32 AGRICULTURE. 



Nor is her management of cattle better. " Con- 

 sidering the domestic animals in a general way, 

 we find each species, and almost every race, capa- 

 ble of great improvement, and, with few exceptions, 

 the sheep much neglected. In some districts are 

 whole races of cattle capable of improvement, with- 

 in a reasonable time, in the three great objects which 

 they are expected to yield, viz., milk, flesh, and la- 

 bour."* We now add some of the causes to which 

 this defective husbandry has been ascribed : " to 

 enumerate all would be impossible, from their num- 

 ber and complication."! 



" 1st. The commons, or unenclosed grounds, which 

 in many places amount to near one half of the whole 

 arable land, and which are submitted to the most ab- 

 surd and ruinous system of culture. "J 



" 2d. The terms, amounting to personal servitude, 

 under which many of the lands are held." 



"3d. The shortness of leases given by corpora- 

 tions, civil and religious, and by individuals, and 

 which seldom exceed three, Jive, or seven years, ex- 

 cepting in the counties of Norfolk, Sussex, Essex, 

 and Kent, where, with great advantage to both land- 

 lord and tenant, they are frequently extended to 

 twenty-one years." 



" 4th. The tithes in kind, paid by the farmers to 

 the church ; a tax highly vexatious in its character 

 and oppressive in its effects : and, 



" 5th. The poor tax, which has become enormous, 

 and of which the yeomanry pay three fourths. Of 

 this tax it has been truly said, that it is a powerful 

 instrument of depopulation; a barbarous contri- 

 vance for checking all national industry. " 



* Marshal, vol. iv., p. 575.* 



t Dickson's Practical Agriculture. 



% Idem. 



$ Young's Tour through Ireland, vol. ii., p. 302. 



* Since Marshal, Dickson, and Young wrote, England has 

 done more to improve the breeds of cattle and sheep, except the 

 fine- woolled, than any other nation or country. J. B. 



