198 
Farm Agreements in Reference to 
The whole question of incorporating existing agreements with 
the Act is one which requires careful consideration. 
The same may be said of framing new agreements in accord- 
ance with the Act, defining what is vague, and adapting the 
Act to the circumstances of different districts. 
V. — Farm Agreements in reference to the Agricultural Holdings 
Act. Bj C. Randell, of Chadbury, Evesham. 
The Agricultural Holdings (England) Act, 1875, has changed 
altogether the presumption of law in reference to unexhausted 
improvements. Whereas formerly, if a tenant held his farm 
without any agreement, and where no custom was established 
under which he had a claim on quitting for such improvements, 
they became the property of his successor, now he has a legal 
claim to compensation for them. The effect of this legislation 
will be, that such compensation will become universal. Where 
it is already secured by custom or agreement the Act will make 
no change, but where farms have been held " at will," as the 
practice is called, or under agreements which do not provide 
such compensation, either the Act will apply, or agreements 
framed in the spirit of the Act will be entered into. 
It may be useful to those landlords and tenants, who con- 
template the adoption of the latter course, to consider the terms 
of a form of agreement adopted upon the estate of the late Mr. 
Holland, in 1863, with a view to getting rid of a practice very 
common at that time — and still existing — viz., that tenants,, 
when about to quit their farms, whether held on lease or at will, 
took all they could out of the land because their predecessors had 
done so, and because they would not be compensated for doing 
otherwise. The objects sought to be attained by the agreement 
were — 
First. To induce the outgoing tenant to continue to farm 
well to the end of his tenancy, by paying him for the un- 
exhausted value of his improvements. 
Secondly. To allow him to dispose of his produce as he 
pleased, bringing upon the farm an equivalent in purchased 
food and manures. 
Tldrdly. To avoid all restrictions as to cropping, but pro- 
viding that the farm should be left in such a state as would 
involve no loss to the next tenant. 
The clauses of the agreement intended to effect these objects 
are worded thus : 
All hay, straw, potatoes, roots, cabbages, and other food for cattle, groxm 
