10 



assumed average prices for a number of years, and the 

 value of the productive powers of the farm, and the 

 assumed proportion that that ought to bear to the gross 

 produce, is a fallacious testr 



" Yes. I do not think that any man who ever lived, 

 having all the data given to him, could with any certainty 

 determine it. He would still be unable to form a judg- 

 ment of the aggregate value of the produce of the land. 

 Mr. Loudon, in his book on agriculture, speaks of the way 

 of determining the value of the land; but, however, he 

 adds, in practice it will be impossible to do it. He leaves 

 you just where you were, stating that it is a theory, but a 

 theory which never could be applied in practice." 



The late Dr. Coventry, of Edinburgh, Professor of Agri- 

 culture, would only allow the landlord to receive one-third, 

 when the estimated gross produce of land per acre 

 amounted to 10 10s. The prices for grain were then 

 much higher than at present, but the cost of labour about 

 the same. The learned professor therefore constructed his 

 table on calculations which admitted that 7 per acre, 

 (which is the remaining two-thirds of the gross produce,) 

 was a fair amount to allow the tenant of such land for his 

 expenses and profit. But if this amount were now allowed 

 to the tenant (and it would be quite as just now as then), 

 there would be nothing for the landlord on the best lands 

 in Scotland. 



VII. ON THE RESERVATION OF ONE-FOURTH OF THE GROSS 



PRODUCE AS RENT. 



The Earl of Mountcashel, a large landed proprietor, of 

 great intelligence on all matters relative to land, detailed 

 to the Land Commission of 1844 his views as to the just- 

 ness of appropriating one-fourth of the gross produce of 

 land to the landlord, and the universality of the prin- 

 ciple. The following is his own exposition of this favourite 

 theory : 



" 1 suppose that land will produce a rotation of three 



