British Agriculture. 
. early increase from that year of 39,000/. The total rise within 
I period of eighteen years has been a little over 20 per cent ; 
)ut, as will be seen by the annexed Table, the proportion of 
ncrease on the Scotch rental has been greater than on that of 
England. The small rise in Ireland presents a striking contrast 
o England and Scotland. — The capital value of the total in- 
rease at the present selling price of land in this country will 
)e reckoned something prodigious, especially by those of us 
vho are old enough to recall the dismal prophecies of the 
igricultural ruin which would surely follow the free admission. 
)f foreign corn. 
Gross Annual Value of Land Assessed to the Income-Tax in 
1857 and 
1875. 
1857. 
1875. 
Increase. 
Increase 
per 
CeDt. 
Capital Value 
of Increase 
at 30 Years' 
Purchase. 
"ngland 
£ 
41,177,000 
£ 
50,125,000 
£ 
8,948,000 
21 
£ 
268,440,000 
'Cotland 
5,932,000 
7,493,000 
1,561,000 
26 
46,830,000 
reland, from'l 
1862.. ../ 
8,747,000 
9,293,000 
546,000 
6 
16,380,000 
55,856,000 
66,911,000 
11,055,000 
331,650,000 
This vast increase in the value of landed property within the 
hort period of twenty years is very remarkable. It has been 
.Iready shown that the improvement expenditure effected by 
oans has been fifteen millions. If we assume that even three 
lines as much has been effected during the same period by 
)rivate capital without loans, we here see that the capital wealth 
)f the owners of landed property has been increased by three 
mndred and thirty-one millions sterling in these twenty years, 
it a cost to them which probably has not exceeded sixty millions. 
This increase, as elsewhere explained, has arisen chiefly from the 
jreat advance in the consumption and value of meat and dairy 
produce, and is thus only in part the result of land improvement. 
But though in the aggregate the landowners of England have Greatest rise 
)ecome richer by more than one-fifth, and those of Scotland by has been in the 
iHore than one-fourth, the progress has not been uniform. In the g'^zmg coun- 
1 1 T • 11 111 1 1 1-1 1 • ii^i, and in 
lurely corn districts, and on the chalk and sands of the drier Scotland : the 
ounties where grass does not thrive, the increase has been small, cause of this. 
Dn the poor clays there has been none. It has been greatest in 
he grazing counties and in the west and north. The increase 
shown in Scotland deserves special attention. In that country 
F.he larger proportion of grazing land no doubt partly explains 
