380 



KURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND. 



quently of twice the size.* Where two families of culti- 

 vators were unable to exist, one may henceforth live in 

 comfort. Potatoes and oats, which had been grown 

 to excess, may now be reduced within proper bounds. 

 Present wants being now less urgent, more thought may 

 be given to the future. The four-course system may be 

 more extended, and with it rural prosperity, of which it 

 is the token. Meadows and pastures, hitherto neglected, 

 begin to receive the attention they merit, and which they 

 ought to repay a hundredfold. Ireland will again become 

 what she should never have ceased to be the Emerald 

 Isle par excellence that is to say, the finest grass coun- 

 try in the world. Cattle, which were never sufficiently 

 encouraged, because the population could not obtain 

 enough to feed themselves, will now find a more abun- 

 dant alimentation. Farming, in place of desperately 

 seeking effects without causes, may at length, by substitut- 

 ing an ameliorating in the place of an exhausting system, 

 be taken up at the beginning. Wages being no longer 

 unduly depressed by a superabundance of hands, labour 

 becomes more productive and better paid ; and, provided 

 the impetus imparted to manufactures and commerce for 

 the last few years is maintained and increased, the over- 

 crowding of the fields need no longer be feared, even 

 should population rise again to its former level. 



* DECREASE OF HOLDINGS FROM 1841 TO 1851. 



Parliamentary Papers. J. D. 



