CHAPTER XXVIII. 



ESTIMATES OP THE COST or LABOUR APPLIED TO MARLING. 



BEFORE we can estimate with any precision the expense of im- 

 proving land by marling, it is necessary to fix the fair cost of every 

 kind of labour necessary for the purpose, and for a length of time 

 not less than one year. We very often hear guesses of how much 

 a day's labour of a man, a horse, or a wagon and team, may be 

 worth ] and all are wide of the truth, because they are made on 

 wrong premises, or no premises whatever. The only correct method 

 is to reduce every kind of labour to its elements, and to fix the 

 cost of every particular necessary to furnish it. This I shall at- 

 tempt ; and if my estimates are erroneous in any particular, other 

 persons better informed may easily correct my calculation in that 

 respect, and make the necessary allowance on the final amount. 

 Thus, even my mistakes in the grounds of these estimates will not 

 prevent true and useful results being derived from them. 



The following estimates of the cost of labour were first prepared 

 in 1828, according to the actual prices of that year, and so appeared 

 in the three preceding editions of this essay. The lapse of time and 

 changes of average prices of some of the elements of cost required 

 correction of some of the particulars. The corrected estimates now 

 submitted are not (as before) of the actual prices of any one parti- 

 cular year, but the supposed average prices of a number of years, 

 to the end of the year 1846. In making the necessary corrections 

 for this purpose, some of the original charges were deemed too 

 high for the average statement desired, and others of larger amount 

 were too low. The difference is small (making less than 3 per cent, 

 of general increase), but has so far served to raise, on the whole, the 

 estimated costs of marling. 



But no such estimates (even if at any one time correct in the 

 premises of prices assumed) can more than approach to accuracy 

 for any average of extended time, and still less for any particular 

 subsequent year, owing to the great and irregular fluctuations of 

 prices. Therefore, neither these nor any other estimates of costs 

 can be relied on to show the expense of labour always, or even 

 generally. But these may at least supply a convenient form and 

 rule for the true mode of estimating such values ; and every person 

 may easily change the particular charges as required to suit other 

 circumstances. Thus, even if other times and circumstances should 

 require changes of price of every element of labour, the form of 



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