[ 273 ] 

 tice of hiring more land than they ought : 

 To be a farmer of two or three hundred 

 pounds a year, is very flattering to the va- 

 nity of him who mould occupy but an 

 hundred. And this circumftar.ee, uniting 

 with the falfe idea of much land, much 

 •profit, occafions their acting fo very con- 

 trary to their intereft. I mould alfo obferve, 

 that this miftaken conduct is of the utmoft 

 prejudice to the intereft of the ftate; 

 for the public pofTerTion of a diftrict per- 

 fectly cultivated is of as much national 

 value as one of twice the extent but indif- 

 ferently cultivated : Suppofe a rich farmer 

 keeps an hundred cows, five hundred (heep, 

 and fifty fatting beafts on a given number 

 of acres; the circulation of that buiinefs 

 we will call of 50 /. profit to the public. 

 Now it is very clear, if a poor farmer hires 

 the fame land, and underftocks it by hal£ 

 that the national profit v/ill be but 25 /. 

 Every cow, ox, and fheep is profitable to 

 the nation, and the cultivators of the foil 

 not being pofTefTed of fufficient fums to ltock 

 their farms completely, reduces the number 

 of cattle, and confequently diminimes that 

 profit which arifes to the ftate from the 

 pofTeffion of circulating riches. 





Vol. IV. T LET\ 



