[ 45 ] 



acres. The expence to accommodate this quantity with a farm- 

 house, barn, stable, stalling, barton, pool, and pig stye, should 

 not exceed three hundred pounds. 



The next subject of enquiry, is the additional value communi- 

 cated to the land by buildings. Should this be answerable to the 

 expence incurred, the whole of the objection must fall to the ground, 

 notwithstanding its apparent plausibility. 



Let us suppose an hundred acres of Mendip land inclosed, and 

 divided into four pieces of prime quality, but destitute of build- 

 ings; grant a lease of it to a farmer of property and judgment for 

 twenty-one years, (a shorter term would be injurious to the land- 

 lord) and I may venture to say, that more than fifteen shillings per 

 acre could not be got for it, accompanied with the usual covenants, 

 and restrictions to guard against wilful impoverishment. With 

 equal confidence, I may assert, the same land with suitable buildings 

 would let to the same farmer, for a like term, at one pound per 

 acre, with a subdivision of the four pieces into six. The increase 

 of rent in the latter case will be twenty-five pounds per annum. 

 Allow an interest of i\ per cent on the capital of 300I. expended 

 on the buildings, which amounts to 22I. 10s. and there will remain 

 2I. 10s. as interest on the money laid out to make fences under a 

 subdivision, and if quick set, to rear them when made, which cer- 

 tainly could not exceed 30I. Under this plan you do justice to the 

 native qualities of the soil, by giving it a separate, and indepen- 

 dent existence as a farm, and with a lease of proper covenants, you 

 need not fear its being exhausted. 



A speculative farmer will be apt to exclaim, is it possible that 

 the want of buildings can create a difference of five shillings per 

 acre to the occupier ? Most assuredly it is ; as will be evident by 

 «ven a very general statement of the comparative effects of a twenty- 

 one year's occupation, with and without buildings. To begin with 

 the latter ; here lime must be chiefly, if not altogether depended 

 on, as a manure. This, even with successive cropping with corn, 

 will maintain its ground tolerably well during the first seven years. 

 Its second application is attended with considerable diminution of 

 its efficacy. From this period, the degeneracy of the soil, is no 

 less rapid, than astonishing : it becomes light ; coltsfoot and couch 

 grass abound ; clover and ray grasses fail. Intervals of rest of three, 



G or 



