[ 377 ] 

 fame land at very high ones, who make 

 fortunes. If land is cheap, it will be held 

 cheap. I have no doubt but if the beft clay 

 land in England was any where to be had 

 at 6 d. an acre in large quantities, but the 

 culture of it would fo much degenerate, as 

 to be inferior to the poorer! foils let at 

 their value. We actually fee this to be the 

 fact wherever lands are to be had much un- 

 der their value ; for I have univerfally obferv- 

 ed, that particular farms, which I have, in 

 my journey, remarked to be moil wretchedly 

 managed, have, on enquiry, been found to be 

 much under let ; and I have often heard the 

 fame obfervation made by many gentlemen 

 particularly attentive to thefe matters. But 

 it is rare to fee land very high let, badly 

 cultivated ; indeed, the very circumftance of 

 high rent is a caufe of good hufbandry ; for 

 without it the farmer mud be ruined. They 

 are very fenfible, that when a great rent is 

 paid, they mud either gain good crops, or 

 ftarve; and this general idea is fo flrong, 

 as to make them uncommonly induftrious ; 

 and to exert all their abilities in cultivating 

 their farms in a mafterly manner. When 

 you fee a man with three or four hundred 

 pounds a year, with not more than as many 

 acres for it ; you may lay it down as a maxim, 

 previous to walking over his farm, that it is 

 well cultivated 3 that the arable lands are 



tolerably 



