farmer, and the gradual amelioration of the soil; if bad, it cannot fail to have a contrary effect; and, next to the want of sufficient capital, it is the root of all bad farming. It is impossible to read the surveys of the United Kingdom without being struck with that fact, nor without astonishment at the apathy with which it is permitted by landlords, whose education and means of observation leave them less excuse than can be pleaded for an ignorant tenantry. To an enlightened farmer, who is known to practise the approved modes of modern husbandry, the management of the land may generally be entrusted with safety during the greater part of the currency of his term, for his own interest will probably teach him not to misuse it during that period, and precautions are only necessary towards its close; but, in most cases, the security of the landlord, and even the real interest of the tenant, require that the general mode of cropping should be so far regulated as the variableness of seasons will admit. To this it has been objected, that all restrictions cramp the enterprise of intelligent farmers, and impede the progress of agriculture; but that observation can only apply to the injudicious clauses with which some leases are still encumbered; and, if we reflect on the numberless objectionable practices which still prevail in many large districts, it will hardly be doubted that a very different result would be produced by leases drawn with judgment and due consideration. This, however, demands no ordinary degree of knowledge, and can only be accomplished by men who are conversant with the details, as well as the principles of husbandry.

As the subject of rotations will be separately discussed in a future portion of this work, it is only here necessary to observe, that, in order to frame a lease with due attention to the interest of both parties, regard should be had to all the peculiarities of soil; to the condition of the land, buildings, fences, and the various attendant particulars which it is impossible to enumerate. These being once ascertained, nothing can be more easy than for a steward and a tenant-both masters of their business-to agree upon the rotation of crops and other conditions, with such modifications as circumstances may require; allowing, whenever the character of the lessee may render such indulgence prudent, considerable latitude in the rotation during the greater part of the term, and only stipulating its close observance during the last four years, which is the only portion of the time in which injury to the property may be generally apprehended, and previous to the expiration of which the tenant should be put out of suspense in regard to the conditions of renewal. With that precaution, the covenants should be as few and as simple as possible, consistently with the landlord's security. To restrictions, thus settled, no reasonable tenant could object; and were such a conciliatory plan always pursued, and confided to persons of judgment, it is inconceivable how much many estates might yet be improved in value, both to the owners, the occupiers, and the public. Room should be left for fair experiment, and every prudent encouragement be afforded to enterprise; but great caution should be exercised in granting permission to break up any pasture without the strictest covenants for an equal quantity to be laid down, under inspection of the steward, with an assortment of seeds appropriate to the soil; and perhaps in no case should it be allowed, unless the sward be worn out, or mossbound, and otherwise irreclaimable.

It is a principle advocated by all theoretic writers on agriculture, and to a great extent adopted by the Scottish low-country farmers, that no land, which is capable of cultivation, should be allowed to remain in permanent pasture: the former arguing, that as tillage employs more hands, and

produces more food than grass-land, it should be encouraged, as being more nationally useful; and the latter, that it is the most profitable. The first of these considerations it is needless to discuss; for whatever may be the relative value of the land in that point of view, it influences no one in its management; and, with regard to the second, whatever may be the interest of the farmer, that of the landlord must also be taken into account. It is no doubt true, that, on medium soils, the convertible system is the most productive, and therefore the most advantageous for all parties. On very poor land, the converse of that proposition will probably be soonest admitted by those who have had most experience in breaking it up; but they who know the value of sound old meadow, and the difficulty of reproducing herbage of the quality of that composing the ancient sward upon a rich bottom, will hesitate before they admit that any momentary advantage to be derived from submitting it to the plough could compensate for its loss. The tenant, having only to make the most he can out of the land during the term of his lease, might, in some cases, find it most to his interest to convert it to tillage; but the landlord, having to consider the prospective as well as the present value, will rarely find it to his own advantage to consent. From the greater ease and economy of its management, and the certainty of its product, grass-land of prime quality must always command a higher rent than arable; and it can seldom happen that any premium for permission to break it up will be equivalent to the diminution of its value upon the renewal of a lease. Notwithstanding some striking instances of successful management without the aid of natural grass, and even admitting that to be the most profitable mode, when spiritedly and scientifically conducted, still-considering the difficulty of combining the requisite capital, skill, and assiduity in the farmer, and the certain advantage of pasture to the farm-it will generally be found to the interest of all parties rather to increase than to diminish the quantity of grass. The proportion must depend upon circumstances; but it may be assumed as a principle, that it ought not, in any case, to be less than onefifth of the farm.

The most usual covenants, exclusive of those which regulate the course of cropping, are as follow:

After reciting the rent, size, and particulars of the farm, the time of entry and term of holding, according to forms which it is unnecessary to repeat, the landlord reserves to himself all minerals under the soil, together with all timber and other trees growing thereon, with power to dig for, fell, work up, and carry off the same, due compensation being made for any damage thereby occasioned to the crops, as well as to resume possession of any portion of the land, for the purpose of planting, upon giving twelve months' notice, and paying a stipulated sum per acre, and the value of any permanent improvement made during the tenant's occupation: also the right of sporting on the ground, both personally and by his friends and gamekeepers (but without committing wilful spoil or waste), and of bringing actions in the tenant's name, though at his own expense, against all trespassers.

The tenant binds himself

1. To pay the rent half yearly on stipulated days: the lease to be void if the payment be twenty-one days in arrear, and nothing of sufficient value on the premises whereon to distrain. Also, to discharge all taxes, rates, and assessments, except the land-tax and quit-rents; and neither to underlet any portion of the land, nor to assign the lease without permission.

2. To protect the game; and, in certain instances, to sow certain quantities of buck-wheat, turnips, or other specified crops, in the fields adjoining the preserves, due allowance being made.

3. To keep the buildings, gates, and fences in sufficient repair (the walls, main timbers, and casualties by fire excepted),* the landlord allowing materials, that is to say, rough timber, bricks, tiles, and lime at the kilns, and stone at the quarry.

4. To preserve the standing timber, and neither to grub up nor destroy, to lop, bough, nor shroud any of the trees, heirs, or saplings, nor to top the pollards, without leave; nor to cut down shaws or underwood, except at stated periods. Also, to cut and plash a certain portion of the hedgerows at the proper season, and in all cases to give previous notice that the landlord may set out the young trees he may wish to stand or to be thinned. †

5. To maintain the farm-roads, and to keep the ditches and drains in clean running order.

6. To hollow-drain annually a certain number of perches of such parts of the ground as the landlord may direct, being allowed half the expense of labour, and the cost of stone or tiles, until the last two years of the lease, when the entire expense falls on the landlord; or, if the draining be performed entirely by the landlord, to cart the materials within any distance not exceeding a given number of miles.

7. To lay down in grass an equal portion of any newly made pasture that he may plough, and not to break up any old meadow, or ancient pasture.

8. To consume all the green crops and fodder upon the premises; or, if carried off, to be replaced by an equivalent portion of manure, (commonly, three waggon-loads of stable dung for each load of hay, and two for each load of straw).

9. To leave a certain number of acres sown down with clover, or other seeds, or with sainfoin of two years' growth, and an equal portion under turnips, or in clean fallow, when that forms part of the course, for the use of the incoming tenant, at the expiration of the term; or to permit him to save the seeds upon the best corn; and, when the term expires at Michaelmas, to allow him to enter upon the fallows at the 1st May. 10. To apply the manure to the land in the customary proportion, and to work the fallows in a husbandmanlike manner during the two last years of the term, he being entitled to payment, on quitting, for the tillages, dressings, and half-dressings, according to the custom of the country, in the same manner as he paid for them upon entry. 11. To reserve all the manure not applied to the land, in the last year of the term, properly cast up, turned over, and prepared for carrying out, if mature, on being paid for the same; and also all the straw and chaff, and a certain quantity of hay on the like condition, he being allowed the use of the barns until the following Whitsuntide: or, to leave the straw and chaff of the last crops, without payment, the

In many instances the tenant is bound to insure the premises in a certain sum, and to assign the policy to the lessor in case of accident. The covenant is of no benefit to the landlord, who must necessarily allow the amount of the premium out of the rent; it is an inconvenience to the tenant, who, therefore, frequently neglects it, and it often leads to disputes.-See Farm Buildings, Chap. v.

In some leases the lower branches of the hedge-row timber are allowed to be Jopped, and the pollards to be topped; the brush-wood is always the tenant's perquisite on cutting hedges, and it is customary, when timber is felled by the landlord, to give him the lop, top, and roots.

incoming tenant being, in that case, obliged to thrash and carry out the grain as far as ten miles of the nearest market without charge. 12. To support a certain number of sheep during the currency of the term, and, where folding is practised, to pen the entire flock upon the land in the usual manner during the last year of the tenancy; or, upon strong grazing land, when the tenant retains possession until the spring, he is usually restrained from pasturing more than the customary number of cattle after the previous Michaelmas.

In order to secure the performance of some of the covenants-as those regarding the preservation of meadow, and the expenditure of foddercertain penalties are stipulated; and for the infringement of those to which specific penalties are not attached, the tenant is exposed to an action for damages in proportion to the injury sustained by the landlord and to forfeiture of his lease: thus, even when the course of cropping is not specified, it has been repeatedly decided, that he is bound to farm the land according to the customary usages of good husbandry.

With regard to the payment of rent, the lessor has his remedy, if the tenant be in default, by distress upon the property on the premises, in this country and in Ireland; and in order to guard against a fraudulent removal of the crops, a clause is sometimes inserted rendering the rent due at Michaelmas payable forty days previous, on notice to that effect being given in writing, though it is only generally intended to be enforced in the last year of the term, when the lease expires at that period. In Scotland, where the civil, or old Roman, law prevails, the landlord enjoys what is there termed 'the right of hypothec,' under which he has a preferable charge or lien upon the crops until payment of the year in which they were produced, and upon the stock until three months after the expiration of the last term of payment, before all other claimants, except the farm-servants for their wages,t and sales of the farm produce, or stock, are not valid until he is paid.

CHAPTER IV.

TITHES AND PAROCHIAL ASSESSMENTS.

THE next material consideration, after rent, is the assessments, of which the most important is TITHE. Few farmers are so ignorant as not to be sensible that, were tithes simply abolished, rents would be proportionately increased, and that it can make no difference to them, in point of amount of disbursement, whether they pay the landlord or the parson. But this reasoning applies only to tithe for which a commutation is taken in money, and which, in that case, may be viewed as rent; for, wherever it is collected in kind, it operates to the direct injury of both landlord and tenant, to an extent beyond its mere pecuniary value, by depriving the land of one-tenth of its natural manure: thus deteriorating the property of the one, and impeding the labours of the other. It may be true, that no injury is thus done to the community, as the manure, though taken from one piece of ground, must be applied to

The mode of executing a distress for rent, together with the heads of the other laws and usages relating to landlord and tenant, will be stated in an appendix to this work.

The preferable right of the farm-servants for their current wages was finally established, after a long contest, by a decision of the Circuit Court of Justiciary, in the case of Glashan v. the Duke of Athol, 1818.

another; but this is no answer to the individual sufferer; and, independently of the real loss sustained through the abstraction of the produce, its collection is attended with so much inconvenience, and often occasions so much bickering and ill-will, that the inducements should be very strong to tempt any man to enter upon a farm from which tithe is collected in kind. Even where not thus collected, it is, in many places, customary to value each crop upon the ground, and to rate the tithe accordingly; a plan which, though not so objectionable as the former, is yet attended with considerable trouble, and occasions innumerable disputes.

In some parishes, the land is tithe-free; or the tithe is regulated, according to ancient custom, either in a particular manner, or at a certain rate, called a modus*, either upon the cropt, or by the acre; and, in the latter case, differs in no respect from a fixed rent. In others, it is estimated by agreement with the parishioners, either collectively or separately, at a given sum per acre: in some, it is collected with moderation ‡, and in others with all the severity allowed by the law. Much of it is in the hands of laymen, who, either finding the advantage of enriching their own land at the expense of their neighbour's, take it in kind; or, not being resident in the country, let it to persons who make its collection a business; and it is but justice to the clergy to admit that, with few exceptions, they are much more lenient in its exaction than lay impropriators. In whatever manner it be levied, it is incumbent on every one holding land that is subject to tithe, to acquaint himself with the strict rules by which it may be demanded; of which, when not otherwise regulated by custom, the following is a brief outline.

mer.

THERE ARE THREE CLASSES OF TITHE-personal, prædial, and mixed; the first of which being nearly obsolete, the two latter alone affect the farThe prædial-tithe, so called from prædium, an estate in land, arises from every product of the earth, whether grain, pulse, hay, plants, fruit, or wood, and becomes due whenever the crop is taken, even although there may be more than one grown upon the same land within the year §. Mixedtithe is leviable, with some exceptions, upon all animals, and their produce, supported or reared upon the land; as the young of cattle, sheep, pigs, and poultry, with the milk, wool, and eggs. These are all reduced under the two general heads of small, and great or Rectorial and Vicarial Tithe, which are sometimes consolidated and sometimes separated, and are payable accordingly, in some cases to the rector, and in others to the vicar, or to both; land being, in many instances, free of the one, though subject to the other. The rector is entitled by the common law; the vicar only by endowment or prescription: but the question of their separate rights is one in which the farmer is not personally interested.

Great Tithe comprises corn, pulse, hay, and faggot-wood: the principle on which it is founded being, that it includes all articles of produce that are susceptible of being bound together; and, therefore, in the canon, or ecclesias

* From modus decimandi, the mode of tithing.

The tithe of hemp, flax, and madder, is fixed, by particular statutes, at five shillings per acre, throughout the kingdom.

A most judicious practice is mentioned in the Kent Report of a great tithe-collector, who, in order to encourage the chalking of land, remitted to farmers the tithe on the following crop. 2d edit., p. 159.

Thus clover and other artificial grasses, and meadow hay, pay tithe on each cutting, if there be no prescription to the contrary. (Burn's Ecclesiast. Law, vol. iii. p. 377. Toller on Tithes, p. 62.) Sir Samuel Toller says, upon the authority of a case reported in Gwillim, that turnips sown as an after-crop, or what are usually termed 'brush turnips,' upon land on which corn has been previously grown and paid tithe, are exempt; but he afterwards cites other cases, in which such turnips were held liable to agistment tithe. See Agistment, p. 74. 3d edit., pp. 68,

86.