an abundant crop: he sows the next year barley or oats on the land thus cleaned and prepared, which will serve as food for his cattle, and for the large stock of hogs, that, as a manufacturer of farina, he must support; and he proceeds to bring a farther part of his land under cultivation by the same means. The potatoes are manufac tured on the farm; and if he could afford to send the potatoes seven miles to market, in their original state, he can, without disadvantage to himself, convey them fifty in their manufactured state, as they are then reduced to about one-seventh or eighth part of their bulk. His hogs supply him with such a considerable quantity of manure, in addition to that of his farm-yard, as will enable him to maintain a constant rotation of potatoe and light corn crops: his expense in machinery is small, and the waggon that carries his flour to market brings back his coals, his groceries, and his household requisites, without additional expense. It would be necessary for him to have a considerable number of labourers, and it would be his interest to attract them around him, by allowing them a small portion of land; and by being himself the purchaser of their superfluous produce, he would speedily raise a colony about him; and as the source which gave it life is connected with our subsistence, and the just necessities of our nature, coeval with our wants, its prosperity must be ensured so long as we continue in the disposition to supply them. In the general complaint of the scarcity of farms, and the high rents which lands at present bear, perhaps no speculation offers stronger inducements to the young farmer, who can command a moderate capital, and who is contented to forego some of the gratifications of a large society. If he possesses activity and enterprise, and has engaged his land upon the favourable terms upon which it ought to be had at a distance from market, market, his success in a few years will be certain, provided the system meets with support from the public. One of its many advantages consists in the incorruptibility of the farina; it is not like the flour of wheat, liable to decay, but it may be preserved for years sound and good, perhaps improved, but certainly uninjured by age. Thus our supply will be at all times rendered more equal, and the year of abundance will more effectually contribute to alleviate the year of scarcity: scarcities themselves are likely to be of less frequent occurrence, as we should have the advantage of two essential crops instead of one; and the weather injurious to wheat is not unfrequently favourable to the crop of potatoes, and vice versa. I must also observe, that the farina forms an excellent ingredient in sea-biscuit, in the proportions of two parts of farina to three of wheaten flour, or even of three parts farina to four of wheaten flour; a composi tion of this sort is more likely to resist the effects of climate, from the incorruptible property already mentioned, than if the biscuits were wholly made of wheaten flour. Such are some of the more leading advantages likely to be produced by the proposed introduction of the flour of potatoes into bread, and the change of system to which it would give rise. We are now, perhaps, on the eve of another alteration in the Corn Laws, calculated to render the present high prices perpetual. A Committee is sitting upon them, composed of men of landed property; and, I have heard, that it is in contemplation to prevent the importation of foreign wheat when the price of British wheat is under 96s. per quarter. This, then, is peculiarly the moment to introduce an alteration in the system, which would render such a measure unnecessary, and which, instead of perpetuating high prices, would produce amongst us all the blessings of plenty. They may may be summed up in these words: We shall have a greater regularity, and a certain reduction of price; an immense increase of consumable food; its more equal distribution through years of scarcity and years of plenty; A consequent diminution of the poor's rates; An increase of comforts to the poor, and to all classes of society, and a great accession to our resources in every branch of national wealth. |