r 49 j 



seasons with a single plowing, has been occasionally 6 qrs. per acre. 

 The consequences of chis wretched husbandry, with regard to the 

 soil, are too apparent to v particularize, and too absurd and ruinous 

 to need any further comment. I shall only subjoin, had a distinct 

 farm been made in this case, 7 per cent, would have been paid for 

 the buildings, exclusively of an increase of rent of upwards of 100/. 

 per annum, and the land under a proper lease, instead of its present 

 reduced rent of 10s. or 12s. per acre, would have attained a perma- 

 nent value of a guinea per acre. 



The 5th objection involves two distinct relations : 



1st. Deterioration of the quality of wool. 



2d. Dimunition of its produce by lessening the number of sheep, 



With respect to the first, by way of preliminary, it may be ne- 

 cessary to enquire, to what degree has this deterioration of quality 

 manifested itself by a reduction of price on wool from sheep of the 

 same species, fed on improved and cultivated lands, or on common and 

 waste lands ? Was this point, so essential to the present discussion, 

 ever ascertained by fair and accurate experiment ? If not, the ob- 

 jection is wholly hypothetical. If it have, the result ought not 

 only to be known, but established as data to argue from. Nothing 

 of this kind however, has fallen within my observation ; I must 

 therefore proceed assumptively, and grant, for the sake of investi- 

 gation, a deterioration of quality as far as six-pence in the pound by 

 depasturing sheep, which afford the finest English v/ool on cultivated 

 land, instead of waste or barren. If the concession as to price be 

 sufficiently liberal, let us enquire how far the public, or indivi- 

 duals, are obnoxious to injury therefrom. The clothier may mix 

 somewhat less of- this sort of wool with Spanish, the better to dis- 

 guise the alteration in quality ; or if used by itself, some very trif- 

 ling difference in the texture or feel of the cloth might be the con- 

 sequence. But if the alteration be universal, in neither point of 

 view, could any particular clothier, nor the trade collectively, be 

 affected by it ; and it is at least probable, the public at large would 

 not be endued with sufficient knowledge of the manufacture to de- 

 tect it, 01 if they did, would regard it as too frivolous to merit 

 notice. Allow for a moment, the finest English wool to be 

 worth 2s. per pound, from sheep fed on commons or waste land;, 

 and is, 6d. if fed on cultivated land. In the former case the ma- 



nufaclurer 



