Book I. VALUATION OF LANDED PROPERTY. 497 



his valuation, and to estimate tlie improvements of which the lands are evidently 

 capable. 



3 1 70. The leading particulars which affect the value of an estate, and which require 

 to be considered in its estimation, are quantity, quality, situation, state, outgoings, and 

 abstract rights. 



3171. The quantity of the land is the groundwork of the estimate ; though it has little 

 weight in the scale of valuation. The fee-simple value of an acre of land may be less 

 than twenty shillings, or it may be more than a hundred pounds. Nevertheless, it is 

 on the quantity the rental value is calculated ; and it is usual for the seller to exhibit a 

 ** particular" of the estate on sale ; showing, or which ought to show, not only the ag- 

 gregate quantity, but the number of acres that each piece or parcel contains ; and ought, 

 most particularly, to specify the distinct quantities of the lands of different qualities, in 

 order that their several rental values, may, with greater accuracy and ease, be ascer- 

 tained. 



3172. The intrinsic quality/ of 'the land is another essential basis of calculation. But 

 even this, in a general view of the value of lands throughout the kingdom, is often of 

 secondary consideration : for, in many cases, their values are given by situation, rather 

 than by soil and substrata. In some cases, as has been already said, the value of the 

 situation may be five-fold that of the intrinsic value of the land. This excessive influ- 

 ence of situation, however, is limited in its effects, and is chiefly confined to the environs 

 of towns, and other extraordinary markets for produce : a great majority of the lands 

 of England owe their values less to situation than to intrinsic quality ; and to come at 

 this, with sufficient accuracy, is the most requisite, and, at the same time, the most 

 difficult part of valuation, as it depends almost wholly on extemporary judgment, 

 exercised on the frequently few data which rise to the eye, in passing over the field of 

 estimation. It is almost needless, therefore, to observe, that, to acquire the degree of 

 judgment necessary to this critical task, it is requisite to know the productiveness of 

 lands of different appearances : a species of knowledge which scarcely any thing but 

 mature practice, in the cultivation of lands of different qualities, can sufficiently teach ; 

 though long habit may do much, in ordinary cases, towards hitting off the value of 

 lands, without an extensive knowledge of the practice of agriculture. Tliere are, 

 however, cases in which we find both of these qualifications insufficient to give an ac- 

 curacy of judgment, even among provincial valuers ; and a man who ventures to 

 step forward as a universal valuist, should either have an extraordinary talent for his 

 line of profession, or should, after a suitable initiation, have had great experience in 

 rural concerns, in various parts of the kingdom. 



3173. On situation, the value of lands, aggregately considered, depends less, than on 

 intrinsic quality ; though, without doubt, situation has great influence. Thus, an acre 

 of land whose intrinsic quality renders it, in an ordinary situation, worth twenty shillings 

 an acre, would not, in some districts, be worth more than fifteen shillings ; while in 

 others it would bear to be estimated at twenty-five shillings, or a higher rent, to a farmer 

 on a large scale, and away from the immediate environs of a town, or any populous 

 district of manufacture"; for reasons that will appear in examining the different parti- 

 culars of situation. 



3174. In the temperature of situation, whether it is given by elevation, aspect, or exposure, we find a 

 powerful influence, which is capable of altering, exceedingly, the value of lands. The same soil and 

 subsoil, which we not unfrequently see on exposed mountains, and hanging to the north, and which in 

 that situation are not wortli more than five shillings an acre, would, if situated in a sheltered vale dis- 

 trict, and lying well to the sun, be worth twenty shillings, or a greater rent. Even on climature, some- 

 thing considerable depends. In the south of England, harvest is generally a month earlier tlian in the 

 northern provinces ; though it is not regulated exactly by the climate or latitude of places, a circumstance 

 that requires to be attended to, by those who estimate the value of estates. For an early harvest is not 

 only advantageous in itself, but it gives time to till the ground, or to take an autumnal crop ; which are 

 advantages that a late harvest will not so well admit of And another kind of temperature of situation 

 has still more influence on the value of lands ; namely, the moistness of the atmosphere. A moist situa. 

 tion not only gives an uncertain and often a late harvest, but renders it diflScult and hazardous, as is too 

 frequently experienced on the western coasts of this island. 



317.5. Even in the turn of surface we find exercise for the judgment. Lands lying with too steep or too flat 

 surfaces, especially retentive arable lands, are of less value than those which are gently shelving, so as to 

 give a sufficient current to surface water, without their being difficult to cultivate. Steep-lying lands are 

 not only troublesome and expensive, under the operations of tillage, but in carrying on manures and 

 getting off" the produce. Lands lying with an easy descent, or on a gently billowy surface, may be worth 

 more by many pounds an acre, purchase money, than others of the same intrinsic quality, hanging on 

 a steep. 



3176. A supply of imter is another consideration of some weight, in valuing an estate ; for domestic 

 purposes, for the uses of live stock, and for the purpose of irrigation. There are situations in which a 

 copious stream of calcareous water would enhance the fee-simple value of a large estate some thousand 

 I>ounds. 



3177. A sufficient supply of manure, whether dung, lime, marl, or other melioration, at a moderate 

 price, and within a moderate distance of land carriage, materially adds to the intrinsic value of lands. 



3178. The established practice of the country in which an estate' lies is capable of enhancing or depress- 

 ing the value of it exceedingly. Even the single pointlof practice of ploughing light and loamy lands with 

 two oxen, or two active horses, instead of four heavy ones, is capable of making a difference on good 

 land, which is kept alternately in herbage and corn crops, of five to ten shillings an acre a year ; or ten 

 pounds an acre purchase money. 



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