74 



believe ; the best mixed soil arable land would be ten 

 years before it could be converted into productive 

 pasture land, good strong land would be twenty 

 years, poor strong land would be half the allotted 

 period of human life, and poor light land, when laid 

 down for permanent pasture, would soon revert to its 

 original sterility,, and that all descriptions of land, 

 during nearly the whole of these respective periods, in 

 its progress to this state, would yield much less value 

 of produce; therefore, tenant-farmers, unless the rents, 

 during this progress, were exceedingly reduced to 

 compensate them for the decreased productiveness of 

 the land, would not undertake to lay down arable 

 land to grass, for they would be ruined if they did. 

 Yet the author, whose opinions I have been alluding 

 to, says, that the immediate demand for other pro- 

 duce, not corn, would make up for the loss of the 

 demand of corn ; but, even if it did, which is not 

 very probable, and can only be proved by experience, 

 and a bitter experience it might be ; but, even if it 

 did, the land would not be in a state for years to fur- 

 nish the supply even if the nature of the soil were 

 generally adapted to the production of grass and 

 esculent vegetables ; the productiveness of the land 

 would be so reduced, that landlords, during the inter- 

 val, might receive little or no rent, and tenants very 

 low profits, and the capital employed in the cultiva- 

 tion of grain as horses, implements, &c. would be in 

 a great measure destroyed, and both landlords and 

 tenants would be severe sufferers. I am inclined, too, 

 to think that such will be the case with the agricultu- 



