212 on manufactures and agriculture. Dec. vt. 
ment in point of population and general industry is 
much diminifhed. yam 
From what has been already said, it is evident, 
‘that when great wealth is acquired by a temporary 
demand for manufactures, the farmer finds it his in- 
terest, in the first place, to diminifh, as much as pof- 
sible, the number of hands he employs, although, by 
doing so, he be certain of diminifhing the total pro- 
duce of his farm ; and in the next place, by getting 
a high price for meat and delicacies, he finds it his 
interest to rear a much greater proportion of ani- 
“mals, and lefs corn, than formerly. But as a field 
under judicious culture, will, in all cases, produce a 
much greater quantity of human sustenance, than 
when employed in rearing animals, it happens, that 
in this way the total amount of human sustenance,, 
raised in the country, may be prodigiously dimi-. 
nifhed ; while agriculture, on a superficial view, 
seems to be in a more thriving state than before’; 
that is, while the farmer lives better and pays more: 
rent than formerly. . 
In this way we .are easily enabled to solve the 
difficulty that so much puzzled the Lords of Trea- 
sury two years ago to account for; wx. to reconcile 
the idea of the prosperous state of agriculture in 
this country, for some years past, to the facts they 
discovered, that the actual produce of the country 
in corn, had been, during that period, considerably 
dimin ifhed. 
From the facts above stated, we fhall also be en- 
abled to account for another phenomenon, that has 
afforded much matter for speculation during the 
