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OF NORTHUMBERLAND 25

more than trebled within the lat 40 years. Many cau- ſes have certainly been aiding to produce this great efe fet; but the principal one is attributed to letting large farms, and leaſes for 21 years; by which means the te- nants of capital were encouraged to máke thoſe great ex- éertions, from which ſuch advantages have reſulted, not only to themſelves and proprietors of thé land, but to the cornmunity at large, from the very increaſed produce, and ſuperiority of its quality.

The uſual mode of letting farms is to fix a rént, under certain conditions and covenants, 6 or 12 months beforë the expiration of the leaſe; but upon one of the largeſt eſtates in the county,* the tenants have an offèr of their farms 25 or 3 years before the expiration of the leaſe, which 1s a mutual benefit to both landlord and tenant 5 and is attended with ſo many advantages, that it is in a fair way of being generally adopted,

On ſome eſtates the pradicé of letting farms by fècret Propoſals is ſill in uſe: this is a dark and myſterious mode, which frequently defeats the end it is intended to accompliſh, and inſtead of obtaining an excéſſive high rent, the prize has been often gained at a very inferior value; and, in the language of the turf,(where only one has ens tered the lifts)“ by walking the courſe:” and we lave known ſome cf the firſt farmers in the county forego their farms, rather than ſubmit to contend in the dark. Upon moſt eſtates it is generally ſtipulated, that a certain portion of the beſt old grazing lands, on each farm,

ſhall be kept in graſs during the whole term.

The quantity of land to be in ploughing is moſtly limit- ed to a certain number of acres; and at the expiration of the term, where the tenant quits on the I2th of May, he is allowed to have a crop of corn from aof two-thirds of the arable lands; this is called the æway-going crop: the

* The Earl of TankEerville?s, entering

N 170 AMMOS NONGG MTN I PII MR