20 The Agricultural Holdings {England) Act, 1883. 
ments, unless it be " an agreement providing such compensation 
as is by this Act permitted to be substituted for compensation 
under this Act " (§ 55). It will be seen that the whole contract 
is not voided, but only such parts of it as would contravene the 
statute. 
One might naturally suppose from the words just quoted 
that we should find elsewhere in the Act some formula of sub- 
stituted compensation. This is not so. Such light as is thrown 
upon the intention of Parliament must be gathered from the 
language of §§ 3 and 4, and from the " reservation " as to 
existing and future contracts of tenancy (§ 5). 
We have already seen that in the event of any agreement 
being made between landlords and tenants under §§ 3 and 4, 
with regard to permanent improvements or drainage, " any 
compensation payable thereunder shall be deemed to be 
substituted for compensation under this Act." The landlord, 
therefore, can forbid all permanent improvements, or can allow 
some, forbid others, and make his own terms. He can take the 
drainage into his hands or agree for its execution by the 
tenant ; any such agreement is recognized as binding by § 55 
read in connection with §§ 3 and 4. The " reservation " as to 
existing and future contracts of tenancy will now be con- 
sidered (§ 5). 
This section consists of three paragraphs, the first and third 
of which refer to contracts of tenancy current on January 1, 1884 ; 
the second to contracts of tenancy beginning after January 1. 
Dealing first with contracts of tenancy current on January 1, 
§ 5 enacts that if in these cases tenants can obtain " specific 
compensation " for any one of the 23 scheduled improvements, 
whether by virtue of a written agreement, or of custom, or of 
the Act of 1875, this specific compensation for such improve- 
ment " shall be deemed to be substituted for compensation 
under this Act," though the improvement may have been exe- 
cuted after January 1. It follows that, if the tenant has executed 
several improvements, and is entitled by agreement, custom, or 
statute, to specific compensation in respect of no more than one, 
the agreement, or custom, or statute, only prevails to that extent ; 
the tenant may claim under the Act in respect of the rest. 
This right would be subject to two conditions: (1) that if the 
tenant has received notice to quit, he can only manure his land, 
and can make no other improvements ; (2) that in the case of 
temporary improvements, duly executed by a tenant after 
.January 1, and for which he cannot claim specific compensation, 
the Act will be superseded by any agreement into which he may 
have entered with his landlord giving him <7e7Jera/ compensation, 
provided that such compensation is " fair and reasonable, 
