14 ENCLOSING, FENCES, GATES,' 
they will afford less food and employment for mankind 
than in the present state. 
And the probability is, that such land, if its staple 
be good enough to form a rich feeding pasture, will be 
thrown to grass, because rich pasture land is managed; 
with so much less trouble and expense by the occupier, 
and generally pays him better. 
According to my calculation the produce of an acre 
of good land, in beef or mutton, will be consumed by 
an individual at a moderate allowance in a year ; but 
the produce of an acre of wheat from good land, will 
serve four persons for a year. 
Mr. Oldacre says, “ in regard to new enclosures, I 
have known farms not worth the old rent after an en¬ 
closure, and I have known others nearly double the 
rent; but this must principally arise from the high or 
low price they were let at before the enclosure took 
place: it can hardly be said to have paid common in¬ 
terest for the expense attending it in this neighbour¬ 
hood. Where a proprietor had several small farms, 
to save the expense of dividing into small pieces, and 
repairing a number of old buildings by turning the 
whole into one, he may perhaps find an advantage. 
In poor lands, when enclosed, the quantity of corn 
will increase; but in good land, the quality will be 
injured by the fences, and the quantity not increased, 
but most likely, by converting to pasture, diminished. 
There is certainly an opportunity to improve stock 
by enclosing.” 
The size of enclosures varies, most farmers wish to 
have their land divided into eight or ten parts, or 
more, according to the nature of the soil. The expense 
of first planting and fencing the quick will be about 
Qs. the perch of eight yards running ; and the expense 
