104 Monthly Agricultural Report. [Jan. 
import, cannot be overwhelming, and the capitalists will doubtless be cautious in that 
respect ; but should they hold back too long, and the new crop prove abundant, a re-action 
will certainly ensue, not at all to their advantage. The old English wheats have, as we 
always supposed they would, held out in ample quantity ; and even now the stock is not 
entirely exhausted. The best of the barley does not seem to have a good character for 
malting. 
- The straw yard, at present, is a mere nominal convenience in the country, cattle and 
sheep remaining still abroad, with abundant herbage springing under their fect ; and 
should the winter, in defiance of many prognostics, prove mild, the accumulated resources 
of straw, hay, and roots, will be at a discount exactly comparable with the premiums of 
less fortunate seasons. But the wary and provident husbandman will not be beguiled and 
led astray by casual occurrences ; yet we have heard not a few farmers complain of the 
trouble of storing mangold, an improvement of expression lately taught us by the 
“ Farmer’s Journal,” the literal translation from the German, of mangold wurtzel, being 
beetroot. The charge for keep of sheep has been from 8d. down to 4d. a head; and 
where this, in some seasons so precious an article, has been superabundant, flocks have been 
kept gratis for the sake of their manure. Turnips run too much to foliage to increase in 
bulb. We have before remarked on the vast quantity of latter made and ill got hay, and 
would remind the unlucky possessors of such, of that excellent improver of it, SALT, with- 
out which, in sufficient quantity, it may be highly injurious to sheep ; with it, the fodder 
will be eaten greedily by all stock. Store cattle, sheep, and pigs, continue to bear high 
prices : so high indeed, from the quantity of food to be consumed, that the graziers express 
great apprehensions on the score of repayment, complaining of the present prices for fat 
stock, and bemoaning themselves as the “ victims” of the butchers, who are said to be 
accumulating immense profits. Turn the tables, and we should expect to hear precisely 
similar complaints from the butchers. Hodie mihi, eras tibi. Turn and turn, all fair, no 
restriction on either side. But for the numbers of cattle from Ireland, the supply could not 
have been obtained. The roi in sheep has made an alarming progress, chiefly in the west ; 
and none can be safely trusted on any but high and thoroughly dry grounds. The salted hay 
will be of great use to the stock, with pea or bean haulm ; in fact, any but the shortest and 
dryest grass is dangerous in the case. Cows, before sufficiently dear, have been enhanced 
in price, from the demand for them as consumers of that grass which would be poison to 
sheep. The scarcity of draught horses, notwithstanding the extensive imports through a 
number of years, seems not to have abated, and prices continue nearly as great as ever. 
Good coach and saddle horses are in similar request throughout the country, although in 
the metropolis, many of apparent qualification are daily offered at moderate prices. Many 
common sense sales of English carding-wool have at length been made, the stock of moths, 
by especial contract, being thrown .into the bargain. A qualified observer of the South 
Down sheep at the late Smithfield Cattle Show, could have no possible hesitation on the 
wool question. This exhibition in days of yore, so attractive of the great, of late has to 
boast of few titled visitors ; of the inferior, however, and middling ranks, the squeeze is 
delightful. 
In some parts of the country which we have lately visited, chiefly eastward, we heard 
no complaints from the farmers, of either want of labour, or of distress among the labourers. 
The report was of an opposite tendency. But our correspondence in the west, and indeed 
general report, tell a very different and very alarming story. Wages are from 8s. to 12s. 
per week, and it is acknowledged by employers that men with families cannot possibly be 
fed and clothed upon such pay, and that already they begin to make serious complaints, 
and to express great alarm at the probability of an advance in the price of necessaries. 
Moreover, a vast body of roundsmen still subsists in various parts of the country, at a 
weekly allowance of 4s. or 5s. The case of our agricultural labourers is a most fearful 
one ; and fully impressed with that sentiment, the present writer directed his reflections 
toa plan, which might possibly afford some general and fundamental relief in the case ; 
the very character, in all probability, which would have ensured its ill success, had a public 
communication been made. The general prosperity of the country in respect to national 
opulence, the arts and sciences, and all the conveniencies and elegancies of life, is unques- 
tionably beyond all precedent, in any age or nation. But there is a cankerworm in the 
state, which corrodes its bowels, and which remaining unscathed, will ultimately sap the 
foundation of its prosperity. There is an almost general dissolution of morals, among the 
inferior classes. It has gradually arisen from various causes. With respect to the 
labourers in husbandry, the chief or immediate cause is most prominent. Too many of 
them, must either poach, steal, or STARVE ; or at least, support life in so deplorable a way, 
and under such circumstances of dereliction and contempt, whilst in the daily view of so 
much ease and comfort and happiness above them, that they must have the souls of negroes 
or Indians, not to be agitated by the most determined and furious desperation. The con- 
duct of incendiaries and the maimers and houghers of cattlk—Englishmen too !—is an 
appalling illustration. Neither the gallows nor Botany Bay, yet both of acknowledged ne- 
cessity,.can ever prove specific in this dreadful moral epidemy. Is it too much to say that 
our system is any thing rather than curative in the case ?—or, that the general disposition 
