Estimate lettveen Grass and Aralle Lands. lea 



cmand, and the additional expenses upon every agricultural 

 instrument, the rise of poor rates and the high price of la- 

 Jbour, the farmer must receive at least one-third more from 

 rthe produce of his farm. Should this be effected by such 

 .an additional price on the articles of necessary consump- 

 tion, the wages of our manufacturers must be such as to 

 oblige us to give up all competition in foreign markets, and 

 our trade will decline. But I am thoroughly convinced that 

 ihe landlord may enjoy his increased rent, and the farmer 

 not only cat the fruits of his own labours, but acquire 

 .a competency for his family, by an improved method of 

 husbandry^ without any increase on the average price of the 

 necessaries of lil'e, taken for ten years previous to the^e 

 seasons of dearth. These, my lord, you and the Board 

 will feel to be subjects of the utmost national importance. 

 In a letter to the Bath society I affirmed that the savins of 

 ■Geed corn by tlie general use of drilJmg would amount to 

 iive million pounds sterling annually.; and that, by the in- 

 crease of crop, and a judicious application of that crop, par- 

 ticularly of the straw, which when good is preferable to bad 

 or indifferent ihay, an addition to the produce of the lands 

 now in cultivation might be made to .amount, with the seed 

 :Corn saved, to fifteen miUion pounds sterlings and so carc- 

 iul was I not to exceed the bounds of truth, that I am fidly 

 persuaded my calculation is beloy/ Vvhat inight, be effected, 

 by cHie-half. May the laudable exertions of such patriotic 

 noblemen as yourself, and your intelligent predecessor lord 

 Somerville, be crowned with success ! and may our ao-ricuJ- 

 lural improvements and internal resources keep pace with 

 tlie increasing demands w hich :t}ie necessities of the times 

 must occasion ! 



A compcir/itive Estimate leiwefiii Grass and Aralic L^nds. 



Though I have demonstrated, by actual and extensive ex- 

 periments, the advantages resulting fr<*m a judicious mode 

 of converting lands exhausted by tilbge into meadow and 

 pasture, yet X do not allow that lands under tillage for any 

 number of yearH nmft necessarily be in such an exhausted 

 state as to jnake .this plan requisite : on the contrary, I am 

 fully persuaded that all lands capable of cultivation will, if 

 well tilled, fairU- cropped and dressed, be in a progressive 

 state of improvement^ and not only produce a better rent to 

 Xhe landlord, and pay tvvaity times as much to the producr 

 live labourers, but also yield a nmch greater profit to the oc- 

 cupier lluu the ^mc jiumber of acres in grass. Fine rich 

 M 4 picadows 



