"100 ox THE AGRICULIirilir OF THE 



words, on a loO-acre farm, the balance between what' ft costs the 

 tenant to produce a full crop of grain, beef, mutton,. &c., and 

 what he receives for that crop, is larger in proportion now . 

 than in 1850. This is due, partly to the increased price that a 

 quarter of grain and a pound of beef command in the market 

 now, as comj)ared with twenty-five years ago ; and partly also to^ 

 the fact that the improved system of husbandry pursued at the pre- 

 sent day enables a farmer to bring more grain, beef, &c., out of 

 an acre of land than it was possible for him to have done, by the 

 appliances at his command, previous to 1850. And it is by the 

 swelling or lessening of this balance that rent must really be regu- 

 lated. The popular mode of book-keeping among farmers (of 

 which, even as it is, there is too little), by which rent is placed 

 in the costs' column, is against all principles of true political 

 economy. The first duty of an intending offerer for a farm, is 

 to calculate what it would cost him to produce on that farm a 

 full crop of grain, beef, &c, including his own living, and what 

 that crop would bring back in the shape of money ; and then 

 regulate the rent he could afford to the landlord for the use of 

 the land, according to the balance between these two sums. In 

 a few cases, this balance between the cost price and the 

 selling price of the product of the farm is too small to warrant 

 the rent now exacted. Speaking for the country generally, the 

 extraordinary increase in the labour bill during the past few 

 years has completely upset the whole calculations of many a 

 shrewd, thoroughly practical farmer, who may have happened to 

 enter on a farm, or a new lease, ten or fifteen years ago ; and 

 indeed it need be no matter for surprise that in the counties of 

 Eoss and Cromarty, as in every other county in Scotland, there 

 are a few farmers who pay a higher rent for their land than it is 

 really worth. But on the w^hole, we are decidedly of oj)inion 

 that more money is being made off farming in Eoss and Cro- 

 marty now than some twenty or thirty years ago; and that, 

 taking the counties as a whole, the farming community is living 

 more comfortably, and more respectably, than during any former 

 period of our history. 



It has been remarked that more capital is required to farm an 

 . acre of land now than some twenty-five years ago. The percent- 

 age of this increase is not very easily ascertained, but there can 

 be no doubt that it is above 200. Thirty or forty years ago, it 

 was quite common to hear of a farm being stocked and carried 

 on with about L.3 per acre ; in fact, about twenty-five years ago, 

 a farm of 150 acres, in Easter Eoss, was taken on lease by a 

 tenant with a purse of L.200, and all along he has been doing 

 very well The sum required to the acre now, of course, depends 

 very much upon the nature of the soil, and the class of stock 

 intended to be kept ; but, generally speaking, about L.12 per 



