166 
Farming Customs and Covenants of England. 
sliewn us that farmers prefer leases, as a rule, in proportion as 
they are capitalists, that is, the more capital a farmer has to 
invest, the more anxious he is to secure it. There is, however, 
one point against leases as far as the tenant is concerned, which 
we do not remember to have met with in the various discussions 
on the subject, and that is, that at the expiration of the lease 
the landh)rd invariably expects an increased rental, while a 
yearly tenancy may, and often does, go on for the occupant's life 
without any alteration of rent. 
In fixing a time for a lease due regard should be had to the 
system of cropping ; twelve, sixteen, or twenty years, should be 
the term if the four-course system is adopted ; if a five-course, 
ten, fifteen, or twenty years. We think sufficient restriction 
would be afforded as to cropping if it were provided that the 
tenant should not take more than three corn and seed crops in 
five years, and should have at least two-fifths of the farm under 
a fallow, clover, or artificial grass crop (not seeded). 
The giving of increased length of notice to quit is not so 
desirable as it appears at first sight. Though it may enable an 
outgoing tenant to reimburse himself, yet this is done at the 
expense of the farm, and it is far better for the incomer to pay 
instead. It is admitted on all hands that the better condition 
the farm is in the more profitable it is to the tenant, and it is 
obviously to the advantage of the incomer to pay at once for 
unexhausted improvements, rather than to spend two or three 
years with a greater outlay of capital, to restore the land to the 
state it was in prior to the time when the outgoer learned that 
he was about to leave. 
It has always occurred to us that the greatest evil of the 
present systems is, the leaving it to the interest of the out- 
going tenant to get as much out of the land as possible. An 
exactly opposite state of things might be produced, and in 
a very simple manner, without the aid of tenant right, or 
any complicated machinery, as follows : Presuming that how- 
ever stringently an agreement is drawn, a tenant, if he wishes it, 
will find ways and means to exhaust the land to some extent, we 
would propose to make it decidedly to his interest to leave 
the farm in a good state. 
It is mostly considered very liberal to allow tenants for 
unexhausted manures in the land ; but as in most cases the 
tenant cannot remove the hay, straw, roots, &c., we would 
propose to give him the full value of all the manure he expends, 
for any crops during the last year of his tenancy up to a stipu- 
lated amount, say 10s. or 11. per acre for all the arable land, and 
also ^ of what he has expended during the year before. Act 
liberally to the tenant with regard to corn and cake expended ; 
