96 AGRICULTURAL SURVEY OF dbap. P> 



by the lowest supposable average prices, and if 

 any overplus remains, which, most probably, 

 will be the case, they cannot surely complain of 

 this as a disadvantage. Tenants, also, may pos- 

 sibly object to this scheme, from the notion 

 that prices may rise, in which case they would 

 lose all the advance upon that proportion of 

 their victual which they are bound to pay to 

 the master. But this objection hath as little 

 weight as the other. It will be admitted that 

 the rent must be paid by the produce of the 

 farm. When a tenant, therefore, proposes to 

 take a farm upon a nineteen years lease, sup- 

 pose, in order to determine what money rent 

 he ought to pay, during that period, he must 

 calculate the probable produce of the farm, 

 the probable average price which that produce 

 will bring during the currency of his lease, 

 and what proportion of it may probably be 

 necessary for defraying the expences of cul- 

 tivation and management ; he will then be a- 

 ble to judge what proportion he can afford to 

 carry to market for the payment of his rent ; 

 and the average value of this constitutes the 

 yearly rent which he ought to pay. If then it 

 be necessary, that, before he can fix the money 

 rent, he should know what quantity of victual 

 must be alloted yearly for that purpose, it can, 

 surely, be of no consequence to the tenant, whe- 

 ther he pay his rent in money or in kind, since, 

 with respect to him, the one is tantamount with 

 the other; or whether he pay the average price 

 of the victual for 19 years in the name of mo- 

 ney-rent, or the price it brings every, separate 

 year, during that period, since, in the calculation, 



