40 A FARMER'S YEAR 



livelihood out of the place, as a farmer is supposed to do — at any 

 rate, to a very large extent— the loss on this farm for the three 

 years is 274/. i8j. (>d. 



When we come to the Ditchingham Farm the case is a little 

 better, for, as the statement shows, there is a net profit on eight years' 

 farming of 540/. 135'. ^d. But here, again, things are not so good 

 as they look. Thus the rent on 146 acres (the amount of my own 

 land that I farm in this parish, for the rent of the rest appears and 

 is included in the accounts, and must not be reckoned) at i/. per 

 acre for eight years amounts to 1,168/., and the interest at 5 per 

 cent, of 1,250/. for eight years, plus the interest on 250/. for two 

 and a half years, amounts to 531/. 5^., just about the net profit 

 shown. Therefore, again without allowing anything for living, 

 since, together with the cost of all carting, &c., every article I have 

 from the farm is religiously paid for at market prices, it would seem 

 that the net loss for the eight years is 1,158/. \\s. ^d. But that is 

 not all of it, for here and at Bedingham there has been at least 

 500/. expended on the buildings, or, writing off the 200/. paid to 

 the estate account in July last against that expenditure, let us say 

 300/. This brings up the total out-of-pocket amount to 1,458/. 

 lis. 5^., or, adding on the Bedingham loss of 274/. id>s. 6d., to a 

 grand total of 1,733/. 9-^- '^^^• 



This result does not seem encouraging to those about to farm. 



Of course, however, it would be easy to pick holes in these 

 figures. Thus the 300/. for buildings ought to go to capital 

 account; moreover, at Michaelmas last there was about 228/. 

 1 js. yd. cash in bank. Further, the valuations at that date about 

 equal the total of cash invested, so that, theoretically, if the 

 business were wound up, there should be no actual loss of capital 

 as distinguished from interest. It may be objected also that I 

 have no right to reckon on a rent ; that nowadays in these 

 counties rent is too often a mere ideal which cannot be grasped ; 

 and no doubt when I took the farms in hand this was the case, 

 for its condition was so deplorable, at any rate at Ditchingham, 

 that nobody would have given anything for the land. But the 



