FRUIT-GROWING ON A LARGE SCALE. 



151 



at hand and security of tenure, I am of opinion that hundreds of 

 acres of land might be planted with fruit, to the advantage of 

 both landlord and tenant. The landlord should give every en- 

 couragement to a tenant who wishes to plant fruit, either by 

 finding the trees or by giving him written permission to plant 

 under the Agricultural Holdings Act, which will entitle him to 

 obtain compensation at the termination of his tenancy. It is 

 most certainly to the interest of the landlords to meet tenants in 

 this way, as by the planting of fruit the value of their property 

 is enormously increased. 



Under the Agricultural Holdings Act, 1883, a tenant is 

 entitled to compensation (taking into consideration the inherent 

 capability of the soil) for the planting of orchard fruit-trees and 

 fruit-bushes, provided such planting is done with the written 

 consent of the landlord. Market-gardeners and their landlords 

 have been much interested in the Market Gardeners Bill pro- 

 moted by Sir E. Lechmere, but which has been thrown out 

 during the past session. Market-gardeners contend that if they 

 plant land which they rent as market-garden land with fruit 

 stocks the written consent of the landlord for such planting is 

 not necessary, and that at the termination of their tenancy they 

 should receive compensation for all fruit-trees which they have 

 planted. They further contend that the landlord in letting land 

 as a market-garden presupposes that such land would be 

 planted as a market- garden, and their great point is, Does not 

 that supposition include the planting of fruit-trees ? It certainly 

 seems rather hard on the market-gardener if he is to obtain no 

 compensation for fruit-trees which he has planted and brought 

 to maturity, and by the planting of which (with his own 

 capital) he may have doubled the value of the landlord's property. 

 Taking this view, if the landlord does not wish land, which he 

 lets as a market-garden, to be planted with fruit-trees, he would 

 make a special stipulation to that effect, and in the event of his 

 not doing so, at the termination of the tenancy, if the trees have 

 been well cared for and the plantations have been planted with 

 judgment, then the landlord or incoming tenant would pay a fair 

 valuation for all growing crops, including the fruit trees and 

 bushes. And if the trees have not been properly pruned and 

 cared for, and the plantation is unfavourably situated, the valua- 

 tion would be proportionately lower. 



