This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1844 Excerpt: ...in money. Sometimes they are valued in kind; that is, the tenant engaging to pay so many bushels of wheat, or so many bushels of barley, or such amount of other products; but in these cases, also, the landlord usually receives his rent in money according to the current prices of these articles. The rents are paid in semi-annual payments. The fair rent of land is sometimes estimated at a third of its products; by some, a different rule is adopted, which is, after all the expenses of cultivation and the usual assessments are deducted from the gross proceeds, that the balance remaining should be divided equally between the landlord and the tenant. In general, however, as far as my observation has extended, the rate of rent is not determined by any particular rule, other than that which prevails in most commercial transactions, that each party makes the best bargain for himself that he is able. It is only just to add that in all the cases, without exception, which have come under ray remark, there has seemed to me, on the part of the landlords, the highest measure of liberality; the rents in general bearing a small proportion to the legal interest of the money at which the lands are valued, and for which they could be sold at once; lands costing,£60 sterling, or 300 dollars per acre, being frequently let for 80s. or £2 sterling per acre, that is less than eight or ten dollars per acre. We are not well satisfied in the United States with a return from our land under five or six per cent, on its cost; but the landlords here seldom obtain more than two-and-a-half per cent, or three per cent, on the price which the land would command, if brought into the market. The low rents which are obtained show 2 D the abundance of wealth, and how greatly an investme...