CAROLINE

I HAVE been reflecting much upon the subject of revenue, Mrs. B.; but I cannot comprehend how farmers can afford to pay their rent if they do not make more than the usual profits of capital. I had imagined that they began by raising greater produce from the same capital than merchants or manufacturers, but that the deduction of their rent eventually reduced their profits below those of other branches of industry.

MRS. B

You were right in the first part of your conjecture, but how did you account for the folly of farmers in chusing a mode of employing their capital which after payment of their rent yielded them less than the usual rate of profit?

CAROLINE

I believe that I did not consider that point. I had some vague idea of the superior security of landed property; and then I thought they might be influenced by the pleasures of a country life.

MRS. B

Vague ideas will not enable us to trace inferences with accuracy, and to guard against them we should avoid the use of vague and indeterminate expressions. For instance — when you speak of the security of landed property being advantageous to a farmer, you do not consider that in the capacity of farmer a man possesses no landed property; he rents his farm; if he purchases it, he is a landed proprietor as well as a farmer. It is not therefore the security of landed property which is beneficial to a farmer, but the security or small risk in the raising and disposing of his crops.