BASIS OF COMPENSATION 187 



value to an incoming tenant is the mamirial value, not a 

 percentage of the cost of the food consumed. 



It might strike the casual reader that Mr. Lipscomb's ideas 

 were rather antiquated, in that he signed a report advocating 

 the system based on cost instead of the more scientific method. 

 But he was hampered by several considerations. He was 

 instructed to ascertain the views of local Chambers on the 

 subject. Having carried out his instructions the Committee 

 were practically bound to suggest the method advocated by 

 the local Chambers. They, with the exception of the New- 

 castle Farmers' Club, had no idea of any method other than 

 cost. Mr. Lipscomb knew, better than most people, the 

 impossibility of carrying any proposal which involved too 

 radical a departure from accepted custom, and after all his 

 chief aim was to obtain as much uniformity in the method of 

 valuing as possible. By adhering to a known system he 

 secured unanimity among the Chambers, and it followed as a 

 matter of course that in time the valuers' associations fell into 

 line. Then again, although Lawes and Gilbert had every 

 reason to know that their system was sound for their tables 

 were based on the results of careful investigation and experience 

 yet in those days even more than to-day, the agriculturist 

 looked askance at the scientist : and Rothamsted was not 

 then known or acknowledged by farmers as it is now. Their 

 figures, too, were open to revision in certain details, and so 

 could not be held up as promising any sort of finality. Mr. 

 Lipscomb was well aware of what science was doing ; he 

 instanced this in the paragraph quoted on page 185 ; and in 

 moving the adoption of the report he anticipated criticism 

 from Rothamsted. He was not disappointed, for in his 

 Land Magazine article (September, 1898) he quotes in full a 

 letter he wrote in answer to Sir John Lawes. He concludes 

 the letter thus : 



" I will only add that for my part I am wedded to no one system, 

 and^irn an earnest advocate for the more scientific education 

 of our farmers' sons, so that they may intelligently observe 

 ' practice with science.' As such knowledge extends, so will 

 the fame of our somewhat severe commentator, Sir J. 

 Lawes." 



