AGRICULTURAL POPULATION. 35 



shillings ; in others rising to almost as many pounds. Rents are 

 in general paid in money. Sometimes they are valued in kind ; 

 that is, the tenant engaging to pay so many bushels of wheat, or 

 so many bushels of barley, or such amount of other products ; 

 but in these cases, also, the landlord usually receives his rent in 

 money according to the current prices of these articles. The 

 rents are paid in semi-annual payments. The fair rent of land 

 is sometimes estimated at a third of its products ; by some, a 

 different rule is adopted, which is, after all the expenses of culti 

 vation and the usual assessments are deducted from the gross 

 proceeds, that the balance remaining should be divided equally 

 between the landlord and the tenant. In general, however, as 

 far as my observation has extended, the rate of rent is not deter 

 mined by any particular rule, other than that which prevails in 

 most commercial transactions, that each party makes the best bar 

 gain for himself that he is able. It is only just to add that in all 

 the cases, without exception, which have come under my remark, 

 there has seemed to me, on the part of the landlords, a fair measure 

 of liberality ; the rents in general bearing a small proportion to 

 the legal interest of the money at which the lands are valued, and 

 for which they could be sold at once ; lands costing 60 sterling, 

 or 300 dollars per acre, being frequently let for 30s. or 2 ster 

 ling per acre, that is, less than eight or ten dollars per acre. We 

 are not well satisfied in the United States with a return from 

 our land under five or six per cent, on its cost ; but the landlords 

 here seldom obtain more than two and a half per cent, or three 

 per cent, on the price which the land would command, if brought 

 into the market. The low rents which are obtained show the 

 abundance of wealth, and how greatly an investment in land is 

 valued for its security; and the active competition for leases, 

 which appears in almost every part of the country when farms 

 are to be let, seems to imply that the rents are reasonable, and, 

 more than that, liberal. As I shall not hesitate to put down my 

 impressions of the country, of men and things, with the utmost 

 frankness, avoiding all personalities, I must say that there has 

 appeared to me on the part of the landowners, with many of 

 whom, among the largest in the country, I have had the pleasure 

 of becoming, acquainted, the most marked liberality in the man 

 agement of their great estates, both in the terms and continuance 

 of their leases, and in the aid rendered to their tenants in making 

 improvements. The liberality and amount of the expenditures 



