§2. An interest in lands which is to continue for a limited period, is usually conveyed by a written instrument called lease. _To lease_, means to let; but generally to grant the temporary possession of real estate to another for rent or reward. Sometimes the word _demise_ is used for ease. The landlord, or person letting the estate, is called _lessor_; and the tenant, or person to whom the land is leased, is called _lessee_. Leases for a term longer than one year, are usually required to be sealed, and in some states, proved and recorded also, as deeds and mortgages.
§3. These limited interests in land are divided into estates for life, estates for years, estates at will, and estates by sufferance. An _estate for life_ is an estate conveyed to a person for the term of his natural life. Life estates held by lease, however, are not common in this country. Another kind of life estate is that which is acquired, not by the acts of the parties, as by lease, but by the operation of law. Such is the right of a husband to the real estate of his wife acquired by her before or after marriage. Such also is the right of dower. (Chap. XLVIII, §6, 7. Chap. LI, §7.)
§4. An _estate for years_ is a right to the possession and profits of land for a determinate period, for compensation, called rent; and it is deemed an estate for years, though the number of years should exceed the ordinary limit of human life. And if a lease should be for a less time than a year, the lessee would be ranked among tenants for years. Letting land upon shares for a single crop is not considered a lease; and possession remains in the owner.
§5. A lessee for years may assign over his whole interest to another, unless restrained by agreement not to assign without leave of the lessor. And he may underlet for any less number of years than he himself holds; but he is himself liable to the landlord.
§6. A tenant for years, whose lease expires after the land is sown or planted, and before harvest, is not entitled to the crop, if the lease is for a certain period; for, knowing that his lease would expire before harvest time, he might have avoided the loss of his labor. But if the lease for years depends upon an uncertain event, the occurring of which would terminate the lease before the expiration of the term, the tenant would be entitled to the crop, if there were time to reap what has been sown, in case he should live. It is believed that, in a few states, the tenant has a right to the crop from grain sown in the autumn before the expiration of the lease, and cut the next summer after its expiration.