192 PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. 



LAND— OWNERSHIP. 



859. In most of the European countries, land is not 

 owned hy those who work it. The farmer, for the most 

 part, holds his land on a lease of only a few years* 

 continuance. A strong incentive to permanent im- 

 provement is therefore taken away ; for, if the farmer 

 makes ever so great improvements, he may not reap 

 the benefit of them beyond the brief term of his lease. 



360. Happily, it is otherwise in our country. Here 

 the landlord and the tenant are one and the same. If he 

 abuse his land for the sake of present income, he, and 

 not another, is the loser. If he manage it with a wise 

 reference to future productiveness, he, and not some 

 hated landlord, is the gainer. In no country on earth 

 is there so little apology 'for ''skinned farms;" and 

 yet such farms are everywhere seen. 



861. About as much labor is expended as will suf- 

 fice to take off what grows spontaneously. We see 

 buildings, the wear and tear of thirty j'ears excepted, 

 what they were when the occupant was a young man. 

 There are few or no permanent fences ; the boulders 

 about the premises lie where the drift agency left 

 them ; the annual produce is small, and growing less ; 

 the children, if they inherit a little enterprise from 

 some remote ancestor, are all gone to the city or to 

 the great West ; and the farmer himself, if not pre- 

 paring to go the way of all the earth, is at least pre- 

 paring his farm to be left without regret. 



