IMPROVEMENT OF LAND. 103 



SECTION 2. Probable Cost of Improving Land. 



In taking up any estate for improvement in the way recommended, 

 there would only fall to be taken into account the cost of draining and 

 trenching, as any extra manure that would be applied must go to the 

 general account for the working of the farm, as this would be merely 

 giving an extra quantity with the view to secure an extra immediate 

 crop. Then, with regard to drainage, I should say that there are few 

 estates in this country on which at least one-third of the extent of the 

 available arable lands are not already drained, although on a consider- 

 able proportion of them the drains may, from the retentive nature of 

 the subsoil, not be found to act well. Therefore I assume, as a basis of 

 calculation for the probable cost of drainage in connection with the 

 improvement, that on any estate of considerable extent not more than 

 two-thirds of the acreage of the available arable land would require to 

 be drained, and that, although a large proportion of this may not be so 

 satisfactorily operative as is desirable, still, after trenching is applied, 

 it would become more efficient in drying the land. 



I have already stated that, where drainage is to be followed by trench- 

 ing, the drains may very properly be put at wider distances apart than 

 would be necessary to dry the land were no trenching to be performed 

 on it ; and keeping this in view, I shall assume twenty-seven feet as a 

 medium distance apart for drains to be followed by trenching, and shall 

 calculate the cost accordingly. Then, on an average of soils, and taking 

 an average of the cost of draining as I have had the work performed in 

 different parts of the country, I have found that, at twenty-seven feet 

 apart, drainage can be performed at 6 per acre. Assuming this, and 

 that only two-thirds of the land of an estate require to be drained, we 

 have 4 given as the probable cost on each acre to complete this branch 

 of work in the improvement of it. 



Next, with regard to the probable cost of trenching. I have had this 

 kind of work performed in many parts of the country, on arable lands 

 and on woodlands, at various prices per acre, between 6 and 10 ; I 

 shall therefore assume the medium between these two sums namely, 8 

 as a fair cost for such work generally. It follows, then, that to improve 

 an estate by draining and trenching as recommended, would cost on an 

 average of cases 12 per acre. Now, in ordeu to illustrate how an estate 

 would be affected by an outlay such as this on each acre of it, I shall 

 suppose that a proprietor of an estate of ten thousand acres arable is 

 desirous to have it improved in the way recommended. The entire 



