LEASES AND YEARLY TENANCY. 61 



From such instructions as these being given to intelligent tenant- 

 farmers in regard to cropping, people are apt to conclude that they must 

 be very ignorant in regard to their business, and require their landlords 

 to teach them the rudiments of agriculture. I believe, indeed, that such 

 restrictions were originally intended for the guidance of the tenant, 

 and to prevent him from exhausting his farm ; but now, generally 

 speaking, the case is very different. What intelligent farmer, for ex- 

 ample, would ever think to " outlabour or mislabour " his farm ? As 

 already remarked, poor and ignorant men might do so, and therefore 

 they require some such restrictions to be placed on them ; but no intel- 

 ligent farmer who understands his own interest would " mislabour or 

 outlabour " his farm, and therefore he requires no such restrictions to 

 be laid upon him. With regard to the restrictive point, that the tenant 

 " is on no pretence whatever to take two white or corn crops in succes- 

 sion," I am decidedly of the opinion that under good management this 

 may be occasionally practised with advantage to all parties concerned. 

 In fact, if the land is kept clean and in high condition, corn crops 

 may be grown for two seasons in succession without exhausting it ; all 

 depending on the management applied. Next, as to the rotation of 

 cropping to which the farmer is restricted, I consider it as injurious to 

 the interests of both farmer and landlord ; because, were a farmer not 

 restricted in the way inferred from the quotation given above, he could 

 frequently crop the land much more to his own advantage, and would 

 therefore be enabled to give the proprietor a much higher rent. In fact, 

 all such restrictive clauses in leases have the effect of tying the hands 

 of the farmers who are bound by them, and consequently prevent them 

 from taking up and practising superior modes of culture ; and thus the 

 proprietors are prevented from getting higher rents than they would 

 under a more liberal way of dealing with their tenants. Look to the 

 system of cropping practised by market-gardeners in the neighbourhood 

 of large towns. They grow crops of all kinds in succession, as it may 

 suit their interest in meeting the demand in the market. What they 

 have to attend to is the thorough cleaning and manuring of the laud, so 

 as to secure its being always kept in the highest condition possible. 

 Why should not farmers be allowed to deal with their land as market- 

 gardeners deal with theirs ? The latter have, so far as I am aware, no 

 restrictions laid upon them in regard to their mode of cropping ; and 

 where, I would ask, is there land to be found on any farm in the country 

 in nearly so high a condition as that occupied by market-gardeners ? 

 They see it to be for their own interest to keep* the land in the highest 

 bearing condition possible, by the frequent application of manures, and 

 by deep and thorough cultivation ; and in like manner farmers would 



