitsunday, as being the most favourable 

 period to prepare for the crops of a new course."' 5 " 



The theory of leases has nowhere received greater at- 

 tention than in Scotland, where it may be said that the 

 system has reached perfection.. They have been able to 

 dispense with this minuteness in England, for time and the 

 general wealth of the country rendered it unnecessary. 

 But in Scotland, where they had no time to lose, and 

 where they had to begin on small means, it was necessary 

 to consider beforehand what were the best conditions for 

 developing production. Everything is directed towards 

 one end, namely, the formation of farming capital. Scot- 

 land, and not England, is the quarter to which we must 

 go for models when introducing the lease system into a 

 country where it does not already exist, and where the 

 object is to convert poor and ignorant cultivators, 

 mdtayers, and farm-servants, into intelligent and well- 

 to-do farmers. Unfortunately, the Scotch system will 

 not please everybody, for it involves many sacrifices on 

 the part of the proprietors lengthening of leases, mode- 

 rating of rents, payment in kind ; but it is almost 

 necessary to put the farmer who has no means of his 

 own in a position to make something ; and experience 

 has proved that such concessions were exceedingly wise. 

 Eents are already, on an average, almost as high in the 

 better parts of Scotland as in England ; in some parti- 

 cular spots they are even higher ; and the interiors of the 



* The entry to the fallow, or the portion intended for green crop, being gene- 

 rally arranged to be given in the previous winter or early spring. J. D. 



