On the Means of Improving a Country. 505 



agriculture, including artificers, amounts to 895,998 ( IJ ); 

 that owing to the number of servants employed by farmers, 

 each family cannot be estimated at less than six, or about 

 5,400,000 souls in all ; and that besides the numbers who 

 are directly dependent on agriculture for their subsistence, 

 there are several millions indirectly connected with it ; we 

 must be sensible that too little encouragement has been given 

 to agricultural exertions, and that the attention of the pub- 

 lic at large, has hitherto been too seldom directed to the im- 

 provement of the soil, or to the interests of those who culti- 

 vate it. 



The number of persons employed in trade and profes- 

 sions, assessed to the property-tax, stood thus : 



No. of Person*. 



1. Persons in trade and professions under L. 50 per an-) ^^ 7go 

 nura, and thence exempt from the tax, J ' 



2. Above L.50 and under L.150, 117,306 



3. From L.150 to L.1000, 31,928 



4. From L.1000 and upwards, 3,692 



152,926 



Total, 253,686 



Consequently, there were 474,596 actual contributors to 

 the property-tax, among the agricultural classes, and only 

 152,926 in trades, and all other professions, making the 

 number of actual contributors connected with agriculture, 

 more than all the other classes put together, 321,670. 



These statements must satisfy every impartial individual, 

 that the strength and resources of this country, principally 

 arise from the productions of the soil ; that the land, is the 

 basis of our national wealth ( ia ); and that on the amount, 

 and the value of its productions, our commerce and manu- 

 factures, and the payment of the public creditors, in a great 

 measure depend. The revenues of the church, by far the 

 largest proportion of the payments to the poor, and va- 

 rious other public charges, are likewise payable from the 

 same source. Hence, nothing can be more impolitic, than 

 to neglect the adoption of any measure, by which the inte- 

 rests of agriculture may be promoted ; or more hazardous, 

 than to take any step, by which its prosperity can be im- 

 paired, or those who live by it, reduced to poverty or ruin. 



The means for promoting the agricultural prosperity of 

 the country, therefore, merit our peculiar attention ( l3 ). 



It has long been considered as an incontrovertible propo- 

 sition, and approaching to the nature of an axiom, " That 



