186 
Farm Capital. 
management during several years preceding the termination of 
a tenancy, but tlie shift of land which will be in fallow in the 
last year will probably be that which will have been least subject 
to this inHuenc e, especially under the four-course rotation. 
The fallow break therei'ore is not that part of the farm to the 
clean state of which our attention should be especially directed, 
if we would obviate or mitigate the evils arising from change, 
but rather those fields which were fallowed in the immediately 
preceding years. But even supposing that it were the most 
important object of attention, what would be the dictates of 
a sound policy with regard to it? Assuredly not that which 
would lead to an extra amount of tillage, even if requisite and 
judicious, becoming a source of extra profit to the man through 
whose negligence it has become necessary ; but rather that the 
allowances made for the maintenance of a fair state of cleanliness 
should be replaced by penalties on foulness, or, if that view of 
the subject be visionary, at least that the allowances made should 
be so barely remunerative as to constitute a somewhat onerous 
obligation rather than a source of gain. 
At the very least the rate of charge for tillages allowed to the 
outgoing tenant ought to be calculated on the basis of mutual 
accommodation, not that which leaves a margin for trade profit. 
That this charge has been so generally calculated, few I think 
will venture to affirm ; to what extent it should be taxed is 
a question that can only be solved by a large mass of evidence 
from the well-kept account-books of skilful managers. On 
this and many other points we have had too much theorizing, 
and that of the worst kind, as coming from men who were 
theorizing unconsciously. Some, too, of our standard books 
laboured under this difficulty — that the author had to justify a fore- 
gone conclusion ; he was a valuer of long-established business 
and reputation ; his new calculations could not much diverge 
from his former awards without seriously damaging his position ; 
and yet causes such as improvements in implements, drainage, 
free circulation of air, and in management, were in slow but con- 
stant operation, tending to an improved economy in labour, such 
as to call for a revision of the tariff in our day, if not within a 
shorter period. 
If we may be called upon to account for the origin of unsatisfac- 
tory arrangements for the performance of acts of cultivation under 
a change of tenancy, the answer will not be difficult. Estate 
management was more in its infancy a few years back than farm- 
ing, and few functions were more inadequately performed, or 
salaries more easily earned, than those of the old-fashioned estate- 
agent. He probably had not that practical knowledge of agricul- 
ture which would enable him to give even general directions for 
