of the Waste Lands of the Kingdom. 203 
incapable of doing much work, more especially in labour out of 
doors, must likewise be acknowledged: but when the subject is 
thoroughly investigated, it will not probably be denied by the 
candid and impartial inquirer, that if a portion of the poor, who 
are now in a state of perfect idleness, were employed in culti- 
vating portions of our waste lands, now in a barren and useless 
state, much public benefit might be expected. 
To explain how that can best be accomplished, is the object of 
the following hints : 
Several years have elapsed since the author of this paper was 
first led to discuss this most interesting subject*. His attention, 
however, has of late been more particularly called to it, in con- 
sequence of an application from the church-wardens and oveiseers 
of one of the most populous parishes in London (St. Martin in 
the Fields), requesting his opinion ‘¢ on the practicability, and 
the probable advantage of directing the Jabour of the poor to the 
cultivation of the waste lands throughout the country; and whether 
a considerable number of the able poor might not be profitably 
employed in carrying on some great agricultural object, so as to* 
render us independent of foreign supplies tor subsistence.’’—(See 
Appendix.) 
In answer to that application, it was briefly stated, that no 
doubt could be entertained, as a general maxim, that the best 
source of occupation, for the greater proportion of the idle poor, 
is the soil. That if the poor are employed in manufactures, or in 
making up manufactured articles, as shoes and clothes, with which 
the market is already supplied, they must interfere with the in- 
dustry of other workmen, who would soon be reduced to poverty, 
and that consequently mischief rather than good would arise from 
such a system.—Whereas, while there are such extensive tracts 
of waste land all over the kingdom, and more especially in the 
neighbourhood of the metropolis, and while we are under the ne- 
cessity of importing food from other countries, our agriculture 
cannot be too much extended. 
The author then added, “ | know that great prejudices are en- 
tertained against the employment of the poor in husbandry; but 
that is altogether owing to the wart of information and of expe- 
rience. Those who have examined the husbandry of Flanders, 
must have seen how much manual labour is there employed in 
cultivation. Parochial farms are successfully carried on in the 
neighbourhood of Cranbrook in Kent, an account of which I 
* See the History of the Revenue, 3d edition, vol. iil. p. 276, printed an. 
1804, where there is a plan for employing the poor, in the cultivation of 
the waste lands, and in repairing the highways of the kingdom, 
transmitted 
