Prior to the introduction of the new agriculture,
which movement became important during the
latter half of the Eighteenth Century, the tenant
farmers of England usually held their lands "at
will," without any written agreements. Under
this tenure, the common law and the customs of
the estates formed the only tie between owners
and tenants, and either party could bring the
tenancy to a close, by giving six months' notice to
the other.^ Towards the close of the Eighteenth
Century, it became a common custom, where land
was held from year to year, to draw up legal
agreements, by which the tenants bound them-
selves "to the fulfillment of certain clauses and
conditions."^ But the most significant move-
ment of this period was that in favor of leases for
a term of years. The rural economists of that
time were quite generally of the opinion that long
leases were necessary wherever the farmers were
expected to make investments in or upon the land,
such as require several years to yield their full

* Loudon, Encyclopedia of Agriculture, p. 764; also, W.
Marshall, Landed Estates, 1806, p. 378.
"H. E. Strickland, Agricultural Survey of the East Rid-
ing of Yorkshire.
288



LANDLORDS AND TENANTS

return. It was stated in 1799, that the improve-
ments which had taken place in England prior to
that time had been almost entirely due to the cus-
tom of granting twenty-one year leases, and that
where it was uncommon to grant leases for long
periods of years, agriculture remained in a back-
ward condition.^

During the early years of the Nineteenth Cen-
tury the English Board of Agriculture pubHshed
a series of surveys which set forth the conditions
of agriculture in every county of the kingdom.
