Consumption of Corn in Great Britain, Sec. 315 



about the usual crop under good management, would produce, if wholly applied to 

 that purpose, 746 lb. of pork or bacon, which is more than 2 lb. per day for a 

 whole year, and a good supply for four persons ; also if 30 lb. of potatoes give one 

 pound of pork, worth upon the average 6d. then a bushel of 80 lb. is worth 15.4c/. 

 applied to this purpose ; also farther, an acre of potatoes will supply 730 lb. of 

 pork or bacon, which is half a pound each per day for four persons for a year, 

 and leave 500 lb. weight of potatoes to spare, which with vegetables from the 

 garden, would be sufficient vegetable food for four persons through the year. 



The principal, and heaviest labour in the above culture, would be the digging 

 for and setting the potatoes ; if done by hand work, this upon the half acre would 

 take a man a fortnight; all the other labour might be done by the man at odd 

 times, or by his wife and children. 



Cow ground has also been proposed for labourers : this I think should be con- 

 fined to the more steady and deserving; and as cultivated crops would interfere too 

 much with the man's time, should be confined to grassland only ; two acres of good 

 grass land, or a flat of about 100 yards square, with a small hovel, or cow shed in 

 the middle, would support a cow; the grass should be mown, and carried to the 

 shed on a wheelbarrow or in baskets, and the manure made by the cow returned to 

 the land, no part of which would, upon this plan, lay much more than fifty yard' 

 from the shed. The man might mow a short swath in the morning, and the land 

 round the shed be applied to summer keep, and that more distant reserved for hay; 

 the cow would be fed and managed by the wife and children, and might be asistcd 

 occasionally by potatoes. 



Single cows kept in this way would not, I believe, answer to make cheese, 

 but would produce butter in the same proportion as more together : and would 

 supply milk to the neighbouring poor much more regularly than they are now 

 supplied, as farmers who make cheese do not care to lessen their quantity of milk, 

 and therefore dispose of none by sale. 



I do not propose this system upon the principle of giving labourers a right 

 to demand land and cows, as this might give a kind of premature independance ; 

 take them off from labouring for others, and thus encourage idleness, and con- 

 sequent poverty; the execution of such plan must be left to the benevolence of the 

 land propnecor, who by adopting it and preferring the most deserving, might hold 



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