844 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



[Dec. 14, 



Pig, bred by hi a> tell, and fed on Oats, Peas, Meal, I'ota- moderation of rent, tenancy from year to year is most In I farmers who are tenants merely from^earTo 



* *"" "-"- ** ' ' * #-»--* . __j .i__. t , j *:-_ . L _ then> as tenants j t may be gai( j thei( _ j ines ^ ar 



toes, Mangold Wurzel, and Milk — Silver Medal. 



It will be observed that His Royal Highness Frinc 

 Albert exhibited several animals, amongst which were 

 Pigs to which a Prize of 5/. was awarded, and an Ox of 

 the Polled Augus breed, which attracted considerable 

 attention. 



Besides the Show of Fat Cattle, which alone wis ori- 

 ginally established by the Smithfield Club, there has 

 grown up of late yeurs an Exhibition, in the same place, 

 of Agricultural Implements ; manufacturers no doubt 

 finding it profitable to take advantage in this manner of 

 these annual assemblages of farmers. There was not 

 many new implements exhibited : the following reference 

 to some of the articles shown may interest some of our 

 readers : — The stand of Messrs. H. Gibbs & Co., seeds- 

 men to the English Agricultural Society, was the first 

 that met the eye on entering. We noticed there enor- 

 mous specimens of long red and globe yellow Mangold 

 Wurzel, and also of Kohl Rabi. There was also some 

 series of specimens of Grasses and Wheat/m the stand. 

 Specimens of all these were also exhibited by Messrs. 

 G. Gibbs and Co. At another stand specimens of 

 Swedish Turnips, weighing about 20 lbs., were exhi- 

 bited ; and Mr. Skirving exhibited heavy specimens of 

 his well-known variety. Among the implements we 

 noticed two applications of the lever-power to Hand- 

 tnreshing Machines - a mode of working them which was 

 first introduced by Messrs. Ran«ome, of Ipswich. In 

 one — thab by Mr. Cambridge, of Devizes — the oscillatory 

 motion of the lever was converted into the rotatory 

 motion of the drum of the implement, by means of sun- 

 and-planet toothed wheels ; in the other — a heavy and 

 bulky machine, exhibited by Lieut. Viburt, R.N. — the 

 crank was employed for this purpose, and the action of 

 three levers worked by three men was brought to bear 

 upon it. One of the cleverest implements in the gallery 

 was a ilorse-rake, exhibited by Mr. Smith, of Stamford, 

 in which all the action of Mr. Grant's excellent and 

 well-known implement is obtained in a very simple 

 manner. We must postpone a description of this im- 

 plement till another opportunity. Nothing new was 

 observed among Drilling-machines : implements of this 

 class were exhibited by Messrs. llornsby, of Grantham, 

 Garrett and Exall, and Smyth, of Ipswich. A variety 

 of Cake and Corn-crushers was exhibited by the two first- 

 named manufacturers ; those of the former being distin- 

 guished by their peculiar make — the working cylinders 

 being covered with pinnacle instead of ridge-formed 

 teetb. Among Turnip-cutters we noticed an ingenious 

 implement by Mr. Wedlake, in which the working 

 cylinder cut slices or finger-shaped pieces according to 

 the position of the hopper, and the direction in which 

 the handle was turned. Another, exhibited by Messrs. 

 Wedlake and Thompson, consisted of a horizontal 

 revolving circular disc, on which the cutters were placed, 

 and through which the slices fell as they were neces- 

 sarily cut off the lower surfaces of the bulbs placed in a 

 box above it. We must not forget mentioning Smith's 

 Field-garden Hand-dibble, exhibited by Messrs. Cottam 

 and Hallen. It was referred to some weeks ago in this 

 Paper by a correspondent, and, though we have no ex- 

 perience of it, appears likely to answer its purpose. Its 

 cost is 35s. 



Besides the few we have mentioned, the usual variety 

 of agricultural implements was exhibited by their 

 respective manufacturers ; and notwithstanding the ab- 

 sence of implements from the factory of the Messrs. 

 Rans'ome, at Ipswich, which generally sends out so many, 

 there appeared to be both number and variety sufficient 

 in the Exhibition to interest the crowds that inspected it. 



An intimation was given by Earl Spencer that it 

 was the intention of His Royal Highness Prince 

 Albert to honour the Club with a visit, but the day had 

 not yet been fixed. It was, however, generally supposed 

 that this morning (Saturday) would be the most likely 

 '~*me. 



FARMERS' CLUBS. 

 Stewponey.—The twelfth Monthly Meeting of this 

 Farmers' Club was held on the 2d inst. Mr. Maughan, 

 of Dudley, read the following Essay on the Expediency 

 of Leases. First, As to the objections against leases :— 

 u I find some brought together by an annotator on 

 1 Tuke's Survey of the North Riding of Yorkshire/ He 

 observes, it" is the popular fashion of the times to rail at 

 tenancy from year to year— to assert that a country so 

 held must be devoid of improvement, the tenantry op- 

 pressed, and the landowners deprived of that share of 

 rent which they ought to receive were their lands let on 

 what they call a more durable tenure. He observes that 

 the permanency of tenure under lease is held to be one 

 of the greatest inducements to cultivation ; but he con- 

 tends that, with tenants from year to year, occupation is 

 more durable than with the former— that the occupa- 

 tions of the latter are rarely changed, except for faults ; 

 and so far as leases prevent such changes, thev are evils. 

 He alleges that few estates let to yearly tenants can be 

 pointed out where the same families have not remained 

 on them for many generations. He contends that where 

 leases are common, the greater part of the tenants are 

 changed at their expiration, for, no mutual tie, either of 

 friendship, honour, or attachment, existing between land- 

 lord and tenant, the former is bound only by interest to 

 the latter, and the latter, presuming upon the certainty 

 of his lease, gives probably some occasion of offence, 

 which is not forgiven when it expires. It is contended, 

 too, that in cases of tenancy from year to year, rents are 

 not so frequently advanced as on estates where leases are q ii t Pnanf8 hnMi™ f™™ «,.* ^ u i 



?** a ,i that both for pernancy of occupatioa and £ 'ST^^J^^™™™™ 



favour of the tenant, and that, for such moderation, the 

 landlord has an ample return in the attachment and 

 good offices of his tenantry. Another objection, on behalf 

 of the tenant, 'made to leases is, that if a rent be re- 

 served fluctuating with the price of produce, the rent 

 bears hardest on the tenant when he is least able to dis- 

 charge it. Ano r her objection to leases made on behalf of 

 landlords is, that leases fairly granted on fixed money 

 rents — I mean fairly granted with reference to circum- 

 stances existing at the time of the contract — often be- 

 come, by a change of circumstances, altogether one-sided, 

 and in favour of the tenant ; for if the prices of produce 

 advance, the landlord cannot share in the benefit ; but 

 if, on the other hand, prices fall, he is obliged to reduce 

 the tenant's rent, to keep him (as the phrase goes) on his 

 legs. Secondly, As regards the arguments advanced in 

 favour of leases. It is said that no prudent tenant farmer 

 will venture his money in the improvement of his land 

 without security ; that is to say, not an absolute certainty 

 that the money expended will be returned to him, but 

 certainty in the opportunity of conducting and of carry- 

 ing out, in a series of years, that course of operations on 

 which, at the commencement, his calculations were 

 founded, and whereby alone he could hope to redeem 

 his expenditure with compensation for the time be- 

 stowed, the labour imparted, and the hazards incurred 

 in the enterprise. Another argument in favour of leases 

 is derived from experience of their benefit in many parts 

 of the kingdom, where they have been judiciously 

 adopted. In connection with this subject it has been, 

 perhaps not unjustly said, that in almost every field 

 in the country there is an unworked, or an imperfectly 

 worked mine of agricultural wealth, but that it cannot be 

 brought to light without an expenditure of money, which, 

 once sunk in the soil, can only be recovered in the course 

 of years; and it is asked, Can the farmer who has his 

 farm from year to year only, with justice to himself and 

 his family, enter freely upon this outlay ? The ordinary 

 confidence reposed in landlords, and in the agents of 

 landlords, will not overcome those prudential consider- 

 ations ; the thought that his security is not real, alarms 

 the worldly prudence of the tenant, and banishes all idea 

 of improvement or outlay. This is a fact of which we 

 may convince ourselves by the evidence of our own eyes, 

 that under a system of tenancy from year to year, thelands 

 of this kingdom generally are cultivated imperfectly. There 

 is good and spirited management by yearly tenants here 

 and there to be met with, but it is the exception, and not 

 the rule. In examining the arguments of writers upon 

 leases, I have nowhere found so much said, and so well 

 said, in their behalf, as in an article written by Mr. Han- 

 nam, of North Deghton, in Yorkshire. As I doubt 

 whether it be possible to add much to his conceptions 

 upon this subject, or to improve upon his manner of ex- 

 pressing them, I shall, with this willing acknowledg- 

 ment, borrow freely from Mr. Hannam's paper. After 

 speaking of the disadvantages with which the tenant 

 farmer often has to contend — fickle seasons, fluctuating 

 markets, insolvent customers, and other evils — he pro- 

 ceeds to remark, that greater than all those is the disad- 

 vantage arising from the uncertainty of the tenant being 

 allowed to continue unmolested in his occupation, after 

 his money shall have been embarked in improvements 

 requiring more than that average outlay which is 

 necessary for ordinary and routine management. 

 Mr. Hannam observes that upon the system of yearly 

 tenancy there are other attendant evils ; one is the 

 facility which it affords to men without skill or capital to 

 obtain farms ; and another, the temptation it holds cut 

 to the needy man to make a temporary convenience of a 

 farm. Hence, we continually see tenants with a capital 

 of 500/. upon a farm requiring 1000/. ; for as the occu- 

 pier is a tenant from year to year, there is not generally 

 that investigation into his qualifications which there 

 ought to be, and which there undoubtedly would be were 

 a lease for a long term of years about to be granted ; and 

 on his side the tenant is often impelled to take hold of an 

 engagement, though not to his mind exactly, as a conve- 

 nience, and until he meets with something th8t suits him 

 better. The result, he observes, of these contracts may 

 easily be defined. If the farm be out of order at first, 

 the tenant ^ who takes it as a convenience (i. e. on the 

 determination to get all he can from it without much 

 cost), soon finds that it will not bear robbery ; but he 

 finds out also that it will not do to expend money on it ; 

 he is therefore content to take what it gives, and to 

 return to it nothing ; and he robs it, or it robs him, till 

 after a time there is no more left to rob. In the other 

 case, the tenant finds himself on a farm with a supply of 

 cash below the demand, his farm requiring improving, 

 but "it must be done bit by bit ; he must see how it 

 answers," are his cogitations ; and of course— as under 

 this sort of management it grows worse — his land goes 

 half stocked, his crops fail, and he finds himself in diffi- 

 culties before he knows how to turn himself ; the capital 

 he had is melted, and that without making anv reform in 

 the condition of his farm ; and in a short time he is left 

 penniless and in the possession of a farm which after 

 such a course of negligent management requires a capital 

 double of what it ought to do. So much, then, for the 

 evih of the system, which the advocates of leases would 

 abolish I The advantages of the one they recommend 

 maybe stated to be the prevention of those very evils 

 which the other produces. They would endeavour to 

 raise up a class of men possessing capital to expend, and 

 they would give them confidence to expend it. It is not, 

 however, as Mr. Hannam reraark=, to be asserted that 



„, — -.„, . w . „ „,..«*, v . jwib, miner me stipu| a - 



of a lease. It will perhaps be urged that the 



will, under a lease for 15 or 20 years, betoomurh 



But 



in lucky places, or they would not risk the^outUy een? 

 rally necessary to superior management. And even in 

 these cases we may rest assured that thos2 tenants wh» 

 do much without the security of leases would do more 

 much more, if they possessed such security. They are* 

 consequently, not such good farmers as they would be' 

 were they secure, for a series of years, under the stinnJa 

 lations of a lease. T * - :1 ' — L --- * p 



farmer 



affected by a depression of prices, unless his contracTbe 

 a very advantageous one ; and that, under such circum- 

 stances, he will not be able to procure any relief from his 

 landlord. Now, it is true the tenant will not be able to 

 say " 'You must reduce the rent of my farm, or I must 

 leave it." There is, however, no reason to assume that 

 this demand will be made. A contract which has to be in 

 force for a length of time would be considerately made • it 

 would be based upon the prices of products for a number'of 

 years preceding the contract. But when the holder of a 

 leise takes a farm, he values the gross products of thesame 

 in its present condition. If, therefore, he can make it pro- 

 duce one-fourth more than it did formerly, his lease 

 insures him the benefit of it, and encourages him to con- 

 tinue his improvements ; and when a depression of the 

 market takes place, if his produce does not fetch so much 

 as it did once, he finds he has more in quantity, so that 

 the aggregate value shows still in his favour ; but, should 

 brisk markets come, he has both good prices and an in- 

 creased quantity of produce. I deem it too obvious to 

 require to be argued that the rent reserved ought not to 

 be a fixed money payment, but should fluctuate with the 

 fluctuations in the prices of produce — in most cases with 

 those of grain. By this means, the landlord and tenant are 

 alike protected. But some will say that if this arrangement 

 does good to the tenant at one time it does evil to him at 

 another ; for, since high prices are not only caused by 

 increased consumption, but also by decreased production, 

 when the price of grain rises, owing to a deficient yield, 

 or to a bad harvest, the farmer will have to pay an in- 

 creased rent. This may, in the opinion of some, be a 

 weighty objection. But it really is not a weighty objec- 

 tion, when the subject is duly examined ; for, if all the 

 circumstances producing fluctuations in prices are con- 

 sidered, it will be found that the tenant holding under a 

 lease, at a corn or other produce rent, will have three 

 points out of four in his favour. I particularly invite at- 

 tention to what Air. Hannam so well says upon this 

 branch of the subject. Take the case of a corn rent for 

 the purpose of illustration. Thus, First — if prices are 

 low from a limited demand, he has a reduction in rent. 

 Second — L If prices are low from increased production, he 

 has more grain, yet, at the same time, a reduced rent. 

 Third — If, on the other hand, prices are high from an 

 increased demand, he has a higher rent to pay, but then 

 he has more money to pay it with. Fourth — It is only 

 when the advance of price arises from decreased pro- 

 duction that it operates against him. Then he has a 

 higher rent without any advantage of market ; for it is 

 probable that the advance of the value of his grain is more 

 than counterbalanced by the diminution of the quantity* 

 But it should not be forgotten that this diminution in the 

 quantity of his grain is not all loss to the farmer. His 

 ori^inalrent is foundedupon the presumftionthat his land 

 will grow a certain quantity per acre; but this quantity is 

 the average of a number of years, so that if in one year 

 he falls short of the quantity/it is reasonable to suppose 

 that in other years he exceeds it. When we consider, 

 too, that he is, or ought to be, making improvements, it 

 is fair to presume that he exceeds the estimated quantity 



England and Wales generally is retarded by the practice 

 of withholding leases, or rather of not insisting tipon 

 their acceptance, I wish it to be understood that I do not 

 for a moment recommend an indiscriminate granting or 

 leases to occupiers of farms. The owners of small tarras, 

 for instance, will feel that they can seldom enter sately 

 into contracts for a long term of years with the class or • 

 tenants who compete for small farms. Their narro 

 means, their want of capital, renders their covenant or 

 little, if any value. And again, if upon many large estates 

 the owners were suddenly to require and to insist up 

 a change involving a spirited and enlightened system oi 

 farming, and were even at the same time to hold out io 

 their tenantry the security of leases on corn or owe 

 produce rents, it would be utterly impossible, in nu * e ™" 

 cases, to carry out the commendable objects of such la - 

 lords, with the bulk of the tenantry existing upon su 

 estates. An immense proportion of the soil ot angi ^ 

 and Wales is occupied by men of inadequate cap _ . 

 another large proportion is held by men devoid o t en «y 

 and enterprise, who are so wedded to their anti quate 

 ways that they will hardly look over their own ? e V" 

 Ree what is being done by their more spirited neignoc > • 

 There cahnot beany doubt that if it were the practi . 

 an estate to insist upon the acceptance of j eases ' thc 

 lords or their agents would be constrained to si 

 resources and circumstances of a PP llcants f muc " re i* 

 closely than they do at present, when letting farms m ^/ 

 from year to year. The consideration weighs wi ^ 

 landlord or agent that the contract is but for a yea ^ ^ 

 that if the tenant does not go on pretty well he ca ^ 

 moved by a six months' notice ; but we all an» 

 such is the generosity and forbearance of &"«"* be _ 

 lords, generally, that when once an '"dirterent ten 

 comes seated in a farm, he is generally allowed to - _ 

 there ; he is tolerated and borne with long altc * V r 





