in the new assessment. Wages in consequence will be less than they were before, because the demand for labour is less, and agricultural produce will be dearer than before, because the quantity produced and brought to market has diminished.

The earth has been compared to a machine or gradation of machines out of which food and raw materials are furnished, but the machinery of agriculture, differs from the machinery of manufactures; in the former the best machines or the most fertile soils are first brought into employment, and necessity only compels the recourse to those of less productive power in manufactures. The worst machines are commonly those first invented, and experience continually adds to their efficiency; the commodities produced also differ in relative importance. Agricultural industry is chiefly employed in producing the necessaries; and manufacturing industry; the luxuries of life, the former will create a market for themselves, for corn and meat can never long continue a drug, if there be a lack of consumers, a few years of plenty and cheapness will speedily call them into existance or diminish the supply.

Cheapness of provisions, will even stimulate the production and demand for woollens, silk, and cottons, but food is of more indispensable utility, than clothes. Men have been found to live without the latter but cannot exist without the former.

When we consider the immense tracts of waste land in England, Scotland and Ireland, fit only for growing trees; the indolence of our forefathers appears a subject of regret, in neglecting the raising of trees as well as in many instances causing the destruction of the forests without sufficiently replacing them with young plants. This general waste appears to have been greatest just before the use of sea coal was discovered when the consumption for the use of forging Iron, was so great that it appeared as if it would sweep down all the timber and woods in the country. During that time it seems that more than once the wisdom of parliament was petitioned to stay the destruction, and direct that the forging and melting of Iron, might be done more advantageously in the plantations of America. However at the present day the plantations of trees, not only add to the usefulness, but also tend to the embellishment of the country, and produce screens to break the rapid currants of the winds, this is obvious in a naked country, they also collect a density which helps to enrich the surface of the earth. The great advantage in planting a large body of wood in a naked country. is not at first perceived. Because there is nothing to resist the cold winds, cattle fed thereon are stunted in growth and the vegetation has often the appearance of being scorched with fire, or beat with a stick. Moreover by giving warmth and comfort to cattle, half the fodder will satisfy them.

which appears clear in the various parks and large plantations that have been raised in various parts of the country. This great advantage on all our hills and moor lands. bogs, &c., would also considerably improve the value of lands in the neighbourhood. An instance of the profit of such a plantation by a gentleman near Thetford, who enclosed an estate in a belt 60 yards wide and 9 miles round. It was planted with a variety of trees 6 feet apart and cost £10 acre. It was began in 1770 and completed in 1778. It has been thinned several times, and the trees were valued in 1794, to be worth £50 acre; and we believe at the present day, the owner would not sell them for £150 acre. There are many places in the Empire which it would be useless to plough, if large plantations had not grown up, that are now an ornament to the country, and yield a profit to the owner. Amongst these the Scotch fir, the larch, the oak, the beach, and the birch, are equally useful. The birch grows on the poorest and wettest soils, and is remarkably useful to turners, and frequently provides a shelter for the other sorts. The method of planting trees in an open country at the back of a deep furrow, ploughed at certain distances, has been found to facilitate the growth, and provide a shelter for the young plants, which could not otherwise be effected without great expense.

In concluding the state of agriculture in England, and Scotland, we may compare the produce of this country with France, America, and Ireland; whereby it will appear their mode of culture is still very inferior to this Kingdom in production, viz.

The produce of France, includes their wines and fruits; in the United States, their cotton, sugar, tobacco, silk, rice, and timber exported. The principal

The estate belonged to Mr. Galway of Tolsis near Thetford, and it was planted by a Mr Nelson.

item in the list of the necessaries of life, being Maize or Indian corn. With respect to labour in the interior of America, the condition of the labourer is not much better than in the old states of Europe, though if he works hard, and does nearly all the labour himself in the culture of the soil, he will no doubt succeed better than he can on this side of the Atlantic. The accounts from the Southern states in 1843, report that land could be easily obtained, but labour was very dear and scarce. The price of provisions was low, but it would not remunerate any person to employ labourers to increase it, and if they were employed, no money was to be obtained. The payment of wages are all by tickets of produce; owners of houses, or lands, cannot get any available coin or money as transfer for rent, it must be paid as well as labour, in produce by tickets, on the stores for goods, or provisions, in which there are great impositions, a knife, a hat, a pair of shoes, pins, needles, cloth, and eatables, are bartered away one for another; at the same time a great number of persons are distressed for necessary articles and goods to barter.

In England the mode of payment of wages in money, acts very beneficially on the increase of labour; and it is an axiom not to be disputed, that the wages of the agricultural labourer, should be somewhat more than sufficient, to maintain himself and a medium family, otherwise this useful class would not continue a single generation, and by the increasing

improvements in the cultivation of the soil, many labourers would be still driven to seek employment in the manufacturies and commercial interest; while at the same time, the rapid strides of machinery diminish the supply, instead of increasing it: a labouring man therefore, who can nearly maintain himself on an acre of land, is in a much safer condition, than to rely on the parish as a dernier resort for it is evident that the labourer who can keep a pig, or or a cow, is always a faithful servant to the farmer who employs him, it gives him a common interest in the country, he is never prompt to join rioters on times of sedition, like the man who has nothing to lose, on the contrary he is a strong link in the chain of national security; we are sure that if there were a certain number of cottages, in proportion to the size of the estates, and they were accommodated with two acres of land, to enable them to keep a cow, or 2 or3 pigs, and these places were bestowed as a reward to labourers of particular good conduct, it would work wonders towards the reductions of the rates, and the preservation of order.

There is another circumstance incumbent on all occupiers of land to do; which is to supply their own labourers with wheat or corn at a moderate price when the price in the market is high and oppressive to them. It is but reasonable that the human servant should fare as well as the animal servant: a farmer does not give his horse a less quantity of oats because they are dear, nor is it reasonable that the ploughman or thrasher in the barn should have less for their penny because his master gets a high price; we do not intend that this maxim should be extended to manufacturies, because they are better paid than labourers in agriculture, and have not so immediate a claim upon the land as the workmen in the vineyard.

B B B 2

CHAP. XXV.

IRISH AGRICULTURE.

The resemblance of the Irish cottages, to the habitations of the Ancient Britons-their wealth-food-and clothing-the tithe system-its effects on agriculture-the tenure of holding lands-the immense quantity of lands held by the Bishops and Clergy-the hardships of tithes on the tenantry-their manner of collecting them-the produce of Ireland-the most fertile counties-description of the Irish huts-the poverty of the inhabtants-the vast estates of the Irish nobility contrasted, by the smallness of their farms-the absence of the Landlords--want of fences the immense quantity of weeds-the titles by which a great portion of the lands are held-migration of the Irish labourers--the number of houses-their manner of building cottages--comparison between the Provinces of Ulster and Leinster-the quantity of butter made and exported-prices of poultry and provisions-history of potatoes-the quantity that can be grown-they form the principal food of the Irish labourers and are suitable to the climate-the culture of oats.-game laws.

ALTHOUGH the peculiarities of this remarkable country, would require a volume to describe; yet some of the most prominent traits may be mentioned as an illustration of our work, in delineating the condition of the labouring peasantry, and what are the principal causes of pauperism in that country. The agricultural labourers amongst the common Irish in their mode of living, seem to resemble the ancient Britons as described by Roman authors, and are inferior to the present Indian inhabitants of America: mean huts*

• The total number of houses in Ireland built of mud in 1841, was 1,024,575 the remainder only 304,264 built of brick or stone,viz., 1st class of good houses, 4,080; 2nd class farm houses, 264,184; 3rd class mud cottages, 533,297; 4th clase mud huts, 491,269.