( 3^8 ) Aug. 



BRANCH III. 



Agricultural Intelligence. 



The fpring quarter, fo unpropitious to fee J- work, vnz follo\ved by 

 a month of genial weather, feldom rivalled in this idand ; which en- 

 abled the wheats to tiller a^id fiourifn ; puflied on tlie pallures and 

 young clovers with groat rapidity, where plants were not wanting ; and 

 vegetated all the fpving-fown grains In a much more cou-jplete way 

 tlian could have been expeded, coiifidcring the fituation of the ground 

 and the ftate of the weather when they were dcpofitod. Even the 

 months of June and July, on the whole, proved favourable to rural 

 profperity. The fulleil opporturiity was given for dreAing the tur- 

 nip fields and naked fallows ; and though drought has operated with 

 fevcrity in fevv^ral diftricls, and ftunt^d the cropt-, yet; taking the quar- 

 ter upon the gr^^at fcale, it muft be pronoujiccd a favourable one to the 

 hufhandman. 



Markets for grain, as generally expe(?\ed, have advanced confiderdbly 

 of late, though, as ufual, the market of the metropolis P'tnained long- 

 cf^ ill an equable flatc. Iniportatioas from abroad, chiefly of wheat 

 and oats, have at the fame time gone regularly forward ; which fub- 

 ftantiatcs, in the m6ft: fatisfadory way, the doclrine uniformly main* 

 tained in this work refpc*6ling the dependence which Britain, under ex- 

 ifting circumllances, mull have upon foreign countries for a fupply of 

 corn. The crop of 1803, Uridly fpeaking, was by.no means a fhort 

 one, or below a fair average ; and yet tlie produce thereof has been 

 found unable to fupply our wants. What does this inculcate ? It in- 

 culcates, in the ftrongelt manner, that an increafed attention to home 

 agriculture is necelTary, that the people may be fed independent of fo- 

 reign fupply, wiTiich, at the beil, mull neceflarily turn out a lofing trade. 

 This increafed attention is now fliev/n by the Legiflature, in changing 

 the rates at wliich foreign importations can be made duty free ; which, 

 undoubtedly, to a certain extent, will give fupport to home agriculture. 

 More, however, muft be done, before fubfiaiitial and permanent en- 

 couragement is enjoyed. The legal obflacles which retard the cultive- 

 tion of common and walle lands muft be removed ; bccaufe in them 

 the mod: effedtual refoUrce for fupplying the exilling deficiency is only 

 to be obtained. If a fyftem was adopted which allowed the old 

 arable land to be thrown into grafs, and permitted the paftures to 

 be opened, as often recommended in this publication, then full fup- 

 plies might be procured upon reaionable terms. The mode of living 

 now pra^lifcd in Britain calls for a more abundant iupplv of every' ar- 

 ticle. Laying the increafed population altogether afide, v.-e may fairly 

 fuppofe that the mcreafed C(Mifumpt of wheat as bread food, and of 

 oats for fupporting horfes, requires, at lead, one fi)urth more cultivated 

 land than was nect-fiary a century ago. If we add tc, this the increafed 

 demand for butcher meat, which of courfe lefiens tlie bieadth of culii- 



'•ate5. 



