196

LAND OCCUPIED BY FARMER:

attention, the interest of his capital, and all the expences ofcultivation ; and nothing can be more absurd, than to talk ofany proportion of produce, as a fair rent in every situation.An extensive sheep farm, in the second district, and a goodcorn farm in Berwickshire or the Lothians, yield not onlydifferent rents per acre, but very different proportions of theproduce of the soil. Two shepherds are sufficient to attend athousand sheep on 1500 acres of land ; but an arable farm of1500 acres requires not only a far larger capital, but a greaternumber ofservants, of horses, and offarm implements An acreof sown grass, and an acre of onions, must also pay differentproportions of their produce as rent; and all fertile and levellands, can pay a much higher proportion of their produce,than what can be paid from a poor soil with a great declivi-ty. There is therefore no fixed relation between produceand rent.

From a variety of causes, the rent of lafid paid to the pro-prietor, is higher in Scotland than in England. But in com-paring the English and Scottish rents, it is necessary to dis-tinguish between the rent received by proprietors, and therent paid by farmers. The Scottish proprietor receives allthe rent which his lands can afford, out of which he pays theclergyman, the land-tax, and where there are assessments, one-half of the poor’s rates : But the church and the poor dividethe English rents with the proprietor, often in equal portions*which makes the real rent paid by the farmer, in both countries,more nearly equal than is generally imagined. Within the last30 years, the rent of good arable farms in Scotland has beendoubled, and in many cases tripled, while the land-rents in thesister kingdom, though raised in many places, have not increas-ed in the same proportion. The Scotch farmers, in general,have leases for nineteen years or more; and are not liable tothe great tithes or poor’s rates. Where they are subject to as-sessments for maintaining the poor, or small sums in lieu ofvicarage tithes, both these charges are very trifling. Hence aScotch farmer, especially in those counties in which the farms