Culture of Wafte Lands. 9X 
st would not be excellent policy to bring 
our wattes info cultivation; but the 
grand difficulty is in doing it. We 
muft examine their capability of profita- 
ble improvement. It is not a trifling evil 
‘againtt which I at prefent fpeak. “From 
the moft attentive confideration, and mea- 
furing on maps pretty accurately, Iam 
clear there are, at leat, 400,000 watte 
acres in the fingle county of Northum- 
berland. In thofe of Weftmoreland 
and Cumberland there are many more. 
In the Northand part of the Weft Rid- 
ing of Yorkfhire, and the contiguous 
parts of Lancafhire, and in the Weft of 
Durham, there are {till greater tracts. 
You may draw a line from the north 
point of Derbyfhire tothe extremity of 
Northumberland, of 150 miles, which 
fhall entirely confift of wafte lands, with 
very trifling exceptions of {mall culti- 
vated fpots.---The Eaft Riding of York- 
fhire, Lincolnfhire, and Cambridgetiire, 
have large tracts ; Devonfhire, and Corn- 
wall immenfe ones. ‘The greater part of 
Scotland remains unimproved, ‘To thefe 
may be added, a long catalogue of fo- 
refts, heaths, downs, chaces, and other 
wattes, fcattered through the other coun- 
ties, and even within fight of the capital: 
forming, when combined, a monitrous 
proportion even of the whole territory. 
T know not fo melancholy a refleGtion as 
tke idea of fuch walte and uncultivated 
lands being fo commonina kingdom that. 
hourly complains of the want of bread. 
The complaints of the poor, that they 
cannot get bread to eat, are general and 
ferious. Our political pamphleteers dwell 
eternally on the caufes of this fcarcity ; 
. they talk of poft-horfes, dogs, commons, 
inclofures, large farms, jobbers, bakers, 
and rafcals; but all to little purpofe. 
Their {chemes of improvement are as 
wild as the canfes to which they attri- 
bute the evil. They overlook the plain 
maxim, that in proportion as you in- 
creafe the produét of a commodity, in 
proportion will the price fall. Bring the 
wafte lands of the kingdom into culture, 
cover them with turnips, corn, and clover, 
inftead of ling, whins, and fern, and 
plenty will immediately be diffufed. If 
you want to make a commodity cheaper, 
furely the way if to increafe the quantity 
of thofe that fell, or to leffen the money 
_ of thofe that buy :---the latter we cannot 
do---but the former is, or ought to be, 
in our power; and we had better make 
we of it than rail inceffantly againft job- 
bers and regraters. I have mentioned 
that there are many millions of wafte acres 
mS 
in this ifland. 
caufes which have been held out for the 
high prices of provifions, and the depo- 
pulation of the kingdom, the exgrofing 
of farms is principally eminent: our 
pleudo-politicians had much better talk 
of engrofing eflates. One evil is imagi- 
nary, the other real. I do not apprehend 
‘(for various reafons, befides the mere 
effet upon agriculture) that there can be 
too many freeholders in the kingdom ; but 
certainly there may be too few. “The 
ranks of men will not be well diftinguifh- 
ed when there are no /ift/e eftates. With 
relation to hufbandry, we fee at prefent 
that the agriculture of immenfe eftates is 
worfe, upon the average, than that upon 
{mall ones.. The moors and other traéts 
of uncultivated land are fo little valued, 
that they have been fold for low prices. 
---So far fouth as Devonfhire, Dorfet. 
fhire, and upon the fea-coaft, interfected 
by tumpikes, and clofe to populous 
towns, large traéts have been bought 
freehold at a guinea an acre, and fome 
even at ten fhilimgs. Thefe grounds are 
purchafed, not with a view to cultivate, 
but to increafe the domain for hunting- 
country, for fhooting moor-game, and 
other Cherokee fports. Another circum- 
ftance which occafions our waftes to be 
left in their prefent ftate, is the general 
idea of their incapability of cultivation. 
There cannot be a doubt but that this 
idea is miftaken and erroneous in a very 
high degree.---In fome future letter [ 
fhall endeavour to prove it fatisfactorily. 
I am very clear, that if the legiflature 
would purchafe all the waiftes in Britain. 
that come to market, and zmmediately re- 
jell them in parcels of twenty or thirty 
acres, the beneficial confequences would 
be aftonifhing.--- Would to heaven an aét 
paffed obliged poffeflors to fell wafte lands, 
if not in culture, after a certain period. 
But this will not happen, and therefore I 
fhall beftow no more words upon it. The 
reafon that men have treated this {cheme 
as impracticable, originated in the notion 
that the waftes were to be FARMED; but 
nothing is more diftant from my idea. 
To farm them would be a vifionary 
fcheme indeed, but to improve them is a 
very different thing. In the next nnmber 
of your Magazine, fir, I will particularly 
explain my ideas upon the fubject: 
We often.hear the ftate of our waftes, 
and of population, {poken of with regret. 
But why fhould fuch converfation, which ~ 
carries with it an appearance of patriot- 
ifm, be indulged, if its meaning confifts 
in the mere language? jt is to be deeply 
N 2 regretted 
Among the numerous 
