Consumption of Grain in Great Britain, Sec. 325 



the same purpose; these three may be labourers: also three other labourers, for 

 threshing, fencing, draining, planting cabbages, and various kinds of improvements 

 and other work ; this makes six labourers, or about double the number now gene- 

 rally employed upon the same breadth of land, and upon the present system of 

 practice. If we suppose each labourer upon the average to have a wife and three 

 children, this makes 30 persons in addition to the farmer's family of 12 ; total 42. 

 And by making allowance for harvest-men, wheelwright, blacksmith, collar-maker, 

 and other employments dependant on agriculture, we may suppose one person to 

 four acres employed or supported by agriculture, nearly equal to the present whole 

 population; and, by their labour, an equal or greater number over and above 

 themselves may be supplied with subsistence, and employed in trade, manufactures, 

 and conmierce. 



Considering the present population of England alone as - 8,000,000 

 The agricultural population is, as stated before, - - 3,680,000 



And the commercial population _ _ « 4,320,000 



And considering the present state of the country respecting waste lands, imperfect 

 culture and management, want of capital, energy, and numbers employed, I think 

 there can be no doubt but that a double number, properly employed upon the 

 above proposed system, which I suppose to be that of our best present agriculture, 

 would support a double commercial population, with more regularity and certainty, 

 than our present population is supplied; as all things become more regular and 

 permanent, the nearer they approach to regular system. 



And I suppose that by a still more operose system of hand cultivation, by in- 

 creasing canal navigations and machinery, by a more general growth and use of 

 fruit hquor, and thus rendering horse labour, in land carriage, in the cultivation of 

 barley and in commercial affairs less necessary, and their species less numerous ; 

 by introducing potatoes, or preparations from them, more generally into the diet 

 of the more numerous classes, and thus lessening the individual consumption of 

 wheat, by increasing vegetable diet ; extending fisheries, and lessening the indivi- 

 dual consumption of butcher's meat; by a gi cater produce per acre of wheat, in 

 consequence of such more attentive culture; by the introduction of new dietetic 

 vegetables; and by a combination of these and other means, that a still farther very 

 great increase, perhaps another doubling of the population of the island, may be 

 gradually admitted, and equally well supported. 



