ESTATE MANAGEMENT. 3 



the term, its productive qualities must be small, and consequently its 

 market value depreciated. 



To show to what extent both the present and prospective market 

 value of land is affected by the judicious application of modern improve- 

 ments, I shall give some particulars of one case out of many that have 

 come under my own notice in dealing with estates. 



The subject to which I refer is a farm of three hundred and forty 

 acres two hundred and eighty of which were arable before the improve- 

 ments were commenced on it, and the remaining sixty old meadow pas- 

 ture. The rent was 425 in all, or at the rate of 1, 5s. per acre. This 

 farm is situated within about six miles of a thriving town, and the land 

 consists of a light loam, a considerable portion of which, previous to the 

 improvements, was wet, although it had been drained but, as the result 

 showed, only imperfectly drained seven years before. The lease of the 

 farm having expired, the proprietor very properly resolved to take it into 

 his own hand for improvement, and accordingly the farm-house and other 

 buildings were all fitted up on the most improved principles ; the fences 

 thoroughly repaired, and new ones substituted and added where these 

 were found necessary. All the wet parts of the farm were thoroughly 

 drained, and about one hundred acres of it were trenched, in order to 

 deepen parts of the land, and to remove stones from it. In short, every- 

 thing was done to the farm which modern experience could suggest and 

 money accomplish for its improvement at the time, keeping strictly in 

 view that the money expended should be so laid out as to return a good 

 interest to the proprietor in the shape of yearly rent afterwards. The 

 outlay in all was 2960, or at the rate of nearly 9 on each acre of the 

 land embraced in the farm. After having the farm in his own hands 

 for a period of three years, and having got it into the best possible con- 

 dition for a tenant, the proprietor let it on a nineteen years' lease for the 

 sum of 900 yearly rent, or at the rate of nearly 2, 13s. per acre per 

 annum. From this it appears that the proprietor, by laying out 2960 

 on the improvement of the farm, secured ail advance of yearly rent 

 equal to 475, thus giving him fully fifteen per cent per annum as interest 

 on the sum he expended on the improvements. 



But besides the advantage stated in regard to the high interest the 

 proprietor had obtained for the money he laid out in this manner, he 

 had secured another, perhaps even more important namely, that of hav- 

 ing fully doubled the value of the farm in a commercial point of view ; 

 for, taking thirty-two years' rent as its value, we have 13,590 as the 

 probable sum the proprietor would have got for the subject had he put 

 it into the market in its unimproved condition ; whereas, taking the 

 rent at which the farm was let after the improvements had been executed, 



