THE VALUATION OF LANDED ESTATES. 327 



Square Yards. 



Westmoreland acre, 6,760 



Inverness acre, 6,150.4 



Wiltshire acre, 3,630 



Devonshire acre, 4,000 



Wales acre, ' 3,240 



Cornish acie, 5,760 



Cheshire acre, 10,240 



SECTION 4. The Valuation of Land taken by a Railway Company. 



Many people suppose that land taken by a railway company should 

 be valued in the same manner as other lands. This depends very much 

 upon circumstances. Where a railway passes through a well-cultivated 

 and fertile farm, it cuts up the fields very much, thereby causing it to be 

 more expensive to cultivate afterwards, as the increase in the labour of a 

 farm so cut up is often considerable. No doubt the farm may gain in 

 many respects by having a line of rail running through it, but still the 

 disadvantages stated often counterbalance the advantages. The pro- 

 prietor or the owner is not justified in paying twice over for any advan- 

 tage which a railway will confer iipon him, as whatever goods he may 

 receive or send away to market by the railway have still to be paid for. 

 I am therefore of opinion that a landed proprietor should receive some- 

 thing more for land taken by a railway company than if it had been sold 

 for agricultural purposes alone, and this more especially in well-cultivated 

 districts. 



The usual practice in the transfer of land to the hands of a railway 

 company, is for the company to appoint one valuator and the proprietor 

 to appoint another, with an umpire to decide between them should they 

 not agree ; or, in some cases, the question has been referred to one man 

 mutually chosen. The first step is to ascertain the agricultural value of 

 the land, without taking into consideration the question of any damage 

 being done by severance ; and, having done so, then ascertain the 

 value to be put on per acre for the damages done by the severance to 

 the property by the line. The severance-damages must include the 

 inconvenience of level crossings on the line, and the deterioration of any 

 other kind of property on the estate caused by the railway. The 

 tenants' rights should also be looked to, and the damages done to their 

 farms, as the railway might probably take up land which was prepared 

 for cropping. 



There are many different points to attend to in the valuation of land 

 when about to be taken by a railway company. There are always a 



