420 



Farming of Surrey. 



thev are commonly made to sow 2 drills at once, at 9 inches dis- 

 tance," and " the drilled crops in general are either hand-hoed or 

 not hoed at all ; horse-hoes are not common. There are perhaps 

 not 20 acres of drilled turnips in the county/' Our practices in 

 these respects are now the same as in other counties. 



With respect to leases little change has taken place ; indeed, 

 a few years ago there was a great disinclination among farmers to 

 take farms upon lease, with the low price of corn hanging over 

 them : there has been no such diminution of rental, however, as 

 was expected, far better means having been resorted to for the 

 letting of land in the general improvement of the holdings ; and 

 much greater confidence and activity in the taking of farms now 

 prevails. In many cases the leases are made terminable by either 

 landlord or tenant at 2, or even 1 year's notice, while yearly 

 holdings are by far the most common. However creditable the 

 confidence thus displayed may be to the proprietors of land, it is 

 evident that where improvements can be effected, the tenant 

 who is willing to undertake them will require a legal security for 

 the capital he invests. It is the custom in the South of England 

 to commence a lease or agreement at Michaelmas. Many of the 

 farms are burdened with a very costly valuation, and as this is 

 more especially the case in this county, some account will be 

 given of what are called " Surrey valuations." Under the most 

 extreme of these arrangements the out-going tenant demands of 

 his successor a sum frequently amounting to 3/. IO5., or even 4/. 

 an acre, which sum remains dead, so to speak, upon the soil, and 

 is redeemed by a similar exaction at the exjiiration of the tenancy. 

 There are various modifications of this system, and the nature 

 of the valuation differs upon almost every farm ; in many cases 

 an out-going tenant is entitled to the cost of " making the fallows;" 

 of a fourth (under the 4-course system) of his farm, during the 

 last summer of his term ; to the amount of rent and taxes on the 

 same, the expense of carting the dung, and the labour thereon ; 

 to the value of the dung made from the produce of the 2 

 last years of the tenancy ; to the " value of the leys," the 

 " half-dressings," and the " half-fallows." By " making the 

 fallows," is meant the whole process of ploughing and cleaning 

 them, and afterwards of sowing the root crop, operations which 

 are performed under the superintendence of the landlord or 

 in-coming tenant. The value of the ley," " half- dressings," 

 and " half-fallows," are terms used by valuers to express the 

 interest which is possessed by the outgoing tenant in the ley- 

 ground which he leaves upon his farm at Michaelmas — in the 

 land from which one crop only has been taken since it was last 

 dressed with farm- yard dung; and in the land from which but 

 one crop has been taken since it was last fallowed. For instance, 



