48 Rents, Wages, and Profits in Agyiciilture 



It is to this custom of landlord cultivation 

 on a large scale that we may trace what is 

 still considered the chief peculiarity of the 

 English system of landlord and tenant, 

 namely, the obligation on the part of the 

 landowner to effect permanent improve- 

 ments and to make the necessary repairs ; 

 and to begin with, this obligation extended 

 to making good any extraordinary losses of 

 stock — especially sheep. 



But already I have rather anticipated the 

 actual course of progress. The system of 

 letting land to tenant farmers, as distinct 

 from the villeins, was greatly influenced by 

 the progress of commutation ; although 

 we find in very early times free tenants 

 occupying servile land and rendering the 

 customary services. 



The progress of commutation, and also 

 the extension of the tenant system of culti- 

 vation, was greatly accelerated by the 



