INTRODUCTION. : xV 
Such natural confequences of high rents will of courfe 
operate’ as a check on the fuppofed evil; but as the nation 
mutt fuffer by all the intervening damage and impediment, 
it is a fubje&t which requires clofe animadverfion, founded 
on increafe of knowledge, drawn from mature and extenfive 
furveys of national facts.* 
It is fair to conclude, that few inflances of connecting 
{mall farms into large have occurred, under an apprehenfion- 
that the general produce would be leffened; and many 
refpetable advocates for large farms aré not wanting to 
contend, that the quantum of produce is not on the whole 
diminifhed. But the proof of the pofition muft be allowed 
by its ftrongeft advocates to be rather conjectural than de- 
monftrable; and the prattice is defervedly unpopular.— 
Some refpect will doubtlefs ‘be confidered as due to popular 
prejudice, efpecially in a critical period; and it is hoped by 
* The writer, who in thefe remarks alludes as well to facts which 
he has feen, as to thofe reported to him by other perfons, was for- 
cibly ftruck in one of his iaft journies in a fouthern county, with an: 
inftance of difadvantage to the landlord and the country, from an 
extenfive farm'being in the hands of an adventurous half-bred far- 
mer ata high rent, or at arent too high for the degree of improye- 
ment the farm feemed to have previoufly received. ‘This man, une 
filled and improvident, was beggaring the foil-by random experi- 
ments on a large fcale, and a moft flovenly courfe of management. 
His charaéter, as a mafter, fo bad that men would’ not work for him 
if they could find employ any where elfe. Broken carts, wheels, and 
implements, were lying about under his hedges, as forornament; and 
by report of his neighbours, the bailiffs were then in hishoufe. He 
had a leafe of a bargain he was unable to manage, perhaps juft long 
enough toruin himfelf, and half ruin the farm. Now had the fame; 
farm been divided and let, after a little improvement, to two real 
farmers, even for more money—or, on an encouraging leafe, to one 
really good farmer with fufficient capital, at the fame rent, how 
widely different would have been the profpect! 
numerous 
