CONDITION OF AGRICULTURE. 313 



port 5,997." And notwithstanding this vast increase of pro- 

 duction, it is now said that in Wales the land does not yield 

 one-half it is capable of producing, and that if all England 

 was as well cultivated as Northumberland and Lincoln, it 

 would grow more than double the quantity that is now pro- 

 duced. 



The present condition of her agriculture is decidedly in 

 advance of any State in Europe, unless Belgium and some 

 portion of Upper Italy be exceptions. Her immense produc- 

 tions are obtained from an area of less than 123,000 square 

 miles ; an extent of territory which is exceeded by that of 

 Virginia and Missouri combined, and she supports her immense 

 population of 27,619,866, being about 225 to a square mile, 

 with the productions of her own soil, aided by an importation 

 whose greatest annual average for ten years, including the year 

 1849, was only 2,588,706 quarters, being at the rate of three 

 pecks for each individual ; whilst for the decades ending in 

 1820 and 1830, the importation was but one-fourth of that 

 quantity. It is worthy of remark that, whilst during the thirty 

 years preceding 1841, the centesimal proportion of families 

 engaged in agriculture in England was thirty-five and a frac- 

 tion, it has now fallen below twenty-six, showing that the 

 quantity of food for the production of which seven families were 

 formerly employed is noAV produced by five families. From 

 1801 to 1810 the wheat raised in Great Britain is computed to 

 have sufficed for 11,168,779 of her inhabitants. From 1841 

 to 1849 the home-grown wheat has supplied 17,004,118 persons. 



The causes of this great increase of agricultural production 

 in the British Empire deserve the careful study of every person 

 interested in husbandry. The facts are beyond dispute. The 

 results are seen in the increased wealth of the nation, and in 

 the generally improved condition of her population. And the 

 importance of the question forces itself upon every mind inter- 

 ested in the prosperity of the human race. 



The English writers attribute much of this advancement 

 to the large holdings of land in the hands of rich men, and 

 the consequent employment of a large capital in the radical 

 improvements which have been made in reclaiming and 

 draining marshes and waste lands, — to the scientific analysis 

 of her soils, to the application of portable manures, and to 



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