On the Culture of Wafte Lands. 
I fhall only beg the reader to recollect, 
that’ this’ sete was written near Awenty 
years previous to the breaking cut of the 
American war.) It will be unneceffary 
to, remind» him of ‘the part which that 
heroic youth, GEORGE WASHINGTON, 
took in:that memorable ftruggle, or of the 
fuccefs’ with which his patriotic efforts 
were crowned, 
I have witfhed to contribute fomething 
to: your -mifcellany, in return’ for» the 
entertainment it hes oftentimes afforded 
me. Ifthis te accord with its defign it 
is at your fervice. 
{am fir, your’s re(peftfully, 
. JOHN. EVANS. 
Hoxton-/quare, March, 20, 1798. 

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, . 
in rour Magcazine for February latt, 
tT have read with much pleafure, a 
fenfible and well-intentioned letter on the 
Culture of Wafte Lands, which is figned 
A Liverpoolian. 1 entirely concur in 
epinion with your correfpondent; that 
the cultivation of. our wa/le lands is one 
of the moit important means which re- 
main to be employed for the improvement 
of the national wealth of Great Britain. 
Some of his facts, however, appear to me 
to be ftated with a certain degree of in- 
correétnefs ; and his principal fuggeition 
I take to be rather too hattily hazarded. 
You will, therefore, oblige me, by having 
the goodnef$ to iubmit the following 
confiderations upon this interefting agri- 
cultural fubje&t, to him, and to your 
Wadetae 
1. When we fpeak, in Great Britain, 
of Wafte Lands, it is not to be underftood, 
that there is any land in the ifland, which, 
if not covered by ftagnant water, or ex- 
hibiting, at the furface, nothing but bare 
rock, can deferve to be regarded, as 
abfolately waite. Even our moraffes, where 
thefe are not abfolutely inacceflible to 
eattle, yield graffes which both cows and 
fheep crop with remarkable avidity. 
Our bleakeft moors afford excellent pafture 
for fheep. Goats clamber among the cliffs 
of our higheit mountains; and thefe find 
alpine plants which are to them peculiarly 
grateful. There is no land, either in 
Scotland or England, which has its fur- 
face at all covered with herbage, that, 
cught not to: afford at leaft fixpence an 
acre, in the year, to the landlord, if it be 
favourably fituate inregard to markets, 
that: may not yield at leaft half-a-crown 
a year, for each acre, to a fkilful and 
snduftrious tenant, 
269 
2. In very many inftances; in which 
lands remain. very much in the ftate of 
waffes, this is owing, either to: their: 
-lying in unfavourable fituations, remote 
from the means of improvement, and 
from markets, at which the., produce. - 
might be fold, or to their lying, onthe. 
contrary, in fituations on the. fea-coatt, 
and fometimes in the vicinity of great 
cities, where the induftry of the people - 
is called entirely away, to bé employed — 
upon more flattering objeéts. Prien 
3. Inother inftances, lands are retained 
in a comparatively wafte ftate, either as 
commons belonging to incorporations, or _ 
as chaces referved for the amufement of. 
great landholders. . But, that proportion . 
of the territory of the ifland, which is ~ 
thus, of defign, kept in a fort of watfte - 
condition, is much fmaller than that of 
which the improvement has been prevented 
by ‘hatural cireumtandes. 4, 8 oo 
4. Of all thofe obftacles, which have 
oppofed the cultivation of our moft barren. 
lands, the moft powerful has had, and 
ftill has, its exiftence in the ignorance and _ 
the prejudices of the farmers and. their. 
labourers. Agriculture, and all the arts 
of hufbandry, have hitherto been com- 
monly taught, in Britain, by tradition 
alone. Rural ceconomy has never yet 
been reduced to any thing like a fyftem 
ot {cientific principles affording a founda- 
tion to rules by which its praétice, as an. 
art, might berezulated. In every diifer- 
ent part of the country, the diverfities in 
the modes of hufbandry, are, not fuch as 
the diverfity of local circumftances alone. 
recommends, but fuch as accident has 
introduced, in ancient times... The old 
Anglo-Saxon implements of the feventh 
and eighth centuries, are fill ufed, almoft 
without improvement or variation of fori, 
throughout. the greater number of the 
farms in the ifland. The moft, abfurd 
practices of hufbandry prevail, merely 
becaule they have prevailed, ‘T’oomany 
of our farmers know no other ratio of 
their plans of farming, than’ that the 
fame were followed by their fathers, their 
grand-fathers, and ‘their great-grand- 
fathers. Fheir. prejudices sare’. isthe 
direct proportion of their ignorances: 
That ground which has been once, pro- 
nounced. not arable, they hold. almoit, a¢. 
religioufly facred from.the plough, .as the 
Druids of old could hold their inmoft.and 
moft\myfterious groves. me ™ 
s. Notwithftanding thele powerful ob-, 
flacles, very great. progre{s.hag,.at length, 
begun to be made in the improvement of 
garnets sofia - lands, 
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