PREFACE. 



xi 



manure for land, and food for cattle. At all events, it 

 is certain that a high price for the common necessaries 

 of life cannot be sustained ; that profits upon land must 

 be derived from increased production ; and that farmers 

 ought no longer to hold out against the adoption of new 

 systems of improvement. 



The soil, and the poor, are, through the dispensation 

 of Providence, talents committed to our charge, for the 

 abuse or neglect of which we are accountable. As 

 stewards over these great trusts, it is incumbent upon 

 us to render them subservient to the public weal. This, 

 an enlightened philanthropy will acknowledge, science 

 point out the way, and an increasing population enforce. 

 The requirements of the people include raiment as well 

 as food ; and it is a question whether the cost for labour 

 in providing the former is not greater than that for the 

 latter. Our soil and climate are adapted to the culti. 

 vation of other crops besides wheat, barley, and turnips. 

 Could we grow cotton, the nation would be richer by all 

 the sums now sent abroad for that article : but as such 

 an undertaking would be fr'uitless, why should not our 

 attention be turned to the culture of flax? — a plant for 

 which, including the seed, oil, and cake, 400,000/. per 

 week are expended with foreigners ! 



The object of my book is to show that all this money 

 might be circulated at home to the improvement of 

 the soil and to the advancement of the poor. The 

 League points to our half-cultivated fields, and tells 

 us that we are cumberers, not tillers, of the ground. 

 Reflective and patriotic minds admit the justice of the 

 accusation, and feel that the stigma ought to be removed. 

 But how to accomplish this desideratum is a problem 



