WASTE LANDS AND WASTE WATERS. 161 



to what available source of })rofit for the owner, 

 and food for the labouring classes, could be got 

 out of them. 



The only article of food that could be deduced 

 from them is the wholesome meat of rabbits, at 

 present so largely consumed by the labouring 

 classes in cities, towns, and country, and without 

 which food, at the present price at which the 

 farmer and the butcher sell their mutton, yeal, 

 and beef, they and their families must go tcithotit 

 any meat at all. 



Now this is an incontrovertible fact, and one 

 well worth looking into for many reasons, as a 

 certain class of agricultural orators, if tlieii' speeches 

 deserve that name, essay to fix the name of ^' useless 

 vermin" on the rabbits — on the animal, in fact, 

 which supports millions of poor people, and 

 undersells tJie farmer ! 



There is, to my mind, a vast deal in this latter 

 fact as to prices of meat, and it is one that legis- 

 lators would do well not to forget when the 

 pretended or mistaken advocates of cheaper food 

 for the people try to take from them that by 

 which so many of them live, and which many 



farmers dislike, because they knotv that but for 

 VOL. n. M 



