The Express.
London, England, 1853-08-12 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING. AUGUST 12, 1853.

tire. We have a climate, though somewhat capri-
cious and variable, which is, perhaps, as favourable,
upon the whole, for growing a wide range
of agricultural produce as that of any other
country in the world. Our best farmers
are skilful, and our ordinary farmers require little more
than relief frum impediments created or perpetuated
by mismanagement to become skilful also. Many
of them are men of large capital, and all might have
a greater command of capital were the business of
farming carried on under sounder economical condi-
tions. Our breeds of live stock arc pre-eminent ; our
agricultural implements and machinery exceed
everything that has at any place or in any age been
applied to the culture of the soil ; and, though last
not least, our farm labourers possess that
strenuous industry and indomitable perseve-
rance which hive rendered this country in all
arts, save the art of husbandry, superior to the whole
world. With such countless advantages our agricul-
ture languishes for want of capital ; the art of hus-
bandry legs behind all other industrial arts in this
country ; and though enough is done to prove the
capacity of our husbandry under favourable circum-
stances, the great mass of our farmers cannot avail
themselves of the means of profit and improve-
meat which—Tantalus-like—are almost, but not
quite, within their reach. The immediate cause
of this is the defective management of
their land by the landowners. Their farms
are not in such a state of improvement
as will attract capitalist farmers. The buildings
are usually dilapidated and always ill-managed and
inconvenient. If the land is heavy it commonly
wants draining; if light, marling or claying. The
ie haler roads are bad, and timber and unnecessary
hedgerows incumber the land, often in such a degree
as to render profitable farming altogether out of the
question.

We are aware it will be said that much of this is
occasioned by the trammelled condition of the pro-
prietors by their incumbrances and their settlements;
.and though we do not overlook the enormous evils
of such trammels, we say advisedly that so far
as regards their relations with their tenants,
and their power to put their farms into a
state fit for proper cultivation, they may in
a great degree provide the remedy. It is as much
the want of business talent and energy, and the han-
kering after a sort of semi-feudal system of land ma-
nagement, which more than positive inability interfere
with the good management of the estates of our
landed proprietors. Here, then, good example is in-
estimable ; and when we find such an example set
by a public department, the influence of which must
operate widely, the occurrence should be noticed with
approval.

Readers might have seen recently in our columns,
and those of other papers, an advertisement wherein
the department of " the Woods and Forests.' offered to
let New Park Farm and House at Lyndhurst and
Brockenhurat, in the New Forest. It is true that there
is a gentleman's house on the farm, but as the farm con-
sists of 114 acres of arable and 155 acres of meadow
land, the occupier must become a farmer, and in all
probability the offerers mainly consisted of persons
who desired to add to their incomes by the profits of a
farm, or by farmers of a superior class, who might
already have taken, or intend to take, other land in
the neighbourhood. At all events, the terms on
which this farm was offered are applicable to every
kind of farm, and it is to such terms we would
call attention. After riving a description of the farm,
its distance from market towns, railway stations,
and tho like, the advertisement proceeded thus :
" Any additional farm buildings, and all drainage
determined to be necessary, will he executed by the
Crown, the tenant paying 3/. per cent. per annum
on the outlay. The conditions of man-gement will
be settled under liberal covenants in the lease, the
particulars of which can be seen on application."
Then same a description of the house, after which wee
the following important announcement :—" The ex-

elusive right to shoot in 174 acres of woodland ad-
jacent to the farm will be granted to the tenant.,
The term of the lease was to be 21 years, and of course
all the rights to game and sporting over the farm were
to belong exclusively to the tenant. For this occupation
tenders aro invited, and there can be no doubt that a
pumber of persons, sure to make first-class tenants,
would send in proposals. Here we find the sound
commercial principle fully ipplied to the letting of
a farm. A lease for a lorg term, with liberal cove-
nants, is offered; and each covenants may be in-
spected by proposers, so that any one in making a
tender may suggest modifications, which it may be
for the proprietor's interest to adopt. Additional
buildings and necessary draining will be done at a
charge to the tenant of .51. per cent. yearly on the
outlay incurred. Any one, therefore, on inspecting
the farm, will be able to judge for ,himself
what extra building accommodation is likely
to be required, and on how much of the
land draining is necessary, and he may oal.
culate his offer of rent accordingly. Then theta
is not only no reservation of game upon the rum
itself, but the exclusive right of sporting in a large
wood adjoining, without which the tenant could set
possibly protect himself against the depredations d
game. In ordinary cases, this right to sporting is
adjoining woods should be given in common to all
the occupiers of farms whose lands adjoin or ap-
proach near to the wood; nor could there be any
objection to the landlord reserving a concurrent
right of personally sporting in the woods, or per-
haps over the farm itself, provided no gamekeepers
or game-watchers were to be employed, or permitted
to go on the tenants' land. If such terms are offered
to all the ageicultural tenants of the Crown,
ud
not confined to that farm ou which
there is also a gentleman's house and premise!,
h is certain the Crown farms might soon be occupied
by a superior class of tenants, and the management
of the Woods and Forests might, in this respect, be
held up as an example worthy of imitation by moat
of our landed proprietors. At present there is much
to be complained of in the management of that pro-
perty. But of that it is not now our business to
speak.

What are the difficulties in the way ? Mainly the
want of will to concede to tenants such a complete
possession of their farms for long terms of years as
would attract men of capital to become occupiers;
and the absence of durable improvements necessary
to good husbandry, the execution of which would be
a misapplication of the tenant's capital, unless he
held his farm at a rent proportionably low, to

which the landlord would naturally be unwilling to
submit. Let the owner of any considerable farm
frame a lease for 21 years with a few simple and
really liberal covenants; let him offer to make addi-
tional buildings, execute drainage ani the like at au
extra rent equivalent to 51. per cent. on the capital
so expended; let him give up game reservations, I
retain no game keepers, and let the right of sporting
in his adjoining woods to the tenants of his estate;
and let him make his rational plan of managing his
property be extensively known, and there is no
doubt that he might increase his rental from
twenty-five to fifty per cent., and have a satis-
fied and independent tenantry able to stand
their ground through an adverse season
or two without coming cap in hand to their landlord
for reduction of rent. That the comfort and pecu-
niary advantage of both landlord and tenants would
be promoted by the change is unquestionable:
Probably there arc many estates held under settle-

ments in which the leasing powers given to tenants
for life do not admit rational leases to be granted in
conformity with such powers, and a well-advised
capitalist farmer would hesitate to accept a lease not
in accordance with the terms of the power to grant
contained in such a settlement, as not being binding
on the next taker of the estate ; but the short re-
mcdy
for that is in the hands of the landowners. No-
thing would be more easy than by an Act of Parlia-
ment to give a general power to all owners of settled I
estates when in possession to grant leases that would
be ample securities to good tenants, without in any
way affecting injuriously the interests of persons in
remainder. Such a power has, in fact, been given to
the Scotch landowners by tho act of 6th and 7th
Wm. IV., c. 42, and with the best effects; and the
English proprietors have only to move in the matter
to obtain similar or equivalent powers. But they
seem to be beset with vague apprehensions of deal-
ing with the actual state of the law as affecting land,
and in consequence to suffer themselves, and cause
injury to their tenants and the public by that sort
of passive obstruction the present state of landed
property offers to agricultural and general improve-
ment.

Nor are the difficulties of procuring the means of
improving settled estates so great as formerly. Be-
sides advances of public money made for drainage,
and the power under the Private Money Drainage
Act of charging the inheritance with a rent-charge
in repayment of similar advances by private persons,
several companies, empowered by Act of Parliament,
will undertake works of improvement on settled
lands, receiving the cost by instalments spread over
•
periods extending from twelve to thirty years.