fallowing and manuring, will be distributed among 

 the several crops, according to the arbitrary rules of 

 adjustment, which the individual making the calcula- 

 tion has formed in his own mind from his own local 

 and particular observation. 



It is an easy task, if farming accounts are regularly 

 kept, to ascertain, at the end of the four years, how 

 much has been gained or lost during the rotation ; 

 but the distribution of that loss or gain is subject to 

 so many variations of opinion, and so many vicissitudes 

 depending on situation, soil, and weather, as to pre- 

 vent reliance from being placed on any estimate of the 

 real cost of either one of the descriptions of Grain. 



The same obstacles will present themselves to the 

 attainment of accuracy, where any other rotation of 

 crops is adopted. 



If the difficulty is thus great in attaining, or even 

 approximating to certainty in the cost price of any 

 particular description of Corn in this country, it may 

 well be deemed much more bold to hazard an opinion 

 on that subject, in a foreign country, where many 

 circumstances which can be but imperfectly known to 

 a stranger and temporary visitor, may have a power- 

 ful influence. 



I received many statements from the different per- 

 sons with whom I conversed on the subject, as to 

 what they considered to be the actual cost, in a num- 

 ber of years, of Wheat and other Corn. These, as 

 may be supposed, widely varied from each other. 

 Although I was fully convinced that for several years 

 the loss on the mass of agricultural products through- 

 out the maritime provinces of Prussia, has been very 

 great ; and that, instead of leaving any thing for rent, 

 that has been much more than absorbed, yet I could 

 place no reliance on the accuracy of any statements 

 which attempted to define the exact limits of the loss 

 on each kind of Corn. 



In founding a calculation on the answers of Presi- 



