VALUATION OF LAND. 



if the former be in a progrefllve date, efpecially if it be ftill 

 in the more early ftages of its advancement, a rapid increafe 

 of rent may, with a degree of certainty, be expefted : 

 whereas, under the leaden inflaence of the latter, half a cen- 

 tury may, it is thought, pais away before the golden chariot 

 of improvement can be profitably put in motion. And 

 lailly, may be noticed, it is faid, the attraftive centre to 

 which the labours of the hufbandman will ever tend, — 

 markets, in which, more than in any other circumftance, we 

 are to look for the exifling value of lands. Their influence 

 is not confined to towns and populous places of manufatture, 

 for in ports, and on quays, whether of inlets, eftuaries, 

 rivers, or canals, markets are met half way : even by good 

 roads their diftance from the farm-ftead may be faid to be 

 fhortened. 



In this detail of the particulars of fituation in refpeft to 

 the value of landed property, it is obferved, the attention 

 requifite to be employed by a valuer who is called upon to 

 aft in a county that is new to him is perceived. A provin- 

 cial, or even a profelTional valuer, who afts in a diftricl, the 

 exifting value of the lands of which he is fufBciently ac- 

 quainted with, determines at fight, and according to the 

 beft of his judgment, on their refpeftive values : for he 

 knows, or ought to know, their current prices ; what fuch 

 and fuch lands let for in that neighbourhood ; what he and 

 his neighbours give, or would give, for lands of the fame 

 quality and ftate, without adverting to the particular cir- 

 cumftances of the fituation, they being confidered and given 

 as the eftabliflied amounts arifing out of them ; refting his 

 judgment folely on the intrinfic quality and exilling ftate of 

 each field or parcel as it pafles under his eye. But let his 

 fliill be what it may in a county or dillrift in which he has 

 acquired a habit of valuing lands, he will, in a diftant part or 

 diilrift, the current market prices of the lands of which may 

 be ten, twenty, or fifty per cent, above or below thofe which 

 he has been accuftomed to put upon lands of the fame in- 

 trinfic qualities and cxifting Hates, find himfelf at a lofs ; 

 until he has learnt the current prices of the place or county, 

 or has well weighed and confidered the circumftances of 

 fituation : to which, in every cafe, he mud necefTarily at- 

 tend, before he can determine their value under an improved 

 practice, or venture to lay down general rules for their 

 improvement. 



4. Another clafs of circumftances which influence the 

 marketable value of lands ftill remains, it is faid, .to be 

 enumerated and confidered. Thefe relate to their cxifting 

 ftate, or the manner in which they lie at the time. Their 

 ftate in refpcft to inclofure is a matter of great con- 

 fideration. Open lands, though whoUv appropriated, and 

 lying well together, are of much lefs value, except for a 

 fheep-walk, or a rabbit-warren, than the fame lands would 

 be in a ftate of fuitable inclofure. If they be disjointed 

 and intermixed in a ftate of common field, or common 

 meadow, their value may be reduced one-third. If the 

 common fields or meadows be what is often termed Lammas 

 land, and become common as foon as the crops are off, the 

 depreflion of value may be fet down at one-half of what 

 they would be worth in well-fenced inclofures, and unin- 

 cumbered with that ancient cuftom. The difference too in 

 the value between lands which lie in a detached ftate, though 

 \Tithin well-fenced inclofures, and thofe of the fame qua- 

 lity that lie in a compaft form, or, in the familiar phrafe, 

 within a ring-fence, is confiderable. The difadvantages of 

 a fcattered eftate are, it is faid, fimilar to thofe of a fcat- 

 tered farm. Even the fingle point of a want of convenient 

 accefs to detached fields and parcels is, on a farm, a ferious 

 evil. And it is on the value of farms that the value of an 



eftate or land is to be calculated. The ftate of the roads, 

 whether pubhc or private, within an eftate, and from it to 

 the neighbouring markets, or places of delivery of produce, 

 is further an objeft of confideration. And in this view, the 

 ftate of the water-courfes, or fewers and ditches, within and 

 below an eftate, likewife requires to be examined into ; a; 

 the expence of improvement or reparation will be more or 

 lefs, according to their exifting ftate at the time ; or, per- 

 haps, by reafon of natural caufes, or through the obfti- 

 nacy of a neighbour, and the defeftivenefs of the prefent 

 laws of the country in this refpeft, the requifite improve- 

 ments cannot be effefted at any expence. The ftate of 

 drainage of lands that lie out of the way of floods, or col- 

 lefted water, requires alfo to be taken into confideration. 

 For although the art of draining be now pretty well under- 

 ftood, it cannot be praclifed on a large fcale, without much 

 coft. The ftate of the lands too, as to tillage and manure, 

 is entitled to more regard than is generally beftowed on it, 

 in valuing them. But even to a purchafer, and ftill more to 

 a tenant for a term, their ftate in thefe refpefts demands a 

 fhare of attention. Lands that are in a high ftate of tillage 

 and condition, fo as to be able to throw out a fucceffion 

 of full crops, may be worth five pounds of purchafe- 

 money an acre, more than thofe of the fame properties, 

 which are exhaufted by repeated crops, and lie in a ufelefs 

 ftate of foulnefs ; from which they cannot be raifed, but at 

 a great expence of manure and tillage. Their ftate, as to 

 grafs or arable, is, it is thought, better underftood, and 

 generally more attended to. Lands in a ftate of profitable 

 herbage, and which have lain long in that ftate, are not only 

 valuable as bearing a high rent while they remain in that 

 condition, but, after the herbage has begun to decline, will 

 feldom fail to throw out j valuable fucccffion of corn-crops. 

 Hence the length of time which lands, under valuation, have 

 lain in a ftate of herbage, efpecially if it has been kept 

 under pafturage, is a matter of inquiry and eftimation in the 

 execution of bufinefs of this fort. And, laftly, the ftate of 

 farm buildings and fences is, it is conceived, a thing of 

 ferious confideration. Buildings, yards, and inclofures, 

 that are much let down, and gone to decay for want of 

 timely repar.ation, incur a very great expence to raife them 

 again to their proper ftate. And when great accuracy of 

 valuation is called for, as where the purchafe value of an 

 eftate is left to reference, and when the tenants are notj 

 bound, or if bound are not able, to put them in the re- 

 quired ftate, it becomes requifite to eftraiate the expence 

 which each farm, in that predicament, will require to put it 

 in fufficient repair, fo as to bring the whole into a fuitable 

 ftate of occupation. This comes, however, more properly 

 under the head of deductions, encumbrances, and outgoings, 

 which are confidered below. The fame principle of valua- 

 tion as the above holds good too in ordinary' cafes. 



In fpeaking of encumbrances and deductions, it is faid, 

 that it appears, by a long leafe, that the fee-fimple value of 

 an eftate may be in eff^eCt annihilated. Even a leafe for 

 lives, with a mere conventional rent, may reduce it to nearly 

 one-third of its fee-fimple value. And every other kind of 

 leafe, if the rent payable be not equal to the fair rental value 

 at the time of the difpofal, is an encumbrance, even to a 

 purchafer who has no other objeft in view than that of 

 fecuring his property on land, and receiving intereft in rent 

 for the money laid out. If perfonal convenience be im- 

 mediately wanted, or improvements required to be done, a 

 leafe, though the tenant pays a full rent, becomes an ob- 

 ftacle to the purchafe, and is confequently to be confidered 

 in fixing the value. And an error, which is not unfre- 

 qu(yitly committed in eftimating the encumbrance of a leafe 



for 



