86 
The Farming of Cheshire. 
From the Hundred of Nantwich : — 
" The present time of entering upon a farm is very inconvenient, and 
attended with much loss to the in-coming tenant. Possession of the land 
should be had on November 1, and of the homestead, &c., on March 25, 
a fair allowance being made for fodder left unconsumed on the premises, 
and for any improvements which the retiring tenant has made, and of 
which he has not reaped the benefit, some return should be given by the 
landlord." 
Another correspondent from the Hundred of Nantwich says — 
" The property for which I have the honour to be concerned is princi- 
pally held under agreements from year to year, although there are several 
instances where leases have recently been granted for fourteen, seventeen, 
and even twenty-one years. The conditions of our agreements, which, I 
believe, generally speaking, are similar to most others in this division of 
the county, run as follows, viz. : — 
" Tenancy commences at Christmas as to the mowing lands; on the 2nd 
of February as to all the other lands, except the boosey pasture ; and on 
the 1st of May as to the homestead and boosey pasture : timber, mines, and 
game reserved. Tenants to keep premises in repair, except in cases of 
fire or tempest : landlords finding timber in the rough, bricks, lime, and 
slates, and first putting the premises into repair. The fodder to be con- 
sumed upon the premises, or the money to arise from the sale thereof to 
be expended in bones or other manure to be applied upon the farm. The 
permanent mowing and pasture lands, whidi have been boned by the land- 
lord, are reserved from tillage. One-fourth is allowed for tillage, including 
fallows ; and the tenant is not allowed to tak^ more than two white straw 
crops in succession, without either a green crop or summer fallow, and to 
lay down with a certain quantity of artificial and other grasses ; together 
with a variety of minor stipulations, which of course vary according to cir- 
cumstances. A difference of opinion exists as to the desirableness or 
otherwise of granting leases, and a good deal may be said both for and 
against the practice of doing so. I by no means think that it is politic for 
any gentleman to make a practice of granting leases indiscriminately to 
all his tenants, because it must be admitted that it is not safe or prudent, 
on many accounts, to part with the control over his property, and to com- 
mit the charge of it so completely to the care and mercy oi every man for 
a tei m of years ; but at the same time, when a gentleman has a tenant 
possessed of capital, enterprise, skill, and principle (for I think the latter 
qualification quite as necessary as any of the former), and that tenant 
comes forward with a spirited proposition to improve the property, I think 
there can be but one opinion that it is for the interest of both landlord and 
tenant to have a lease ; but whether a lease be granted or not, I am per- 
fectly convinced that nothing tends so much to promote the success of 
agriculture, and the general good of the neighbourhood, as the best pos- 
sible understanding between landlord and tenant, and a perfect confidence 
in each other. There are, I think, few connexions of a more important 
and interesting character than that of landlord and tenant. The land- 
lord commits his fee-simple and inheritance into the hands ofhis tenant, 
which, to a certain extent, is at his mercy, and may be either materially 
improved or injured (in spite of any written document) by his treatment of 
it. On the other hand, the tenant is indebted to his landlord, to a certain 
extent, for many of the comforts he enjoys ; and so dependent are they upon 
each other, and so reciprocal are their obligations, that if I were asked 
whether a tenant was most indebted to a good landlord, or a landlord to a 
good tenant, I should be puzzled to give an answer. At all events, this 
