( 34* ) 



Orie circumftance, at leaft, is in favour of 

 thefe eftimates ; the reader no where meet& 

 with marvellous relations of profit, by which 

 a fortune is at once to be made from pof- 

 fefling a few hundreds: I by no means 

 profefs to teach any one how to make a 

 great eftate in a few years : all fuch pre- 

 tences are mere quackery. Whoever expects 

 to make a fortune in farming from a fmall 

 capital, is but in a dream. Fortunes may 

 certainly be made in it ; and as large as in 

 any bufmefs, but I much queftion whether 

 the fiock necefTary is not as great as for a 

 merchant to do it in commerce. But of 

 this more hereafter. 



The moft that is made in thefe three 



farms is 22 per cent. now this muft be 



reckoned but moderate profit in a bufmefs 

 wherein fo fmall a fum as perhaps 100 /. is 

 the capital in trade. Branches of traffic, in 

 which a fmall -capital maintains a family^ 

 muft have large profits^ and 20 per cent, is 

 certainly a confiderable profit, take every 

 profeffion and bufmefs in one view ; but by 

 no means fo, if only fuch as I have deicribed 

 are taken into the account. In my pri- 

 vate opinion, no lefs profit than 30 per cent. 

 3 fhould 



