104 THE BOOK OF THE LANDED ESTATE. 



cost of improving the ten thousand acres by draining and trenching, 

 at 12 per acre, would therefore be 120,000. But were this done 

 on all the farms embraced on such an estate, it is evident that the exist- 

 ing buildings on them would not be nearly sufficient to accommodate the 

 extra produce that would require to be dealt with, nor the extra cattle 

 which that produce would maintain, therefore additional new buildings 

 would require to be erected. In order to make the farm-steadings suit- 

 able to meet the improved state of things on the land, we then assume 

 that a sum equal to 2 additional on each acre requires to be expended ; 

 and thus the whole expenditure for the full improvement on an estate of 

 ten thousand acres would probably amount to 140,000. This does 

 seem, at first view, a heavy outlay on such an estate, and the question 

 now is, What would be the "probable money advantage gained by such 

 an outlay on it? I shall endeavour to make this clear. In the first 

 place, then, I shall suppose that the land of the estate, before it was im- 

 proved, was let at an average annual rent of 22s. per acre, one farm with 

 another. This would give an entire rental of 11,000 a-year. With 

 land improved in the way that this estate is now supposed to be, and 

 with the farm-buildings all put into the best condition for the accom- 

 modation of stock and crop, the tenants could afford to the proprietor 

 a high percentage on the capital he had laid out ; and the question is, 

 What percentage would be a fair additional rent on the expenditure per 

 acre on each farm ? I have already stated, as my experience in regard 

 to the improvement of land by draining and trenching, that wherever I 

 have seen this done, it yielded a half more crop than the same land did 

 before the improvements were made on it. Let us apply this as a 

 rule, then, to the case in hand, in order to find out the advantages which 

 would accrue to the farmers from the improvements the proprietor had 

 made for them. A farmer occupying land for which he pays 22s. per 

 acre annually as rent, would require to have an average produce from it 

 over all equal to twenty bushels per acre annually. Now, as the land is 

 supposed to have been improved, it should yield in this condition one- 

 half more bushels, or thirty bushels per acre instead of twenty. Taking 

 the value of twenty bushels at 5s. per bushel, we have 5 as the entire 

 money value the tenants realised from the crop per acre before the land 

 was improved ; and taking the value of thirty bushels also at 5s. per 

 bushel, we have 7, 10s. as the entire money value the tenants will 

 probably realise from their crops per acre after their land has been im- 

 proved, and therefore they must be gainers by the improvements to 

 the extent of 2, 10s. on each acre of the land they occupy; and here 

 is a basis of calculation in regard to an advance of rent to the proprietor. 

 It would not be right to assume that the proprietor should draw all this 



