64 



CULTIVATION OF WASTE LANDS. 



Committee to be profitable lands. Nearly the whole of the 

 waste land in Ireland is reclaimable ; three millions of which, 

 that are equal to five millions of English acres, can be brought 

 to produce a rental of 11. per acre^ at an outlay not exceeding 

 lOZ. per acre. Thus," says Mr. Burn, " in the cultivation 

 of the land, Sheffield and Birmingham must send their spades, 

 their pickaxes, and their draining tools ; the wheelwright must 

 find ploughs, harrows, and carts ; the iron-founder must 

 supply the plough-coulters and the axletrees; the saddler 

 must put on the harness; Wolverhampton must supply its 

 chains, Walsall its bits and ornaments; the carpenter must 

 put up the gates with tools from Sheffield, and hang them 

 with the hinges and padlocks of Staffordshire ; the hedger and 

 ditcher who enclose the ground, and the ploughman who 

 brings it into cultivation, are clothed by Stroud, Manchester, 

 and Leeds; their hats come from Newcastle-under-Line, their 

 half-boots from either Northampton or Stafford ; they take 

 their breakfast out of a basin furnished by the Staffordshire 

 potteries ; Sheffield finds the knife, Birmingham the spoon ; 

 the merchant traverses the ocean to bring their coffee and 

 sugar; the engineer finds a coffee-mill, in which the turner 

 furnishes a handle," &c. &c. 



" The cultivation of the waste lands would undoubtedly 

 subsist our paupers, repeal the poor rates, and enable the 

 cultivators to afford provisions at such a price as would enable 

 our manufacturers to compete with foreign nations, without 

 ruin to the agriculturist, the government, or the public. Cer- 

 tainly no remedy could be more injudicious than the clamour 

 recently raised for the importation of wheat, as though we could 

 draw none from our native soil. Even without making the 

 attempt, we set ourselves down for ruined without the aid of 

 importation. Like Rome, we conclude that we must find 

 another Egypt to supply us with wheat. Why, the land of 

 our fathers, which has fed us more than a thousand years, is 

 now concluded to be ruined by an overwhelming population,, 

 which, by the last census, is under twenty millions ! and a free 

 importation, which would throw all the land in England out 

 of cultivation, is said to be the only remedy! No wonder such 

 an awful remedy should meet with a direct negative by the 



