Land Valuing. 
7 
of land is regulated from time to time by actual experience, far 
better than it could be by the most elaborate calculations. 
Of course, many farms are let privately to the person to whom 
the first offer is given, and there is no direct evidence that a full 
rent has been obtained ; yet every experienced land-valuer can 
readily compare in his mind almost any description of land with 
farms of similar quality in different localities, which he has previ- 
ously valued and let, where there has been sufficient competition 
on the one hand, or difficulty in finding a suitable tenant on the 
other, to form a test of value. The negociations connected with 
such lettings serve from time to time to confirm or correct the judg- 
ment, and afford a far more practical test of the value of the various 
descriptions of land, than any calculations that can be made. 
Such is at present the basis on which the rental value of land 
is usually calculated, and I do not see how it is possible to obtain 
any better or more practical one, whether or not it exactly cor- 
responds to the true standard of value ; for I believe that the rent 
which can be obtained for poor thin-skinned clays, low as it may 
seem, is yet higher in proportion to their true value than that 
which can be obtained for really good land, high as that may 
appear. But if farmers in general underrate the difference, it is 
beyond the power of the land-valuer to alter their views. Still, if 
such a discrepancy does exist, it should be his object rather to 
•correct than to exaggerate it; and there can be no doubt that, 
without care, there is great danger of valuing the best soils con- 
siderably below, and the inferior ones above, their real value. 
In connexion with this subject, I may allude to the gradual 
but steady increase in the value of land. Improved modes of 
cultivation, which have greatly increased the produce, have done 
much in this direction ; drainage and steam-cultivation are now 
effecting for our clays what turnips and sheep have already done 
for our heaths and downs. But, besides this, as long as the popu- 
lation increases and manufactures flourish, so long must the value 
of land continue to advance. And still more important, in my 
opinion, as respects the money value of land and produce, is the 
enormous and continued production of gold in British Columbia, 
Australia, California, &c. Already do we see a marked dif- 
ference in the relative values of gold and silver in France. The 
increased value of tithe rent-charge points in the same direction, 
and though the effect may not be rapid, yet I believe it is a 
consideration which ought to influence the question of long leases, 
and that it is not wise in landlords to grant terms of twenty-one 
jears without protecting themselves by a corn-rent, 
76, Old Broad-street, London, April, 1862, 
