AGRICULTURE TO A NATION. 11 



these advances, no other old-settled country furnishes any 

 parallel. That they have been very rapid indeed, the 

 following figures and comparisons abundantly show : In 

 1760, the total growth of all kinds of grain in England 

 and Wales, was about 120,000,000 bushels. To this 

 should be added, perhaps, 30,000,000 for Scotland — 

 making a total of 150,000,000. In 1S35, the quantity in 

 both kingdoms could not have been less than 340,000,000 

 bushels. In 1755, the population of the whole Island 

 did not much, if any, exceed 7.500,000. In 1831, it 

 had risen to 16,525,180, being an increase of 9,000,000, 

 or 120 per cent. ! Now, the improvements in agriculture 

 have more than kept pace with this prodigious increase 

 of demand for its various productions ; for it is agreed on 

 all hands, that the 16,500,000, or rather the 17,500,000, 

 (for more than a million has been added since 1831,) are 

 much fuller fed, and on provisions of a better quality, 

 than the 7,500,000 were in 1755. Nor is Great Britain 

 indebted at all, at present, to foreign markets for her 

 supphes. Since 1832, she has imported no grain worth 

 mentioning ; and till within the last six months, prices have 

 been so exceedingly depressed, as to call forth loud com- 

 plaints from the wdiole agricultural interest of the country. 

 England is, at this moment, so far from wanting any of 

 our bread-stuffs, if we had them to export, that she has 

 been supplying us all winter liberally from her own grana- 

 ries ; and, according to the latest advices, she has still 

 bread enough, and to spare. Again, it is estimated by 

 British writers, of high authority, that the subsistence of 

 9,000,000 people costs, in raw produce, no less than 

 £72,000,000, or <£8 for each individual, per annum. 

 According to this estimate, the annual product of this 

 great branch of national industry is ,^350,000,000 more 

 at present than it was in 1755 ; which is more than 

 twice the value of the whole cotton manufacture of the 

 country, in 1831. Now if it costs $350,000,000 to feed 

 the increased population of 9,000,000, then to feed the 

 present population of 17,500,000 must cost near 700,- 

 000,000 ! What an amazing agricultural product for so 

 small a territory ! And yet it is the opinion of practical 



