Breaking vp Grass Land. 
509 
the usual number of cattle and sheep, will produce in one year a 
return of about G/. per acre, i. e. it will fatten U oxen of 60 stones 
each upon 8 acres ; and allowin^r an increase of 1 2 stones each, 
equal to ] 3i stones per acre ; will, at 7s. per stone, leave a return 
of 41. 14s. 6d. in beef, to which add the value of mutton and 
wool made during autumn and winter, from 2 sheep per acre 
at 12s. 9d. each; total 61. per acre, which estimate would, upon 
a yearly general average, be considered high. An acre of the 
best grazing land will produce then 13^ stones of beef, and 
stone of mutton, and 5 lbs. of wool, of the total value of 6/. per 
acre. If the same acre of land is converted into tillage, it will 
produce 12 tons of potatoes or 5 qrs. of wheat every alternate 
year through a course of 21 years, so that it is as 12 tons of po- 
tatoes, or 5 qrs. of wheat to 1 5 stones of meat and 5 lbs. of wool 
per acre ; and similar results in point of produce would arise 
from all the inferior grass-lands being broken up. This part of 
the subject claims the most serious and careful consideration. 
The quantity of arable land in the United Kingdom amounts to 
46,522.970 acres, and of grass 15,000,000 acres. It can be 
most satisfactorily proved that grass land, under arable culture, 
will produce twice as much food for man, besides finding him a 
vast amount of profitable employment; and, therefore, it becomes 
a question of the highest national importance. Nearly all the 
grass-lands are broken up in the most thickly peopled coun- 
tries; in China, in Belgium, and others, with the happiest effects. 
The growing wants of this country demand that every facility 
ought to be given to promote this astonishing improvement in its 
agriculture ; the population, increasing as it does at the rate of 
1000 per day, must be provided for — it must he fed, and the- 
most strenuous efforts are required, and must be made, to supply 
the daily consumption, and that at as cheap a rate as possible. 
This supply resting mainly with the landowner or his tenant, 
it is of some consequence to show that the interest of the one and 
the profit of the other will be best promoted by the conversion of 
grass-lands into tillage — this has already been done and needs no 
repetition, but for the great difficulty in convincing the farmer 
that it is to his interest to manage so as to continually improve his 
land, and in this way benefit the landlord as well as himself ; and 
it is only in this way that he can do it, and that the landlords in 
general would be induced to allow their grass-lands to be broken 
up. The farmer must adopt and practise high farming — he must 
lay out much capital in cullivation, manure, and drainage ; his 
profit depends upon this — the soil must be replenished and kept 
up to the mark ; culture will do much, but manure will do more, 
and neither will be decidedly effective without good drainage. 
The poorest soils will give the largest proportional returns for 
2 M 2 
