Consumption ef Corn in Great Britain^ Sec. 305 



Cultivation of PVheat on Fallow Ground. 



/^. s. d. 



Rent and taxes for two years, 30s. per acre - - -300 



Four plougliiiigs and harrowings, equal to one ploughing, at los. per acre 



each time - - - - - - 2100 



Manuring, as part is produced on the farm, but every plough farmer must 



buy a part, say only - - - - - 1100 



Sowing, weeding, and harvesting, per acre - - - 100 



Threshing, marketing, and carrying out - - - o 15 o 



Interest of capital - - - - - -050 



Produce, 20 bushels per acre, over and above the seed, at g^. . 900 



Hence, for the farmer to be paid his expences, the average price must be gs, per 

 bushel, and to make it equal to grazing it must be 1 is. 6d, ; but the average price 

 for forty years, ending 1800, was only 6s. 2d.; and even for five years, ending 

 1800, only 8?, 4flf. although this latter period includes some of our dearest seasons. 

 This state of facts will surely prove the necessity of encouraging the growth of wheat 

 by all proper and possible methods. 



The ploughing, at i05. per acre, may be thought high, but I believe if a person 

 were to keep a team either of horses or oxen for that purpose, with constant em- 

 ployment at that price, he would not very quickly grow rich : the other expences 

 as charged are merely the price of labour; the interest of capital is charged double 

 upon grass land, as it requires more capital than for tillage, to procure good live 

 stock, which pays the best. 



As a collateral proof that the result of this calculation is agreeable to existing 

 facts and circumstances, it is well known that notwithstanding the occasional high 

 prices of corn, grazing has, upon the average, paid much better ; that the grazing 

 or stock farmers are generally (I believe uniformly) in much the best circumstances ; 

 that their profits are not only greater, but their business is attended with much less 

 care, labour, expence, and uncertainty; that they get rid of tithes; are less affected 

 by the change of weather in this changeable climate; and, upon the whole, are in 

 a more comfortable, a more plentiful, and a much belter situation, in general, than 

 the plough farmer. 



VOL. V. R r 



