supplying Milk for the Poor. 137 



such a saving of land as would accomplish this desirable object. Each acre so em- 

 ployed, as I have endeavoured to show, might be made to produce seven limes 

 the quantity of food raised from an acre of hay or pasture. The advantages derived 

 from green crops, upon the present narrow scale, must be considerable : in what 

 state would the agriculture of Norfolk and Suffolk be without them? Supposing 

 the green crops in Great Britain to amount annually to a hundred and thirty or 

 forty thousand acres, this would add a sixteenth part to the whole provision of the 

 cattle and sheep. 



Assuming the calculation to be sutBciently accurate for my purpose, which sup- 

 poses England and Wales to contain about forty-eight millions of acres, and that 

 twenty-one of these are under pasture for horses and cattle; I conceive a million 

 and a half of acres might be taken from the lands in pasture, and brought under 

 rotative crops, in aid of what is so applied at' present. 



I cannot entertain an apprehension, with the capital possessed by Great Britain 

 that any serious inconvenience could result to our general commerce, by the ap- 

 propriation of such a sum as might be necessary to bring the lands so taken into 

 cultivation ; though I have heard such arguments gravely urged as an objection to 

 a general inclosure. I should have no doubt of the means, and as little of the 

 spirit of enterprise, provided it was clearly ascertained that the capital so em- 

 ployed would be equally profitable with other branches of commerce. To procure 

 in the first place, the additional number of hands that this extended cultivation would 

 require, might be attended with some difficulty ; but should the consequences of 

 the encouragement given to agriculture prove a temporary check to our increasing 

 manufactories, or even lessen the number of hands now so employed ; so far, in my 

 humble opinion, from its being injurious to the interests of the empire, I believe 

 it would be found to promote them. I do, however, apprehend the hands neces- 

 sary might be found without any interference with trade. Might not numbers of 

 industrious hands be procured from the Highlands of Scotland, who, wanting em- 

 ployment, are obliged to emigrate to America ? Numbers also might be drawn from 

 Ireland, without any injury to its present state of agriculture and commerce. 

 Should it cost the public half a million to settle the persons so collected in villages 

 in different parts of the kingdom; could such a sum be better employed? the 

 bounties of a few months would soon be swelled to a larger amount. 



The increased demand for labour, with the means of subsistence at a reasonable 

 VOL. V. T 



