36 
LOW ON LANDED PROPERTY. 
sion on the one hand, and the payment of 
rent and acting up to covenants on the other; 
This leads us to the consideration of leases, 
to which Mr. Low has devoted a whole chap- 
ter, in which he discusses, with great fairness, 
the respective interests of landlord and tenant. 
But, however the author may decry the lag- 
ging progress of farming, as compared with 
other sciences in this country, he lays open 
the causes so clearly in the general treatment 
of tenants, that we are more inclined to mar- 
vel how it progresses at all ; and were it not 
for honourable exceptions among great landed 
proprietors, advance it could not. In speak- 
ing of leases, and the necessity of granting 
them to ensure alike the welfare of landlord, 
tenant, and land, the author sets the proper 
length at twenty years, and considers it the 
least period that w r ould enable a farmer to 
do justice to the land and to himself. He cites 
cases of large farms on which thrashing-ma- 
chines have been erected, liming and draining 
performed, and other improvements made, 
which cost a great outlay, the benefit of which 
can only be received in profits. He cites, 
also, facts which are incontrovertible. The 
necessity of adopting a rotation of crops, which 
will be four, five, six, or even more years, 
coming round, and the annual results of which 
w r ould prove very different, is mentioned as 
one reason for prolonged secure occupation ; 
yet, strange as it may appear, but few farmers, 
taking the whole country through, can boast 
of a tenancy that would secure them any 
adequate return for a pound they lay out. 
"Whether this proceeds from the fact, that 
many farmers have arisen from the plough- 
tail, and have less knowledge of the world 
than mechanics, we know not ; but while one 
of the former class will invest his all, and more 
than all, on a farm, as a tenant at will, the 
veriest blockhead that ever cut a cork, or 
made, a shoe, would refuse even to repair a 
house, unless his landlord granted a lease. 
Plowever, Mr. Low has placed this matter 
upon a proper footing, and proves no mean 
advocate for the rights of the British hus- 
bandman. Mr. Low is an advocate for money 
rents, fixed so as to afford the tenant a fair 
prospect of full remuneration for his skill and 
industry ; and the greater part of the chapter 
is occupied with what should be the condi- 
tions as to cropping to which the covenants 
of the lease should subject the tenant. We 
have then, successively, chapters on the 
Buildings of a Farm, Enclosures, Drains, 
Watered Meadows, Embankments, Boads, &c, 
in all of which Mr. Low's practical knowledge 
appears. The tenth chapter is devoted to geo- 
logy, and the mineral productions which may 
be possibly found thereon ; but the eleventh 
chapter is yet more interesting, and brings 
fo a subject of the highest importance to the 
landholders and the farmer. The former is 
deeply interested in the growth of timber ; 
the latter is still more deeply affected, if there 
be too much of it. Mr. Low begins by show- 
ing the advantage of cultivating timber, and 
gives a sort of treatise on the subject. He 
says— 
" Forest trees, with respect to their natural 
characters and uses, may be divided into two 
general classes ; 1st, The Conifene, so named 
from generally bearing their seeds in cones ; 
and, 2dly, The Amentaceas, and other fami- 
lies, popularly denominated hardwood. 
" The cone-bearing trees are found from 
the hottest regions of the Indian Archipelago, 
to the climates of the Arctic regions ; but 
more abundantly in the colder than in the 
warmer latitudes. There are two great divi- 
sions of them, the Auracarias, and other allied 
genera, growing chiefly within the tropics ; 
and those with which we are conversant in 
the higher latitudes, as the Wild Pine, the 
Spruce Fir, the Larch. Those of the latter 
division are amongst the most robust of trees, 
and are those only which interest us in this 
country, as the subjects of economical culture. 
Their leaves are narrow and needle-shaped, 
sometimes proceeding in tufts of two or more 
from a single sheath, as in the wild pine, the 
Corsican pine, and other species of Pinus ; and 
sometimes the leaves grow singly from the 
branch, as in the group termed Firs, such as 
in the Norway spruce, the silver fir, and 
others. The most of them retain their leaves 
throughout the year, as the wild pine, and the 
spruce; but a few of them shed them at the fall, 
as the larch. They grow for the most part erect 
and tall, the smaller branches being subordinate 
to the main trunk, and hence they yield, more 
quickly than other kinds of trees, a quantity of 
larger timber, fit for the uses of carpentry. 
When cut over near the ground, the individual 
dies, whereas the hardwood kinds are mostly 
capable of putting forth new shoots. They 
abound in resinous secretions, as turpentine ; 
and by heat they yield tar and other products 
useful in the arts. They are frequently 
termed resinous trees, in contradistinction to 
the hardwood species, which do not produce 
resins, but gums and other principles. The 
bark yields tannin, and the seeds of several 
of them are edible. 
" The other great division of forest trees 
consists of Amentaceas, as the Oak, the Chest- 
nut, the Beech ; of the Olive family, as the 
Ash ; of the Leguminous or podded plants, 
as the Laburnum ; of the Rose family, as the 
Hawthorn, the Cherry, the Apple ; and of 
other tribes. Their leaves are flat and ex- 
panded, sometimes retained throughout the 
