272

ON THE EUKAL ECONOMY

It must also be understood, that the land is not only of agood quality, but in such a state as admits of regular ma-nagement ; that no extra expenditure is required for erectinghouses and fences, for clearing the soil of stones, for drainage,or for embankment; but, on the contrary, that every neces-sary accommodation has been provided, and every consider-able impediment removed. It is well known that in Scot-land , tenants, even upon leases for nineteen years, actually ex-pend considerable sums for some or all of these purposes:and that there are few farms which, for the first four or sixyears of a lease, produce such crops as fully replace all thecharges incurred by the cultivator. Hence, besides the or-dinary cxpences to be exhibited in this section, there is in mostcases an extra expenditure, or loss by deficiency of produce, orboth, to be apportioned over what may be called the produc-tive years of a lease, and which must be replaced with the profitsof capital, by an augmented produce, and by the price of thatproduce. It is impossible, however, to ascertain the amountof this debt, unless in particular instances. In the subsequentcalculations, lime alone is brought into the account, becauseof its very general application, once at least in every periodof nineteen or twenty-one years, except a farm be so situ-ated, as to obtain the aid of other manures not less expen-sive.

There is one circumstance which renders it a matter ofsome difficulty to state with accuracy the expences of cultiva-tion, even upon any particular farm, though under a specifiedcourse of management, and still more to extend such calcula-tions to the arable land of Scotland generally. This difficul-ty arises from the uncertain value of the home consump-tion, which not only varies in price in different years andsituations, but, as the articles must in general be estimated,without being brought to a public market, the only sure testfor determining their value, different farmers may value thesame articles differently.