30 THE BOOK OF THE LANDED ESTATE. 



consequently, the farmer, although a very unfit person for the position, 

 is kept on year after year, and lease after lease is granted so long as he 

 pays his stipulated rent ; the landlord all the time being under the 

 impression that his tenant farms well enough, because he is able to 

 pay his rent ; not thinking that the subject might be made vastly more 

 valuable to both parties under an improved state of things carried out 

 by a more intelligent and otherwise more competent tenant. 



It must be admitted that tenants of an inferior stamp are a great 

 drawback to the advancement of an improved state of things on landed 

 property, as in most respects they are a drag on the wheels of improve- 

 ment ; and therefore I consider that in all cases landed proprietors 

 should arrange with intelligent men only when letting their farms, and 

 never with uneducated nor unskilful men. I am aware that the general 

 objection to the removal of inferior tenants is, that they cannot be got 

 rid of without serious inconvenience to the management on an estate. 

 But this need not be the case if things are gradually and properly gone 

 about in dealing with them. For example, when a proprietor has made 

 up his mind to introduce improvements in the cultivation of the farms 

 on his estate, he has only to intimate his intentions to the tenants, 

 giving each of them an outline of what is proposed to be done for the 

 improvement of any particular farm, and an idea as to the probable 

 advance of rent, which will fall to be paid by the tenant on account of 

 the improvements when effected. If the improvements proposed are 

 judicious in their bearing on the respective farms, and calculated for the 

 general advantage of the tenants as well as for that of the proprietor, 

 the intelligent part of the tenantry will at once enter into them in con- 

 junction with the proprietor, while it is to be expected that the more 

 ignorant portion will not do so ; and in the event of such being the case, 

 they should be got rid of, and superior men obtained to occupy their 

 places. It would, perhaps, be an injudicious step to make a total clear- 

 ance of the tenants from any estate, although they might be all of a 

 comparatively inferior description ; but it is not necessary to do this, for 

 on most estates there are a few fair agriculturists, who, although not of 

 any considerable standing in respect of education and skill, are usually 

 men of common sense and of considerable perseverance, and are there- 

 fore likely to be able to enter into the views of the proprietor, and to 

 carry out, under the directions of the agent, the improvements he wishes 

 made on their farms. 



With a part of his tenants of this character, and with a few highly 

 intelligent and skilful men put in place of those who were of so inferior 

 a character that they could not comprehend the advantages to be derived 

 from the improvements proposed, and had therefore to be dismissed, any 



