The total amount of capital invested is £4500, of which £2500 is sunk upon improvements. According to the first estimate, the annual return, exclusive of 5 per cent per annum for repayment of the sum sunk, would be £548, or at the rate of about 12-1/5 per cent. According to the second estimate, the annual return would be £45, 10s., or at the rate of about 1 per cent per annum upon the same sum. I shall be glad to allow my name to be affixed to Mr Dudgeon's statement, as attesting, in so far as my experience goes, the accuracy of it. My estimates and his very nearly correspond; but as every one has his own method of making up such statements, I take the liberty of handing along with it this detail of my own. In all, excepting in regard to the value of live stock, or produce of grass and turnips, we nearly agree; and this difference may be accounted for, because no part of farm produce varies so much in its return as that of the live stock. Upon such a farm as that which is taken as an example, sheep and cattle are not wholly reared upon the farm, but part are bought in to fatten; hence the returns depend upon three circumstances,--1st, upon the crops of turnips and grass being less or more abundant; 2d, upon the price of lean stock; and, 3d, upon the price of fat. While, therefore, the butcher market may be very high, the feeder may not necessarily be well paid,--and hence, in making up returns under this head, a correct average is not easily ascertained; and as there must always be a difference of opinion among practical men upon this part of the subject, I think, for publication, Mr Dudgeon's method of stating the returns _in one sum_ is preferable to giving them in detail. JAS. ROBERTON, LADYRIG, _13th Dec. 1849_. No. V. STATEMENT of the ANNUAL CHARGE against, and RETURNS from, a 400 imperial acre Farm in Mid-Lothian--on an average of ten years previous to free trade in corn and cattle;--with a comparative statement of the Returns of Produce from the same farm under the present free-trade measures affecting agriculture. The farm alluded to is managed on the four-course shift--the whole straw, turnips, and clover being consumed on it, and an average number of stock fattened. Rent of farm, 400 acres at 45s. per acre, £900 0 0 Interest on sunk and floating capital, 240 0 0 Expenses of management, wages, tradesmen's accounts, extra manures, grass and clover seeds, and miscellaneous expenses, 817 0 0 Casualties in stock, and fire insurance, 40 0 0 Public and parish burdens, 40 0 0 __________ Total yearly charge, £2037 0 0