314 AGRICULTURAL SURVEY

‘To which may be added, a capacity of improvement in the arable and paſture lands cloſed, of at leaſt five ſhillings amounting to more than 213,000l. per annum, which increaſed rent, at thirty years purchaſe, would exceed ſix millions.

Theſe bleſſed effects would be the natural conſequence of

that ſpirit of induſtry which publick encouragement would excite, would add greatly to the capital of the nation, and be much more valuable than any foreign conqueſt of treble the amount. Would to God that nations would learn wiſdom, and inſtead of coveting diſtant territory, improve to the utmoſt ¿hat which they poſſeſs!

IT now only remains for me to apologize to the honour- able Board, for the deſultory and procraſtinated way in which this Report has been executed.

: The various publick as well as private buſineſs, in which I was engaged prior to my undertaking this ſurvey, could not be diſpenſed with; I have, therefore, only had it in my power to ſnatch an occaſional hour from other numerous avocations. Had not my general knowledge of the county, and particularly of the Northern and Middle diſtricts, ena- bled me to write on its pradices without a perfonal ſurvey, I muſt have declined the undertaking. As it is, I have felt, and fll feel, a conſiderable portion of regret that I did not reſign the appointment, as the Board might have then ſe- lected ſome perſon poſſeſſed not only of more leiſure but of fuperior ability.

With