adopted, as was the case in the late years of scarcity, for the prevention of evils infinitely more grievous than those of price.

I strongly suspect that a great and most material change in agriculture must have happened within the last fifty years. The exportation in common years, up to 1761, was nearly equal to the growth of three hundred thousand acres. The largest year of importa tion since 1790 was adequate to the produce of nine hundred thousand acres, very little short of a third of the whole growth of the kingdom. Estimating ten millions of people in England and Wales, and our colonies, to be fed with wheaten bread, and supposing one million to subsist on barley and oats at an allow ance of one quarter for the support of each person; three millions three hundred thousand acres must be annually cropped to answer their consumption. To this estimate must be added whatever grain is used in the manufactures, which may extend to the produce of eighty or a hundred thousand acres. A twelfth part of this quantity is calculated to be deficient, and annually imported. In average years this would require the growth of near 285,000 acres.

It cannot be doubted, that the increased population of the country has had its share in creating the deficiency; but I consider the great and principal cause to arise from the increase of commerce, and the decrease of tillage. The wealth acquired in our various branches of manufactures has been the means of advancing wages, by which numbers of hands have been drawn from the country into towns. The consequence of

this has been the entire change in their habits and modes of life; their former frugal manner of living is abandoned; and they are no longer, as heretofore, fed upon milk, cheese, and vegetables, with little or no animal food. Less than two acres and a half was THEN amply sufficient for the support of a labourer.

The whole body of manufacturers (as well as most of those employed in great towns) are since that period subsisted upon butcher's meat, with the constant use of malt liquor; and, there is too much reason to fear, the pernicious habit of using spirits is but too common amongst them. Five and a half acres of land will now barely suffice to furnish each person with the various articles of food and liquor. Supposing the number of manufacturers, and others connected with trade, to amount to three millions, to support them in the manner they now live, would require an increase of land, which (according to their former mode of life) would have supported an additional population of four millions. We must also add, as further causes of the deficiency, the great increase of our naval and military force; the waste of every article of prime necessity in the families of the opulent, multiplied out of number by our commerce. These combined causes have all contributed to increase the demand for animal food, and consequently to operate, with other causes, in lessening the growth of grain. The increase of butcher's meat in country markets, within fifty years, is prodigious. Meat that was provided only at particu lar seasons, is now weekly, if not daily, offered for sale throughout the whole kingdom.

The

But

The increase of numbers, as well as luxury, of the capital, is strongly exemplified by the following account of the sale of cattle in Smithfield 'market. for the improvements made in the different breeds of cattle, the quantity could neither have been produced nor fattened that is consumed there and in different parts of the kingdom.

The following Averages, computed at the distance of nine years each, show the number of Cattle and Sheep sold in Smithfield *:

Of Cattle. Of Sheep.

From 1732 to 1740, per ann. the average was 83,906 564,550

We are not informed of the average of the last seven years, but understand it considerably exceeds that of any former period.

The following is a comparison between the average weight of Bullocks or Oxen, &c. 100 years ago,

* Monthly Magazine, February, 1802, page 77.

Smithfield market has (taking the increased weight of the carcases into calculation) doubled the weight of flesh sold within fifty years. If such has been the increase in the capital, where luxury ever predominated, what must be the increased consumption of meat throughout the whole empire?

The late Doctor WALKER, of Collington, my much respected friend, has stated in his Communica tions to the Board of Agriculture, (vol. III. part I. page 16), that "a Scotch acre of good grass land, worth 40s. of yearly rent, will support and fatten five of our best sheep from the first of May to the first of November; during this time the sheep will increase in weight 6lb. per quarter, or 24lb." A Scotch acre is five roods; the produce of an English acre would be 96lb.

It is evident there requires some explanation to reconcile the above statement with the rents paid for grazing in various parts of the kingdom; for instance, in Northumberland and Durham, five pounds are paid an acre for grass lands miles distant from any many market-town; whilst Dr. Walker's profit upon an English acre amounts only to 31. 12s. This apparent contradiction does not arise from the different qualities of the land, but from the superiority of one stock over another in early maturity, and its propensity to fatten with a less quantity of food. I was highly gratified, and perfectly convinced of the high perfection to which they have brought their stock in Northumberland and Durham, by the communications of many valuable experiments

experiments made by various gentlemen of those counties.

It is the opinion of that very spirited and celebrated breeder and agriculturist, Mr. C. MASON, that their best grounds would carry five and six Leicester sheep for the six summer months, and that they would gain from 8 to 9lb. per quarter, or from 200 to 216lb and that the quality of land for laying on fat might vary from 36 to 216 lb. From other quarters I have been assured, that there are instances of short-horned cattle gaining 28 st. in four months, and 40 st. in six months, Allowing the latter beast to have had an acre and a half, the produce would be 378 st. per acre; this makes the increase on cattle nearly double that of sheep, when the very reverse is the case in feeding with turnips. This produce greatly exceeds the opinion of very scientific persons, who suppose 14 st. to be a fair estimate of what might be gained from one acre in grazing cattle; but so much, I am convinced, depends upon the animal, that it is almost impossible to fix any correct standard for general purposes. The long-horned cattle, for example, are such slow feeders, that they had led me to conclude, that but for the object of making manure, feeding paid nothing, and that it was impossible to purchase turnips at ten guineas an acre, to make profit of them.

The following interesting experiment, on the feeding of four Leicestershire ewes, was made by Mr. C. Mason. They were fed on turnips and cole-seed, from the 15th of August to the 4th of October, both days inclusive, or 51 days. The food was weighed