ut by
an act of 1690 corn, when reaped, as well as hay, was made subject to
distress. That act was modified by the Landlord and Tenant Act 1851,
under which growing crops seized by the sheriff and sold under an
execution are liable to distress for rent which becomes due after the
seizure and sale, if there is no other sufficient distress on the
premises.

Excessive or disproportionate distress exposes the distrainer to an
action, and any irregularity formerly made the proceedings void _ab
initio_, so that the remedy was attended with considerable risk. The
Distress for Rent Act 1737, before alluded to, in the interests of
landlords, protected distresses for _rent_ from the consequences of
irregularity. In all cases of distress for rent, if the owner do not
within five days (by the Law of Distress Amendment Act 1888, fifteen
days, if the tenant make a request in writing to the person levying the
distress and also give security for any additional cost that may be
occasioned by such extension of time) replevy the same with sufficient
security, the thing distrained may be sold towards satisfaction of the
rent and charges, and the surplus, if any, must be returned to the
owner. To "replevy" is when the person distrained upon applies to the
proper authority (the registrar of the county court) to have the thing
returned to his own possession, on giving security to try the right of
taking it in an action of replevin.

Duties and penalties imposed by act of parliament (e.g. payment of rates
and taxes) are sometimes enforced by distress.

DISTRIBUTION (Lat, _distribuere_, to deal out), a term used in various
connexions with the general meaning of spreading out. In law, the word
is used for the division of the personal estate of an intestate among
the next-of-kin (see INTESTACY). The important scientific question as to
the distribution of plants and animals on the earth is treated under
PLANTS: _Distribution_, and ZOOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION. In economics the
word is used generally for the transference of commodities from person
to person or from place to place, or the dividing up of large quantities
of commodities into smaller quantities; and in a more technical sense,
for the division of the product of industry amongst the various members
or classes of the community. The theory of economic distribution, i.e.
the causes which determine rent, wages, profits and interest, forms an
important subject-matter in all text-books. Am