334 Monthly Agricultural Report. [MARCH, 



nml beath-tops getting into use, but the expense is complained of. No remarkable variation 

 in either the cattle or horse markets. Fat euttle sell readily and well, and good horses are 

 fetching Spring prices. 



The accounts from Lincolnshire, that great cattle and sheep district, are more distressing 

 nnd of a deeper unfortunate interest than from any other part of the country. The Lincoln 

 farmers ore not only suffering from, it may be called a total loss of their turnip crop, of 

 hue years their great dependence, but from want of water for their live stock, after having 

 had the most ruinous experience of the same wants during the summer. Many of thnin 

 during that period, from the parched and desolate state of their lands, were under the 

 necessity of putting out their stock to keep, in the adjoining counties, where, numbers of 

 the sheep being in a starved and exhausted condition, were suddenly destroyed, instead of 

 being improved by the luxuriance and goodness of the pasture. Thousands of store sheep 

 -tnd lambs, mere skeletons, were either lost, or sold at a few shillings each. But even 

 this first loss was besr, for the calamity is still raging in this ill-starred country, for, 

 particularly in the vicinity of Horncastle, multitudes of cattle and sheep, and many horses, 

 are perishing through want, farmers losing six or eight beasts, two or three horses, or 

 twenty or thirty sheep per week. Hay they have none, and the straw of last year was 

 necessarily short in quantity and defective in substance. Here is a powerful call 

 upon the liberal patronage of landlords ; and it is a public object of no slight impor- 

 tance, that the lands in I incolnshire, on which water is ruinously deficient, be 

 thoroughly examined by boring, and that every feasible means be resorted to, for obtaining 

 ihat indispensable article, in a country which produces so much of the national 

 provision. 



Those, however, are temporary calamities, the unavoidable chance of the seasons ; our 

 duty leads us to advert to one of infinitely more melancholy and serious consequence, and 

 which seems at length, but too plainly, to have cast off its former presumed temporary and 

 local character. From the appalling numbers of farming labourers out of employ, through- 

 out the country, it can no longer be doubted, that the number is too great, both of our 

 agricultural and manufacturing hands ; and, from the circumstances of the country, that 

 number must continue to multiply, whether under the influence of good or ill success. No 

 doubt but systematic errors, not to be here discussed, have mainly contributed to this end ; 

 and as little doubt remains that, in the ultimate, no efficient remedy can be found but in 

 EMIGRATION, or rather, colonization ; and that not in temporary and partial acts, but in 

 a regular national system, continuous and permanent. The introduction of this principle, 

 and the experiments on the small and exploring scale, will form a prominent wreath of the 

 laurels of our patriotic administration, who, strange as it may seem to former experience, 

 appear really solicitous for the public good, and to be struggling hard in its promotion. 

 The laborious assiduity and enthusiasm of Mr. W. Horton does him signal honour, both 

 as a politician and as a man. The experiments, however, have had their critics and re- 

 provers. , As if men who attempt the wild and the wilderness, must colonize on velvet. Our 

 colonists, it seems, were annoyed by musquetoes. Were musquetoes then, new settlers 

 in America? Mercy on us, this is surely enough to remind a reader endowed with any 

 tolerable share of the animal rinibile of the old punishment of being fast bound to a. 

 daisy and baited by butterflies. But what are the stings of natural and buzzing musquetoes, 

 in comparison with the cruel and deadly goadings of the metaphysical musquetoes of 

 destitution, hunger, and famine ? If numbers have perished from casualty, in the brave 

 attempt to earn subsistence and property in a foreign land, it did but save them, in all 

 probability, from dying ignominously at home, the slow and lingering death of starvation. 

 This materially points to unfortunate Ireland, the seat, during ages, of foul oppression. 

 Ireland where, in some parts, " men have noplace in which to bide the head and sleep, 

 but the bog, and nought to cover them but sedge ; and when those who can find any 

 employment, must exchange their labour for three-pence and five-pence a day." Instead 

 of vainly seeking an impossible remedy iu those unnatural restraints, which are the disgrace 

 and ridicule of political economy, let this surplusage of the people be constantly and 

 gradually exported to fruitful countries, where the loud cry of the wilderness is for human 

 inhabitants, and where they may cheerfully, and without risk, fulfil the old and sacred 

 injunction increase and multiply ; and where, in due time, they may, by their 

 consumption of manufactures, and their commerce, amply reward their mother country, 

 for the fostering care of its administration. Has it not been the course iu all ages, for a 

 superabundant population to seek refuge and sustenance in foreign lands? 



Smithfield.Beef, 4s. 2d. to 5s. 4d. Mutton, 3s. 6d. to 4s. 8d. Veal, 5s. to 5s. lOd. 

 Pork, 4s. 6d. to 5s. 8d. Dairy-fed, 6s. to 6s. 4d. Raw fat, 2s. 6d. 



Corn Exchange. Wheat, 40s. to 66s. Barley, 36s. to 45s. Oats, 24s. to 42s. 

 Bread, 9 Jd. the 4 Ib. loaf. Hay, 75s. to 112s. Clover ditto, 90s. to 130s. Straw, 30s. 

 to 42s. 



Coals in the Pool, 28s. 40s. 



Middlesex) February 19th, 18.27. 



