318 = 52 
British Agriculture. 
Security 
for tenant's 
capital, 
whether by 
leases or 
otherwise, 
should be 
given. 
Admirable 
principle of 
Drainage 
Loans. 
Extended 
powers of sale 
in the case of 
people, so large a proportion of the cultivated land is still per- 
mitted to remain onlj partially productive. 
The third point of difference between the two countries is 
the system of yearly tenancy in England, while leases of nineteen 
and twenty-one years may be said to be the rule in Scotland 
and the exception in England. It is in the nature of a yearly 
tenancy that there should be insecurity. Agricultural investments 
demand time to be fully remunerative. How can a man subject 
at any time to a year's notice to quit be expected to improve? 
That he does so in very many cases is due to the confidence of a 
long-standing connection between landlord and tenant. There 
does not live a more upright honourable man in any class than 
the average English landowner. But, with everv acknowledg- 
ment of his desire to be just and fair in his dealings with his 
tenantry, it is vain to look for enterprise and progress where 
there is no real security. Whether that may be best attained 
under the Agricultural Holdings Act, or by special agreemeni 
without a lease, or by giving such security with two years' notia 
in addition to a lease, in one way or other security must be giver 
to induce such an adequate flow of capital into the business o 
farming as will render it effective. 
Owners in fee simple, as well as tenants for life, very frequent! 
use the powers given by the Land Improvement Acts. Th 
principle of annual repayment of the loan, by which the estate i 
at once put under improvement and the debt redeemed, con 
mends itself to every man who desires to retain and improve h: 
property. He borrows, at a fixed rate of interest, on a securit 
the augmenting value of which is all his own. Besides thi 
there are few landowners who have not either inherited, or four 
it necessary themselves to create, mortgages on their estate 
This is common to all countries, and no change in the la\ 
affecting land is likely to alter it. The limited owner and the fi 
owner are alike subject to it. If further expenditure is require 
the money in the ordinary way must be raised on less adva 
tageous terms than the previous loans. It probably cannot 
raised on any terms by the limited owner. But the admiral 
principle of Sir Robert Peel's Drainage Loans, the essence 
which is that no charge shall be sanctioned which does i 
promise a return greater than the annual cost of a gradual rep • 
ment of the debt, may, without injustice to the previous credit , 
permit them to be made a prior charge upon the land, and \ 1 
thus secure the most advantageous terms to the borrower, whet r 
he holds under settlements or in fee simple. 
But there are many cases of land improvement which cane 
only partially reached by these Acts, and which require tc^ 
dealt with in a different manner. In the home counties, • 
i 
