CHAPTER III. 



LAND-AGENCY. 

 SECTION 1. Agents, or Factors, as Estate Managers. 



AGENTS or Factors, as they are called in Scotland are men employed 

 by landowners to look after the affairs of their estates, and transact 

 any general business arising out of or in connection with them, and 

 generally speaking they are resident on the estates. An agent for a 

 landed proprietor occupies a responsible position in the neighbourhood 

 where he has his charge, inasmuch as he has to exercise a large share 

 of the power of his employer, and is his representative in most respects 

 when absent, not only in respect to the tenants of the estate he has in 

 charge, but also in other matters connected with the district. 



This class of estate managers includes men of four different qualifi- 

 cations, 1st, Those who are mere theorists in the profession, and have 

 not had a thorough training for it ; 2d, Those who have had practical 

 training on the farm only, and are without sufficient general education ; 

 3d Members of the legal profession ; and, 4th, Those who have had both 

 a practical and theoretical education specially designed to fit them for 

 the business of land-agent. 



"With regard to the class of men first referred to, they are, in my 

 opinion, least of all to be trusted with the management of an estate ; 

 for they are apt to be led away into extremes in any hobby they may 

 take up, not knowing whether it is suitable for the case in hand ; and 

 the result, therefore, is more likely to turn out a failure than a success. 

 I have seen much loss arise to an estate from the bad management of an 

 agent of this kind, who had come out full of the theory of the profession, 

 but without any considerable acquaintance with the practical details 

 of land agency, or, indeed, of country business in any form. In fact, 

 men of this stamp, as I have said, should never be trusted with the 

 management of an estate, because they have not enough of practical 

 experience to counteract the tendency of their minds to purely theoreti- 

 cal schemes. 



