supplying Milk for the Poor. 143 



wheaten bread, one million supposed to subsist on barley and oats, and allowing a 

 quarter for the support of each person ; three millions three hundred thousand 

 acres must be annually cropped to answer their consumption. Beyond this esti- 

 mate must be added whatever is made use of in manufactures, which may extend 

 to the produce of eighty or a hundred thousand acres. A twelfth part of this 

 quantity is calculated to be deficient, and annually imported. In average years 

 this would require the growth of near two hundred and eighty-five thousand 

 acres. 



It cannot be doubted, that the increased population of the country has had its 

 share in creating the deficiency ; but I consider the great and principal cause to 

 arise from the increase of commerce, and the decrease of tillage. The wealth ac- 

 quired by our various branches of manufactures has been the means of advancing 

 wages, by which numbers of hands have been drawn from the country into towns. 

 The consequence of which has been the entire change in their habits and modes of 

 life; their former frugal manner of living is abandoned; they are no longer fed 

 upon milk, cheese, and vegetables, with little or no animal food. Less than two 

 acres and a half -wViS then amply sufficient for the support of a labourer. 



The whole body of manufacturers (as well as most of those employed in great 

 towns), are since that period subsisted upon butcher's meat, with the constant use 

 of mail liquor, and, I fear, the pernicious habit of using spirits is but too common 

 amongst them. Five and a half acres of land will barely suffice to furnish them 

 with the various articles of food and liquor. Supposing the number of manufac- 

 turers and others connected in trade to amount to three millions, to support them 

 in the manner they now live, would require an increase of land, which would (ac- 

 cording to their former mode of life) have supported an additional population of 

 four millions. We must also add, as further causes of the deficiency, the great in- 

 crease of our naval and military force ; the waste of every article of prime necessity 

 in the families of the opulent, multiplied, out of number, by our commerce. These 

 combined causes have all contributed to increase the demand for animal food, 

 and consequently to operate, with other causes, in lessening the growth of grain. 

 The increase of butcher's meat in country markets within fifty years is prodigious. 

 Meat, that was provided only at particular seasons, is now weekly, if not daily, 

 offered for sale. ^ 



