348 
Agriculture of Norfolk. 
I think this a tolerably strong proof, that it is most important to 
the interests of the whole community to have such agreements 
between landlord and tenant, generally, as shall justify the latter 
in liberal cultivation. The best cultivated farms in Norfolk are, 
for the most part, either the property of those who cultivate them 
for their own benefit, or held under long leases. I have stated the 
objection to leases; but I think it right to repeat, that they are 
really only objectionable to the owner m the case of his having a bad 
tenant — although, unquestionably, he is the proper person to decide, 
whether he ought to incur the risk alluded to or not. There are 
instances, no doubt, of good cultivation without leases ; but, if we 
examine into each case, we shall find the occupier supposes (whe- 
ther rightly or not) that he has what amounts to security, either 
in a written protection, or in the high character of the owner, as 
representing •• the old English gentleman." When all such secu- 
rity is wanting, the effect is lamentable to tenants ; as also to their 
labourers, and therefore to the public : neither is it less so to the 
real interest of the owners themselves ! This consideration reminds 
me of a caution I received, whilst looking over a gentleman's farm 
in Norfolk — not to suppose the land on the opposite side was his; 
respecting which I was informed, that the land " belonged to a 
certain corporation, and was let by tender every 7 years ; therefore, 
you could not expect it to make a decent appearance." This 
speaks volumes as to the effect of want of security — that he who 
improves shall in some measure enjoy ; but even this case, of letting 
by tender every 7 years, seems to represent a more honest feeling 
in the worthy corporation than is possessed by those who improve 
their income, for the time, by resorting to, what I recently heard 
described as, the " licensed robbery of a confiding yearly tenant 
a strong expression, but in many cases, unhappily, too true. 
Where the tenant's right* to a fair allowance for all permanent 
improvements (made under the sanction of the owner or his agent) 
is admitted by written document or established custom (as I am 
* These covenants in Lord Yaiborough's agreements as to unexhausted 
improvements are merely just to the tenant in securing to him the money 
he has sunk in his farm. They have practically succeeded in producing 
very great improvements where they have been adopted. They are also 
accompanied by a clause in the landlord's favour, binding the tenant to 
purchase artificial manures lor the whole of his turnip-crop. The absence 
of capital from land where it might be profitably employed has been long 
lamented, yet few landlords have funds at command for the general im- 
provement of their estates. I can see no means so likely to .supply this 
old defect, and to bring England generally into the condition of Lincoln- 
shire, as the adoption of Lincolnshire covenants. The subject of unex- 
hausted improvements seems to me the most important of all agricultural 
subjects for landlords at present, and the improvement of our agreements 
in this respect to be a condition xine qua non of any steady and general im- 
provements of the soil or its cultivation. — Ph. Pusey. 
