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relief?

To us it does not appear necessary that they should be exposed to either alternative. We would rescue them from the misery of subsisting upon an inadequate supply of food, or the degradation of eating, what they do not ask for, the bread of idleness. Employment should be given them: a field should be opened, in which, by the application of industry, they might be enabled to raise for themselves an abundant supply of the necessaries and conveniencies of life. But where is this field? The manufactures of the country are, on all hands, acknowledged to be full, even to overflowing: the population of the agricultural districts is said to be excessive. What is the remedy? Emigration emigration to the uncultivated wastes and unreclaimed bogs of Great Britain and Ireland. This is the species of emigration which we think it necessary at present to advocate. Here is an inexhausted field-here Nature offers us, at our own doors, a mine of wealth which, if properly worked, would furnish profitable employment for millions. To the people of this country we, therefore, say: if your limits have become too narrow, the remedy is in your own hands; enlarge your borders: you allege that the population has

1. Observations on the Cultivation of Poor Soils, &c. &c. By William Jacob, Esq.

2. An Account of the Poor Colonies of Holland. By a Member of the Highland Society.

3. De la Colonie de Frederick's-oord. Par le Baron de Keverberg.

4. First, second, third, and fourth Report of the Commissioners to inquire into the Nature and Extent of the several Bogs in Ireland, and the Practicability of Draining and Cultivating them.

5. A Letter to the Duke of Wellington. By an Englishman. 2 Q

VOL. I.

increased beyond the demand for labour: throw open to this excess your wastes and commons: you are now compelled to subsist a surplus population, in a state of unproductive idleness; remove them from the places districts where they will not only support which they encumber, and settle them on themselves by their own industry, but likewise prove a source of new and vast revenue to the state.

It is the manifest intention of the Author of Nature that the whole surface of the earth tilled. But this process of cultivation can should, in the end, become occupied and only proceed by slow and gradual steps. Nature herself slowly but certainly ameliorates the wastes of every country, and prepares them, by the time they are wanted, for the operations of husbandry. Her activity energy, preparing the room required for the never sleeps. She is ever, with unremitting habitation of her multiplying sons. The line of fertility is never a fixed and immovable barrier on the contrary, it is in every coun try constantly receiving a gradual extension. Enormous tracts of waste lands, which many centuries ago appeared barren and unfit for dered highly productive; they received a tillage, have been since reclaimed and rengradual accession of fertility from the hand of nature the decomposition of even the smallest plants, carried on through a long succession of years, formed at length a vegetable mould of sufficient thickness to lay the basis of a profitable system of tillage, and to allure the operations of the husbandman.

It is, we know, assumed by those who overlook the silent operation of the natural causes to which we have just adverted, no less than the history of tillage in this country, that the present unproductive state of our wastes and commons furnishes a conclusive proof that they are not capable of being reclaimed, except at an expense of food and labour greatly exceeding any return which could be anticipated. It is argued that the waste lands remain uncultivated because they are barren-because their cultivation would not yield an adequate return for the outlay required for their tillage. We cannot accede to this opinion; we contend, on the contrary, that every division of the British dominions contains extensive and valuable tracts of waste lands which are not naturally barren-which, in their present state, are comparatively unproductive because they are not tilled; which require nothing but tillage to render them productive, and would make an adequate return for any outlay which a judicious and industrious occupier might find it necessary to expend in reclaiming and cultivating them.

There are many very estimable persons who underrate the productive resources of the wastes of this country, while they greatly exaggerate the fertility of the British colo No. X.-JANUARY 3, 1829.

nies. They seem to imagine that nature has conferred on those distant possessions the gift of inexhaustible fertility. Experience teaches the North American farmer that no opinion can be more fallacious, or more surely lead to disappointment. Having removed the timber and underwood which encumber the soil, the cultivator, in the United States, obtains for a few years a succession of excellent crops; but if proper care be not taken to recruit its strength by fallowing or manuring, even this soil is soon reduced to a state of barrenness. There are few animals more destructive than man, where he conceives that his resources cannot fail. The Back-woodsman, having cleared a field, continues to plough it annually until it becomes so much exhausted that weeds choke up his grain. This compels him to give rest to the soil, and urges him to clear more land. The new conquest which he has made on the forest becomes speedily exhausted under the same Scourging system, and he is called upon anew to extend his limits. Hence, millions of acres of American land, which the first settlers cleared of wood, and found highly productive for many years, have been rendered, at least for a time, utterly barren by an improvident and exhausting system of husbandry.

Without going the length of asserting that the uncultivated wastes of the British Isles offer, in the first instance, so abundant a re source for the colonist as the wildernesses and woods of Canada, we will venture to say, that we possess at home large tracts of neglected land, covered by a depth of vegetable mould sufficient to render them available for the purposes of husbandry. We do not say that a very large proportion of the waste land of this country is not too barren to be cultivated with profit; but we run no risk in asserting that a considerable portion of it is, at this moment, sufficiently fertile to provide for the surplus population of which we all hear so much-provided its cultivation be undertaken on a proper system.

The intelligent author of the "Observations on the Cultivation of Poor Soils," well remarks, "that the practicability of achieving the object of bringing our worst lands to a degree of highly productive cultivation, and with enduring profit, after a course of years of perseverance, may be inferred from what has been performed in other countries at no great distance from our own. In the Netherlands, the district called Waesland, be tween Ghent and Antwerp, is a mere agricultural country. It is better peopled, better cultivated, and more productive than any other spot in Europe of similar extent. It was, in the time of the civil wars in Flanders, a mere sandy heath, without inhabitants, without cultivation, and without live-stock. *Our readers will find a detailed account of one of

the establishments here referred to at page 88, art."Pauper Colonies in Holland."—Ed. Ex.

The change has been effected by persevering labour through many generations; and the results of that labour are most strikingly exhibited in the fruitful fields, the beautiful cattle, the healthful and cleanly population, the comfortable residences, and all the other visible marks of rural prosperity."-P. 12.

In a memoir on the agriculture of the Netherlands, the Abbé Mann says, "It is well known that the Campine of Brabant, which is the northern part of that province, consisted originally of sand, covered with heath, interspersed with lakes and extensive marshes, and here and there with woods of fir. Tradition reports it to have been once a part of the sea. To this day, where cultivation has not extended, the soil of itself produces nothing but heath and fir; the sand is of the most barren and harsh kind, nor can it be rendered fertile but by continued manuring. As the property of this ground may be acquired for a mere trifle, many have been the attempts of private persons to bring tracts of it into cultivation; every means have been tried for that purpose, and government has given every possible encouragement to it. But I have not yet heard of any one, however considerable might be his fortune, that has succeeded in it, and many have been ruined by the project. What is cultivated in the Campine, is owing to the religious houses established in it, especially to the two great Abbeys of Tongerloo and Everbode. Their uninterrupted duration for five or six hundred years past, and their indefatigable industry, have conquered those barren harsh sands, and rendered many parts of them highly productive. The method they follow is simple and uniform ; they never undertake to cultivate more of this barren soil at a time, than they have sufficient manure for, seldom more than twelve or fifteen acres in a year; and when it is brought by labour and manuring into a state capable of producing sufficient for a family to live on, it is let out to farmers on very easy terms, after having built them comfortable habita tions. By these means many extensive tracts of the Campine are well cultivated and covered with villages, well built houses and churches. I may here add, and that from the undoubted testimony of the historians of the Netherlands, that the cultivation of these rich provinces took its rise from the self-same means eight hundred or a thousand years back, when they were in a manner one continued forest."Communications to Board of Agriculture, vol. i. p. 225.

These are things which have been accomplished in our own times by others, let us not despise their experience. In respect both to soil and climate, a large proportion of our own neglected districts are indisputably, and incomparably, more favourable for improvement than the heaths of Hanover, or the cold clays of the north of Holland.

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This estimate, founded as it is in some degree upon conjectural data, can only be considered as an approximation to the truth; but no man at all acquainted with the principles of fertility and the present state of British tillage, can for a moment doubt that a very large quantity of waste land is scattered over the different districts of this country, which is not only susceptible of improve ment, but which would yield an ample return for any amount of labour which could, for centuries to come, be spared from the cultivation of our old land. To be fully convinced of this fact, no man need do more than ride twenty miles in any direction from the metropolis. Let him select whatever road he may choose for his excursion, and he will find tracts of land, forming in the aggregate a very considerable quantity, which at this

moment remain in the hands of nature which man has never made the slightest effort to reclaim. Even the hebdomadal excursions of the citizen will conduct him over or near

many such scenes. What Gilpin, living within the sound of Bow-bells, does not know Epping and Hainault Forests, Hounslow, Putney, and Black Heaths, Brook Green, Turnham Green, Wandsworth, Esher, Sydenham, Hays, and various other Commons? Within a circle of twenty miles around the largest and most opulent city in the world, we thus discover a large quantity of land, which cultivation would render highly productive, but which, in its present state of waste, is of little or no value to the public. And this land, situate in the very outskirts of the metropolis, continues to be utterly neglected, if not entirely overlooked, at a moment when the whole kingdom resounds with the groans of those who argue that the population of this country has outrun the means of subsisting them. As the traveller advances in his journey from the metropolis, the wastes become more extensive, if not more numerous. Mr. Cowling considers the English wastes, which amount to about five millions of acres, more valuable than those of Ireland; and these again as more improvable than the Scottish

wastes.

He

For some reasons which he has not clearly explained, this gentleman seems to imagine that, although these wastes are all susceptible of improvement, still the enterprise would inevitably entail a loss upon the first undertakers. He therefore suggests that their improvement should be effected at the expense of the public; and that the loss which he contemplates as certain should be balanced against the saving in the poor rates, which the employment of paupers, for whose labour there is now no demand, would effect. argues thus: "You have now a surplus of labourers, whose maintenance imposes upon the poor rates a burden of two millions per annum; if you employ these labourers on the improvement of your wastes, you will be losers to the amount of one million per annum by the undertaking; but as the poor rates will be lessened two millions in amount, the public will be a gainer of one million by the undertaking."-Upon this point, we will venture to go beyond Mr. Cowling: we are convinced that there exists within the limits of our home territories a large quantity of waste land-a much larger quantity, indeed, than could be wanted at present-which would be profitable, not only to the public, as the means of reducing the poor rates (an object by no means to be undervalued), but also as a private speculation to the undertakers. That Ireland contains a vast extent of bogs, moors, and mountains, which are now barren and unprofitable, is a fact too well known to require proof; but that these neglected wastes are capable of being rendered,

nies. They seem to imagine that nature has conferred on those distant possessions the gift of inexhaustible fertility. Experience teaches the North American farmer that no opinion can be more fallacious, or more surely lead to disappointinent. Having removed the timber and underwood which encumber the soil, the cultivator, in the United States, obtains for a few years a succession of excellent crops; but if proper care be not taken to recruit its strength by fallowing or manuring, even this soil is soon reduced to a state of barrenness. There are few animals more destructive than man, where he conceives that his resources cannot fail. The Back-woodsman, having cleared a field, continues to plough it annually until it becomes so much exhausted that weeds choke up his grain. This compels him to give rest to the soil, and urges him to clear more land. The new conquest which he has made on the forest becomes speedily exhausted under the same Scourging system, and he is called upon anew to extend his limits. Hence, millions of acres of American land, which the first settlers cleared of wood, and found highly productive for many years, have been rendered, at least for a time, utterly barren by an impro. vident and exhausting system of husbandry.

Without going the length of asserting that the uncultivated wastes of the British Isles offer, in the first instance, so abundant a re source for the colonist as the wildernesses and woods of Canada, we will venture to say, that we possess at home large tracts of neglected land, covered by a depth of vegetable mould sufficient to render them available for the purposes of husbandry. We do not say that a very large proportion of the waste land of this country is not too barren to be cultivated with profit; but we run no risk in asserting that a considerable portion of it is, at this moment, sufficiently fertile to provide for the surplus population of which we all hear so much-provided its cultivation be undertaken on a proper system.

The intelligent author of the "Observations on the Cultivation of Poor Soils," well remarks," that the practicability of achieving the object of bringing our worst lands to a degree of highly productive cultivation, and with enduring profit, after a course of years of perseverance, may be inferred from what has been performed in other countries at no great distance from our own." * In the Netherlands, the district called Waesland, between Ghent and Antwerp, is a mere agricultural country. It is better peopled, better cultivated, and more productive than any other spot in Europe of similar extent. It was, in the time of the civil wars in Flanders, a mere sandy heath, without inhabitants, without cultivation, and without live-stock. *Our renders will find a detailed account of one of

the establishments here referred to at page 88, art."Pauper Colonies in Holland."-Ed. Ex.

The change has been effected by persevering labour through many generations; and the results of that labour are most strikingly exhibited in the fruitful fields, the beautiful cattle, the healthful and cleanly population, the comfortable residences, and all the other visible marks of rural prosperity.”—P. 12. In a memoir on the agriculture of the Netherlands, the Abbé Mann says, "It is well known that the Campine of Brabant, which is the northern part of that province, consisted originally of saud, covered with heath, interspersed with lakes and extensive marshes, and here and there with woods of fir. Tradition reports it to have been once a part of the sea. To this day, where cultivation has not extended, the soil of itself produces nothing but heath and fir; the sand is of the most barren and harsh kind, nor can it be rendered fertile but by continued manuring. As the property of this ground may be acquired for a mere trifle, many have been the attempts of private persons to bring tracts of it into cultivation; every means have been tried for that purpose, and government has given every possible encouragement to it. But I have not yet heard of any one, however considerable might be his fortune, that has succeeded in it, and many have been ruined by the project. What is cultivated in the Campine, is owing to the religious houses established in it, especially to the two great Abbeys of Tongerloo and Everbode. Their uninterrupted duration for five or six hundred years past, and their indefatigable industry, have conquered those barren harsh sands, and rendered many parts of them highly productive. The method they follow is simple and uniform; they never undertake to cultivate more of this barren soil at a time, than they have sufficient manure for, seldom more than twelve or fifteen acres in a year; and when it is brought by labour and manuring into a state capable of producing sufficient for a family to live on, it is let out to farmers on very easy terms, after having built them comfortable habita tions. By these means many extensive tracts of the Campine are well cultivated and covered with villages, well built houses and churches. I may here add, and that from the undoubted testimony of the historians of the Netherlands, that the cultivation of these rich provinces took its rise from the self-same means eight hundred or a thousand years back, when they were in a manner one continued forest."Communications to Board of Agriculture, vol. i. p. 225.

These are things which have been accomplished in our own times by others, let us not despise their experience. In respect both to soil and climate, a large proportion of our own neglected districts are indisputably, and incomparably, more favourable for improvement than the heaths of Hanover, or the cold clays of the north of Holland.

Mr. William Cowling, an eminent civil engineer and surveyor, furnished the Emigration Committee with the following general statement of the Territorial Surface of Great Britain, Ireland, and the adjacent islands. It exhibits the quantity of cultivated lands; the extent of wastes which he conceives capable of being brought into a state of cultivation; as well as of those which he considers unfit for the production of grain, vegetables, or grasses :

British Islands

Wales

890,570 2,226,430

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Ireland Scotland

and Gardens.

Arable Land

Marshes.
Pastures, and
Meadows,

109,630 274,060 5,389,040 6,736,240 4,900,000 2,416,664 | 19,441,944 2,493,950 2,771,050 5,950,000 8,523,930 19,738,930 530,000 1,105,000 4,752,000

-10,252,800 15,379,200 3,454,000 3,256,400 32,342,400

Statute Acres 19,135,990 27,386,980 15,000,000 15,871,463 77,394,433

1,66,000

569,469

1,119,159

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This estimate, founded as it is in some degree upon conjectural data, can only be considered as an approximation to the truth; but no man at all acquainted with the principles of fertility and the present state of British tillage, can for a moment doubt that a very large quantity of waste land is scattered over the different districts of this country, which is not only susceptible of improve ment, but which would yield an ample return for any amount of labour which could, for centuries to come, be spared from the cultivation of our old land. To be fully convinced of this fact, no man need do more than ride twenty miles in any direction from the metropolis. Let him select whatever road he may choose for his excursion, and he will find tracts of land, forming in the aggregate a very considerable quantity, which at this

moment remain in the hands of nature which man has never made the slightest effort to reclaim. Even the hebdomadal excursions of the citizen will conduct him over or near many such scenes. What Gilpin, living within the sound of Bow-bells, does not know Epping and Hainault Forests, Hounslow, Putney, and Black Heaths, Brook Green, Turnham Green, Wandsworth, Esher, Sydenham, Hays, and various other Commons? Within a circle of twenty miles around the largest and most opulent city in the world, we thus discover a large quantity of land, which cultivation would render highly productive, but which, in its present state of waste, is of little or no value to the public. And this land, situate in the very outskirts of the metropolis, continues to be utterly neglected, if not entirely overlooked, at a moment when the whole kingdom resounds with the groans of those who argue that the population of this country has outrun the means of subsisting them. As the traveller advances in his journey from the metropolis, the wastes become more extensive, if not more numerous. Mr. Cowling considers the English wastes, which amount to about five millions of acres, more valuable than those of Ireland; and these again as more improvable than the Scottish

wastes.

He

For some reasons which he has not clearly explained, this gentleman seems to imagine that, although these wastes are all susceptible of improvement, still the enterprise would inevitably entail a loss upon the first undertakers. He therefore suggests that their improvement should be effected at the expense of the public; and that the loss which he contemplates as certain should be balanced against the saving in the poor rates, which the employment of paupers, for whose labour there is now no demand, would effect. argues thus: "You have now a surplus of labourers, whose maintenance imposes upon the poor rates a burden of two millions per annum; if you employ these labourers on the improvement of your wastes, you will be losers to the amount of one million per annum by the undertaking; but as the poor rates will be lessened two millions in amount, the public will be a gainer of one million by the undertaking.”—Upon this point, we will venture to go beyond Mr. Cowling: we are convinced that there exists within the limits of our home territories a large quantity of waste land-a much larger quantity, indeed, than could be wanted at present-which would be profitable, not only to the public, as the means of reducing the poor rates (an object by no means to be undervalued), but also as a private speculation to the undertakers. That Ireland contains a vast extent of bogs, moors, and mountains, which are now barren and unprofitable, is a fact too well known to require proof; but that these neglected wastes are capable of being rendered,

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