THE EVESHAM CUSTOM 433 



than his slipshod neighbour. It is when one comes to 

 specialist crops, to fruit, market produce, hops, even 

 pedigree stock, that the existing law fails to satisfy the 

 tenant. He has embarked his capital in a speciality, 

 and has no claim to drag in his landlord as a co- 

 partner; all the same he or his estate is liable to 

 heavy loss if he is turned out or the tenancy is deter- 

 mined by death. A tenant who plants fruit may 

 easily double the capital value of the land. It is 

 equally unjust either to force an unconsenting landlord 

 to take up the speculation, for speculation it is until 

 a new tenant is found willing to pay rent on the 

 outlay, or to allow the landlord to forfeit the improve- 

 ment, legally at will, in practice on the death of the 

 tenant. One solution would be the general adoption 

 of the Evesham custom, by which the outgoing tenant 

 finds a new tenant willing to take over the improve- 

 ments at a price, and this tenant the landlord is bound 

 to accept. But, speaking generally, owners are not 

 willing to have tenants imposed upon them ; freedom 

 of choice, a power of selection on non-economic 

 grounds, is a thing for which they are willing to pay 

 in reduced rental, and do in fact so pay. We need 

 to realize all the time that the ownership of land in 

 this country is not entirely treated as a matter of 

 business ; there is a give and take, a rough partnership, 

 between tenant and owner, which finds its working 

 expression in the fact, vouched for by the recent De- 

 partmental Inquiry, that land is mostly let at rents 

 below its competitive value. 



For this reason the farmers stand by the landlord's 

 party, notwithstanding their divergent interests ; hence 

 also they view with so much alarm the recent disturb- 

 ance of the owner's confidence in landed property that 

 has led to the partial break up of so many estates. The 



