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ence. A given rise of rent without consolidation is 

 equal to a great deal more than the same rise where 

 consolidation is included. The tenant of the single farm 

 pays his increase, whatever it may be, upon the same 

 article. But the tenant of consolidated crofts pays 

 his increase upon a very different, and a much better, 

 article. And yet, in spite of this great difference, it 

 is very remarkable that the class of tenants who, during 

 the last thirty-five years, have got a better article, pay 

 generally a smaller rate of increase than the class of 

 tenants who have got the same article. In other 

 words, the rate of increase in rent upon consolidated 

 crofts during the last thirty-five years has been less — 

 in many cases immensely less — than the rate of increase 

 in rent upon the larger farms. There could not be 

 a better example of this than a comparison between 

 the increase of rent which has arisen upon the Island 

 of lona and upon a single farm opposite to it upon the 

 shores of the Koss of Mull. There has been consider- 

 able consolidation upon lona, and the tenants on it 

 have had, besides, all the advantages which thirty-five 

 years have brought in the higher prices of produce and 

 in the readier access to markets. Yet the increase of 

 rent on lona during more than a whole generation has 

 been only 48 per cent., whereas on the single farm of 

 Fidden, on the Ross of Mull, which may be said to be 

 adjacent, the increase of rent has been no less than 

 158 per cent. Allowing for some special and acci- 

 dental circumstances in this case, the general result is 

 unquestionably true, that even with the inherent 

 advantages of consolidation, added to all other causes 

 ,of increased value which affect equally both classes of 

 possession, the rise on the crofter rental has been 



