24 Tlie Agricultural Holdings (^England) Act, 1883. 
Tenants' Right Valuers' Association." They are a valuable 
contribution towards a settlement on an equitable basis of 
claims arising under the Act. Mr. Martin believes that this 
scale of allowances will be embodied in nearly all the farm- 
agreements in Lincolnshire ; and that in this case " landlords 
will be quite safe from any attempts on the part of unprin- 
cipled tenants to make Section 5 suit their own purpose, for no 
judge will, in view of this scale being generally adopted in the 
county, entertain any motion to set aside an agreement con- 
taining it." The scale, if adopted, will also, as he points out, 
get rid of the necessity of defining what is meant by the 
" inherent capabilities of the soil ; " and in his opinion it already 
supplies, in Lincolnshire at least, a safeguard against unfair 
interpretations of the Act.* 
It is a question, however, whether any such fixed rules of 
compensation could be adopted for general application. A 
safer guide would seem to be the compensation given in these 
cases by custom, where such exists, for custom is accepted by the 
Courts as a local law based on what experience has shown to be 
necessary and reasonable as between landlord and tenant in the 
varying circumstances of different localities. In all these cases 
" the inherent capabilities of the soil " comes in as a disturbing 
element to be estimated in any basis of valuation. An opinion 
has been expressed that this deduction from the value of an 
outgoing tenant's improvements to his successor " need not 
in practice affect the improvements numbered 22 and 23 in the 
schedule," t namely, manuring. It may be so; but until the 
working of the Act has been tested by practice and authoritative 
decision, this and other points of novelty in farm-valuations 
must needs be doubtful. The powers of valuers under this and 
other sections must be left for separate treatment in the pro- 
visions referring to them. 
As to Improvements purchased hxj Incoming Tenants (§ 56). — 
For his own security an incoming tenant, if he treats directly 
with his predecessor, should obtain the landlord's written con- 
sent to the payment of any compensation for improvements 
under the Act. Otherwise he will be unable to claim from 
his landlord, on quitting his holding, in respect of such im- 
provements. This provision is probably meant to prevent 
collusion between the outgoer and incomer, the latter of whom, 
quitting his holding as soon as possible after taking it, might 
claim compensation upon the basis of extravagant or fraudulent 
payments, though it does not follow that he would make good 
* 'Transactions,' Surveyors' Institution, vol. xvi. pp. 65-7. 
t Resolution jiasstd by Cculral (.'Latubcr of Agriculture, December 12tb, 1SS3. 
