344 
Agriculture of Norfolk. 
to grant that tried and proved good tenant a full and renewed 
term, at the best rent he would then be inclined to pay. Under 
these circumstances it would be judicious in the tenant to submit 
to paying a greater rent, as a premium on certainty, than after the 
ebb tide of his lease's natural conclusion, with his land reduced in 
condition, and prepared for quitting. A large proportion of the 
land in this country is owned by gentlemen who would not be guilty 
of intentionally ill-treating any one dependent on them, but who 
are unwilling to grant leases, so as to be left to the mercy of 
others — their feelings being, in many cases, powerfully acted 
on by agents for their estates, possessing no better idea of serving 
their employers, than a determination to prevent any tenant from 
obtaining more than the common rate of interest for money which 
he has expended to the permanent improvement of another per- 
son's land ! To have land cultivated in the best possible manner, 
or in the way which is most beneficial to the community, you must, 
in the first place, find those who have capital and skill equal to 
their task ; and, in the second, you must convince them, that their 
time, capital, and ability will not be misapplied. In short, if the 
land-owners would but once determine to make it consistent with 
common prudence for a good and clever tenant to lay out his capital 
on their estates, they would not have so much occasion to take the 
trouble of recommending high cultivation; for every man likely 
to make a good tenant well knows, that much money was never 
made by low farming. If we inquire, we find in almost every in- 
stance, where particular parties have made more profit by the cul- 
tivation of land than their neighbours, under similar circumstances, 
it has been owing, chiefly, to a judicious, but at the same time a 
more liberal, outlay of capital . There is nothing more certain thaa 
this, that in a country like ours, which is so heavily taxed for the 
purposes of government and maintaining of the poor, if land will 
not pay for high cultivation it will not pay for neglect. Govern- 
ment must be supported, and the poor must be maintained ; there- 
fore, as long as the land produces anything, that produce must be 
chargeable to these national claims. Besides which, many of the 
direct expenses of cultivation are nearly the same, whether that is 
properly done or not; c()nse(juently, any one of good sense, who 
reflects a moment, must see, that the extra capital, if judiciously 
applied, will generally be returned with the greater interest. 
It is very well known, that after cattle have been feeding for a 
time, they increase in weight in a greater proportion for the food 
consumed, than they did at first. In their lean state, a large pro- 
porticm of the food they took was requisite to support them and 
kcej) them in tolerable condition ; but this demand having been 
satisfied, and the work of fattening once commenced, every little 
.addition of a nutritious kind would operate with increased effect 
