Farm Capital. 
U1 = 175 
noportionably increased. In adjusting tlie question of rent, 
he acceptance by the tenant of the liability, more or less quali- 
ied, to repair, or exemption therefrom, obviously governs the 
imount to be paid. Such amount is further influenced by the 
eservation of game or other kindred rights by the landlord, and 
enerally by the character of the covenants under which the 
md is to be managed. Rent is generally contracted to be 
laid half-yearly, but occasionally quarterly, though rarely col- 
cted more than twice a year. It is becoming usual to make the 
eat due in the last quarter before the expiration of the tenancy, 
layable in advance if demanded. The amount of rent varies 
rem 20/. per acre on the best hop-lands and fruit-farms down to 
2s. Qd. per acre on the thin sandy heaths of Dorsetshire and the 
Eastern Counties. No precise formula can be adopted in fixing 
its amount, nor has any scheme, under which the landlord receives 
I proportion of the value of farm-produce, in lieu of a fixed 
noney-rent, ever yet worked permanently and satisfactorily. 
The ordinary tenant seems to prefer to take his chance of bad 
vears as well as good ones, of low prices as well as high prices, 
whilst to the landowner it is obviously all-important to know 
nearly as may be the actual average income which is likely 
to accrue to him from his property. 
Companies for Improvement of Land. — Reference has been Companies for 
made above to the Companies incorporated by Act of Parlia- 
meat for advancing money for the purposes of agricultural 
improvements. Their short history is as follows : — In the year 
1847 the Government obtained a vote for the application of 
4,000,000/. for drainage purposes in the United Kingdom, to 
be repaid by annual instalments in twenty-one years, on the 
basis of 3 per cent, simple interest. This amount was almost 
immediately absorbed by various landowners, and, under private 
snterprise, the following Companies were established by Act of 
Parliament for carrying out improvements of a more varied and 
axtensive character, viz. : " The General Land Drainage Com- 
pany,"' " The Lands Improvement Company," " The Land, Loan, 
and Enfranchisement Company ;" and " The General Act." 
A landowner desirous of chargins: the inheritance of his Their pro- 
estate with the cost of any of the improvements enumerated in cednre. 
the Schedule B, annexed (p. 178), applies to one of the Companies 
for an advance to enable him to carry out the necessary work. 
This application is submitted by the Company to the Inclosure 
Commissioners for England and Wales, accompanied in the case 
)f buildings with plans and specifications. These, after exami- 
lation at the Inclosure Office, are referred by the Commissioners 
o an inspector, who visits the site of the proposed works, and 
reports to them upon the scheme, and how far the intended outlay 
will be beneficial to the estate, and the probable increase of rental 
