6 
Land Valuing. 
he gives a table to show the proportion of rent to produce on 
different qualities of laud. He admits that experienced valuers 
do not in practice make use of such calculations, and that their 
estimates often agree within Is. per acre ; but he seems to think 
that less-experienced persons should test their opinions in this 
way. But further on he admits that it will require great jn'actical 
experience to enter on these needful calculations. 
Othei-s have entertained the same idea, and there can be no 
doubt that the difference between the produce and the expenses 
incurred must, in the end, regulate the rent that a farmer can 
afford to pay. 
Such calculations are very interesting, and 1 have often made 
them for my own satisfaction ; but I am firmly convinced that 
they can never be carried out with sufficient accuracy to form a 
practical guide to the land-valuer, and I know that this is also 
the opinion of several eminent valuers, with whom I have con- 
versed on the subject. Indeed, my chief object in submitting 
this paper to the Society is to point out the fallacy of expecting 
relia])le practical results from this source. 
The produce of a farm depends very much on the way in which 
it is managed, and a slight error in the estimate of the produce 
will materially alter the result of the calculation. Many men 
can calculate to a nicety the yield of a crop before harvest ; but 
who can accurately estimate the produce of a farm during a series 
of years ? 
The same remarks, though in a less degree, apply to the esti- 
mated expenses ; and by such calculations as these almost any 
given result may be arrived at. The course of cropping habitually 
pursued in a district may in some instances be a valuable general 
indication of the quality of the soil ; as where a tract of alluvial 
land continues to produce large crops under a rotation which 
would ordinarily be regarded as "scourging," we may safely infer 
that it contains extraordinary supplies of fertilising matter — a 
conclusion which will be confirmed on an examination of the soil 
itself. 
But, after all, the true value of an article is what it will fetch 
in the market ; and I see no reason why this principle should 
not apply to the rent of land as to everything else. Not that the 
fair rent is the highest sum that some reckless speculator can be 
induced to give for it, who will probably get all he can out of it 
for a few years, and then leave it in deteriorated condition, but 
that amount of rent which can readily be obtained from a sub- 
stantial, respectable tenant during a series of years. Such men • 
will not give so high a rent for a farm as will deprive them of 
the means of living; on the other hand, competition will induce 
them to give as much as they can afford. In this way the rent 
