the  Royal  Commission  on  Agriculture,  Sfc. 
145 
tenant,  equal  regard  should  be  had  to  that  of  the  outgoing  tenant’s  suc- 
cessor in  the  farm,  whether  such  successor  he  the  landlord  or  the  incoming 
tenant.  In  practice,  the  incoming  tenant  has  usually  to  bear  the  weight  of 
the  payments  to  the  outgoing  tenant ; and,  when  such  payments  are  heavy, 
the  incoming  tenant  not  only  requires  a larger  capital  to  enable  him  to  com- 
mence farming,  but  also  suffers  from  the  inconvenience  of  having  a considerable 
part  of  his  capital  locked  up  for  a period  more  or  less  long.* * * § 
4.  It  would  also  seem  to  be  fair  and  reasonable  that  the  rights  of  the  land- 
lord, whether  he  be  the  successor  in  the  farm  or  not,  and  the  tenant  at  the 
determination  of  a tenancy  should  be  correlative  ; that  is  to  say,  that  as  the 
landlord  should  be  placed  under  an  obligation  to  compensate  the  outgoing 
tenant  for  unexhausted  improvements  effected  by  him,  so  the  tenant  should 
be  placed  under  an  obligation  to  compensate  the  landlord  for  waste,  for 
dilapidations,  and  for  any  other  matters  done  or  omitted  to  be  done  by  him 
whereby  the  farm  has  been  deteriorated.f 
5.  As  the  law  now  stands,  outgoing  tenants  may  be  compensated  for  their 
unexhausted  improvements — 
By  (A)  Private  agreement. 
(B)  The  custom  of  the  country. 
(C)  By  the  Agricultural  Holdings  (England)  Act,  1875. 
But  it  is  contended  that  this  state  of  the  daw  is  not  satisfactory  for, 
amongst  others,  the  following  reasons  : — 
As  regards  A,  because  tenants  are  not  in  a sufficiently  good  position  to  be 
able  to  contract  with  landlords  on  equal  terms.J 
As  regards  B,  because  “ custom,”  even  when  liberal,  is  not  always  suffi- 
ciently comprehensive  to  embrace  all  improvements^ 
And  as  regards  C,  because  the  Act  is  permissive  and  not  compulsory. 
6.  Although  every  outgoing  tenant  is,  in  my  opinion,  entitled  to  be  com- 
pensated for  the  beneficial  value  of  the  improvements  which  he  may  leave 
upon  his  farm  of  which  he  has  not  reaped  the  entire  fruit,  landlords  and 
tenants  should  be  left  perfectly  free  to  make  such  arrangements  as  regards 
compensation  as  may  seem  to  them  to  be  desirable. 
7.  In  the  absence  of  any  agreement  on  the  part  of  a landlord  to  compensate 
an  outgoing  tenant  for  the  beneficial  value  of  purchased  feeding-stuffs  and 
manures  other  than  nitrogenous  manures  which  that  tenant  has  applied  to 
his  farm,  compensation  should  be  secured  tohirn  by  Act  of  Parliament,  which 
Act  should  be  applicable  to  Scotland  as  well  as  to  England.  The  Act,  how- 
ever, ought  not  to  define  or  enumerate  improvements,  nor  prescribe  any 
limit  of  time  within  which  any  class  of  them  should  be  deemed  to  continue 
unexhausted.  But  it  should  provide, — 
(1.)  That  where  an  outgoing  tenant  has  made  improvements  upon  his. 
farm  which  are  in  their  nature  lasting,  such  as  those  called  “ im- 
provements of  the  first  class”  in  the  Agricultural  Holdings  Act, 
1875,  with  the  previous  consent  in  writing  of  the  landlord,  but  not 
otherwise,  he  should  be  entitled  to  payment  for  their  value  at  the 
time  of  quitting  his  farm,  without  any  limitation  of  time  as  to  the 
maximum  period  of  their  duration,  but  to  the  extent  only  that  they 
add  to  the  letting  value  of  the  farm  ; ||  and 
* 4071-75  (W.  Sturge).  4240-4212  (E.  P.  Squarey).  47,225-28  (TV.  C.  Little). 
4510,  4042-47  (T.  Huskiuson).  7079-70S2  (Mas.  Martin). 
t Agricultural  Holdings  Act,  clause  19.  52.112  (H.  Overman).  32,732-33 
(J.  Coleman).  47,201  (TV.  C.  Little).  5242-51  (C.  Kandell). 
1 58,773-74  (J.  Howard,  M.P.). 
§ 49,322  (TV.  Frankish). 
||  39,219  (A.  Bruce). 
VOL.  XIX. — S.  S. 
L 
