Within the overall spatial and temporal pattern of draining, the decision to adopt the improvement was individual to each estate. The undertaking of agricultural improvement in the nineteenth century has been widely recognized as a joint enterprise between landlords and tenants, although the precise relationship for particular improvements remains unclear. The adoption of draining and the intensity of its use on specific estates were largely a function of the amount of capital that was provided. However, the availability and use of capital depended on the financial resources of estates and on the respective attitudes of landlords and tenants to the agricultural value of the improvement. The roles of landlords and tenants in the capital provision and management of draining are therefore crucial factors in understanding the spread of the improvement.

The development of landlord investment in draining

The landlord represented the major source of capital for agricultural improvement in the century. The technical advances in draining in the 1840s convinced many contemporary agriculturalists that, because of the improvement's permanence, cost and potential for providing a financial return through increased productivity, it should be both financed and undertaken by landlords. The sample estates reveal that individual arrangements between landowners and tenants varied considerably, resulting in differing levels of draining activity.

Landlord responsibility for the improvement was least developed in Northamptonshire, particularly on the largest properties. On the Buccleuch estates the capital provision and management of draining did not come completely under landlord control until the early 1880s.