( 187 ) 
VI. — A Joint-Stock Farm in the Netherlands. By H. M. 
Jenkins, F.G.S., Secretary of the Society, and Editor of the 
Journal. 
[Eeprinted from the ' Keport on the Agriculture of the Netherlands ' to the 
Royal Commission on Agriculture.] 
This farm is situated in the northern portion of the island of 
South Beveland (Zeeland), and is described here as an illustra- 
tion of the success which may attend the judicious application of 
capital to the reclamation and cultivation of land. 
In the year 1809, 23 merchants of Rotterdam formed them- 
selves into a company, and purchased of the Government, at a 
public sale, a tract of land which was under water at high tide, 
but exposed at the extreme ebb. The price paid was 650,000 
guilders (54,000Z.), and half a million guilders (over 40,000/.) 
were spent in building sea walls, making a canal, and doing 
other necessary works for the protection and drainage of the 
land. The total capital of the company is 1,500,000 guilders 
(125,000/.), of which the balance, about 30,000/. (360,000 
guilders), is employed as farm capital. The total extent of 
the polder * is 1600 hectares (4000 acres), but about 150 hectares 
belong to other proprietors, including one discontented share- 
holder, who was paid out in land. There are now 70 shares 
held by about 30 shareholders or more. 
The amount of profit on these 1450 hectares (about 3600 
acres) divided annually between the shareholders, in the years 
1870 to 1878 inclusive, averaged 110,000 guilders (over 9000/.). 
These figures may be summarised as follows : — 
Capital employed on 3600 acres, 30,000/. = 8/. 65. Sd. per 
acre. 
Land and dykes, &c., cost 94,000/. at 4 per cent. £ 
(equal to rather more than IZ. per acre) t .. .. 3760 
Capital 30,000/. at 5 per cent. . 1500 
5260 
Deduct atove from total profits 9000 
Making farmer's profit of over 1/. per acre, or more 
than 12 per cent, on the capital of 30,000/. .. £3740 
This result will doubtless astonish some English farmers, and 
it will be useful to describe the operations by which it has been 
* A polder is a tract of land brought into cultivation after having been pro- 
tected from inundation by means of embankments.* 
t In comparing this rent with that paid by tenant-farmers, it should be 
remembered that the company have to pay the polder taxes and the land tax, 
whereas the tenant-farmers do not. It will be seen that the polder taxes alone 
amount to an average of over 15s. per acre. 
