780 
Profit-Sharing in Agrimlhire. 
the well-known firm of London accountants, who have instruc- 
tions to charge the farm, first, with interest at 3^ per cent., then 
with rent and tithe, and to show what credit balance there is 
after these charges have been paid. Without making any 
engagement to share this net profit with the labourers, Lord 
Wantage has, roughly speaking, set apart one-third, to be given 
in the form of bonus. 
The bonus given to each man on the farm for the year 
ending j\Iichaelmas, 1891, amounts to 3^., which is, as nearly 
as possible, 10 per cent, on their wages. This is the fifth 
bonus which Lord Wantage has been able to distribute. 
In a letter received from Lord Wantage, he says — 
" The tonus of 3/. goes a long way towards paying the house-rent — in 
many cases covers it — and in cases where father and sons live in the same 
cottage it greatly exceeds it. But the advantage of the honus is chiefly 
found in the increased interest which it promotes in the men's minds in the 
work of the farm, and in the improved relationship between the labourer 
and his employer." 
And his bailiff, Mr. Eady, writes — 
" I am satisfied the system has done good amongst the labourers, and 
makes them take an interest in all the operations of the year." 
Lord Spencer is likewise making an interesting experiment, 
but upon more democratic lines. He has rented the Glebe 
Farm at Harleston, 29G acres, as tenant from year to year, at 
the yearly rent of 425L, and he provides the capital that is 
required for stocking and working the farm. The labourers, 
who are employed at the market rate of wages, are allowed to 
have a voice in the management through an elected consultative 
committee, which has the right to confer with the manager on 
all points connected \vith the farm. 
On this farm, after the rent and interest at the rate of 4 
per cent, have been paid, 75 per cent, of the profits are devoted 
to a reserve fund, until the capital which has been advanced by 
Lord Spencer has been repaid. This experiment began in 
188G, and although since that time no profit has been made, 
Lord Spencer is hopeful that the experiment will in time prove 
a success. 
On the Castle Howard estate. Lady Carlisle is applying the 
metayar/e ' system. The occupiers pay one-third of the proceeds 
' " Metayage " is defined by Count de Gasparin, a very famous Frencli agri- 
culturist, as " a contract by which, when a tenant has not capital or credit 
enough to guarantee the payment of the rent and the advances of the owner, 
tlie latter deducts the rent by proportional parts of the harvest of each year, 
in such manner that the arithmetical mean of these annual portions repre- 
sents the value of the rent." It is, in fact, a method of cultivation in' which 
the soil is cultivated by an association between the owner and tenant (who 
