ACTUAL IMPROVEMENTS IN ENGLISH AGRICULTURE. 159 



well as his neighbor, provided he does not hinder that neighbor 

 from coming in the best way he can obtain, any more than 

 there is why the distant farmer should be compelled to come on 

 foot, and bring his load upon his back, instead of availing him 

 self of his horse or his carriage ? 



5. INCREASED PRODUCTION. But in speaking of the ad 

 vanced and improved state of English agriculture, there are, 

 perhaps, stronger evidences of its progress than any to which 

 I have referred, in the increased productiveness of the fruits 

 of the earth, and in the increased population which are sus 

 tained by them. 



In the ten years from 1801 to 1810, the average annual import 

 of wheat into the kingdom was such as to allow, if divided 

 among 17,442,911 souls, the population of the kingdom at that 

 time, a small fraction over a peck for the annual consumption of 

 each person. The average amount imported between 1811 and 

 1820, when the mean number of the population had advanced 

 to 19,870,589, would have allowed each person not quite one 

 gallon and a half for the yearly consumption. The average 

 amount of importation for the five years from 1831 to 1835, 

 when the mean number of consumers was over 25,000,000, 

 if fairly divided, would have given to each person one gallon 

 of wheat. Taking the three years 1833, 1834, 1835, the im 

 portation would have allowed only one pint and one fifth, or 

 about fifteen ounces, of fine flour to each consumer.* 



This is certainly a very small amount, and demonstrates the 

 immense agricultural resources of the country. It shows as 

 strongly the improvements in cultivation, by which, under a fast- 

 increasing population, the dependence on a foreign supply for 

 bread is continually growing less. This can only arise from two 

 causes, the bringing more land into cultivation, and a more im 

 proved cultivation. Both causes have probably operated to a 

 degree, and of the latter the evidences are every where numer 

 ous and striking. 



I was asking a farmer in Berkshire county, England, vener 

 able as an octogenarian, whether he had seen any great im- 



* See an admirable work, full of information Porter s Progress of the 

 Nation, Vol. I. p. 147. 



