A Short History of English AgricultureCurtler, W. H. R. (William Henry Ricketts)
History
A Short History of English Agriculture
Curtler, W. H. R. (William Henry Ricketts)
Agriculture -- England -- History
3. _Freedom of Cropping and Disposal of Produce._ Prior to this Act it
had been the custom for generations to insert covenants in agreements
providing for the proper cultivation of the farm; as, for instance,
forbidding the removal from the holding of hay, straw, roots, green
crops, and manure made on the farm. These and other covenants were
merely in the interests of good farming, and to prevent the soil
deteriorating. In recent times vexatious covenants formerly inserted
had practically disappeared, and where still existing were seldom
enforced. By this Act, notwithstanding any custom of the country or
any contract or agreement, the tenant may follow any system of
cropping, and dispose of any of his produce as he pleases, but after
so doing he must make suitable and adequate provision to protect the
farm from injury thereby: a proviso vague and difficult to enforce,
and not sufficient to prevent an unscrupulous tenant greatly injuring
his farm.
4. _Compensation for unreasonable disturbance._ If a landlord without
good cause, and for reasons inconsistent with good estate management,
terminates a tenancy by notice to quit; or refuses to grant a renewal
of the tenancy if so requested at least one year before the expiration
thereof; or if a tenant quits his holding in consequence of a demand
by the landlord for an increased rent, such demand being due to an
increased value in the holding owing to improvements done by the
tenant; in either of such events the tenant is entitled to
compensation.
This compensation for disturbance is in direct opposition to the
recommendation of the Commission of 1894,[676] and seems to be an
unwarrantable interference with the owner's management of his own
land.
Another benefit, and one long needed, was conferred on farmers by the
Ground Game Act of 1880, 43 & 44 Vict., c. 47. Before the Act the
tenant had by common law the exclusive right to the game, including
hares and rabbits, unless it was reserved to the landlord, which was
usually the case. By this Act the right to kill ground game, which
often worked terrible havoc in the tenant's crops, was rendered
inseparable from the occupation of the land, though the owner may
reserve to himself a concurrent right. One consequence of this Act has
been that the hare has disappeared from many parts of England.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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