The outgoing tenant, at the expiration of the lease, has the right to compensation for any increase on the original valuation of the farm which is the fruit of his labor and outlay; this is sometimes ascertained to a nicety by means of a system of chemical testing of the soil. It seems almost incredible that a federal law should be so circumstantial, rather than lay down the general principles upon a question of the lease of land and leaving it to the Cantons or Communes to supply the details, in conformity with the varying local elements that must enter into it, from the great diversity of soil, products, and customs. This law is but another illustration of that patient and minute exactness which distinguishes all Swiss federal legislation, aiming to cover every possible contingency that may arise of construction or enforcement. It is to the cantonal civil codes we must turn for the body of the land laws. These codes appear to be derived from three distinct sources, corresponding with the ethnical division of the people,--the Roman, the Old Germanic, and the Napoleonic codes. The Cantons of Geneva, Neuchâtel, and the western portion of the Canton of Bern, known as the Jura-Bernois, have the code Napoleon almost in its entirety. The codes of Vaud, Freiburg, Valais, and Ticino are based on the old Roman law, harmonized in some features with the code Napoleon. The Cantons of St. Gallen, Appenzell, Uri, Schwyz, Obwald, Glarus, and Basel-Stadt are still governed by ancient statutes or customs, without any defined codes. The remaining Cantons, constituting what is known as German Switzerland, have their land laws framed on the old Germanic code, with an admixture of the code Napoleon. There were no cantonal land codes previous to 1819; the oldest one, that of Vaud, dates from that year. A summary of the law, in a few of the representative Cantons, will be sufficient.