C "o ] 



and ploughing will correft itfelf. If arable land be 

 laid down, there is a great deal of coarfe old pafture 

 land which may be broken up, the turf of which 

 wants renewing; and this old grafs land, which could 

 not fo well have been fpared before, is, of all land, 

 that which is mod adapted to the growth of pota- 

 toes, hops, hemp, and flax. The markets will ever 

 regulate the proportion of arable and grafs land, 

 better than any fixed plan that can be fuggefled. 



If we properly confider the benefits refulting to 

 population from inclofing, (though that, as well as 

 the advantages which might be derived from com- 

 mons, has been fuperficially queftioned) it will ftrike 

 us with aftonifliment. Let the population of Eng- 

 land be compared with what it was fifty years fince, 

 and I-prefume it will be found increafed nearly one 

 third. If I were afked the caufe, I fhould fay, that 

 I believe it is chiefly from inclofing ; and my reafons 

 for it are, that in all places where my obfervation 

 has come, it carries full proof. 



I have feen the effects in many parts of England; 

 but I fliall fubjoin one ftriking inftance in this 

 county. The parifh of Felbrigg, belonging to Mr. 

 Windham, confifts of about 1300 acres of land, 

 and till the year 1771, remained time out of mind 

 in the following Rate : 400 acres of inctefed, 1 00 of 

 woodland, 400 of common field, and 400 of common 

 or heath. By authentick regiflers at difiJerent pe- 

 riods, it appeared that the number of fouls had 



never 



