BOOK gradually arrive at their highest price, fome fooner 1. and fome later, according to different circum ftances. THUS in every farm the offals of the barn and, ftables will maintain a certain number of poultry. Thefe, as they are fed with what would otherwise be loft, are a mere fave-all; and as they coft the farmer fcarce any thing, fo he can afford to fell them for very little. Almost all that he gets is pure gain, and their price can fcarce be fo low as to difcourage him from feeding this number. But in countries ill cultivated, and, therefore, but thinly inhabited, the poultry, which are thus raifed without expence, are often fully fufficient to fupply the whole demand. In this ftate of things, therefore, they are often as cheap as butcher's-meat, or any other fort of animal food. But the whole quantity of poultry, which the farm in this manner produces without expence, muft always be much fmaller than the whole quantity of butcher'smeat which is reared upon it; and in times of wealth and luxury what is rare, with only nearly equal merit, is always preferred to what is common. As wealth and luxury increase, therefore, in confequence of improvement and cultivation, the price of poultry gradually rifes above that of butcher's-meat, till at laft it gets fo high that it becomes profitable to cultivate land for the fake of feeding them. When it has got to this height, it cannot well go higher. If it did, more land would foon be turned to this purpose. In feveral provinces of France, the feeding of poultry is confidered XI. confidered as a very important article in rural CHA P. œconomy, and fufficiently profitable to encourage the farmer to raise a confiderable quantity of Indian corn and buck-wheat for this purpose. A middling farmer will there fometimes have four hundred fowls in his yard. The feeding of poultry feems scarce yet to be generally confidered as a matter of fo much importance in England. They are certainly, however, dearer in England than in France, as England receives confiderable fupplies from France. In the progrefs of improvement, the period at which every particular fort of animal food is deareft, mut naturally be that which immediately precedes the general practice of cultivating land for the fake of raifing it. For fome time before this practice becomes general, the scarcity must neceffarily raise the price. After it has become general, new methods of feeding are commonly fallen upon, which enable the farmer to raise upon the fame quantity of ground a much greater quantity of that particular fort of animal food. The plenty not only obliges him to fell cheaper, but in confequence of these improvements he can afford to fell cheaper; for if he could not afford it, the plenty would not be of long continuance. It has been probably in this manner that the introduction of clover, turnips, carrots, cabbages, &c. has contributed to fink the common price of butcher's- meat in the London market fomewhat below what it was about the beginning of the last century. VOL. I. A a THE THE hog, that finds his food among ordure, and greedily devours many things rejected by every other useful animal, is, like poultry, originally kept as a fave-all. As long as the number of fuch animals, which can thus be reared at little or no expence, is fully fufficient to fupply the demand, this fort of butcher's-meat comes to market at a much lower price than any other. But when the demand rifes beyond what this quantity can fupply, when it becomes neceffary to raise food on purpose for feeding and fattening hogs, in the fame manner as for feeding and fattening other cattle, the price neceffarily rifes, and becomes proportionably either higher or lower than that of other butcher's-meat, according as the nature of the country, and the state of its agriculture, happen to render the feeding of hogs more or lefs expenfive than that of other cattle. In France, according to Mr. Buffon, the price of pork is nearly equal to that of beef. In moft parts of Great Britain it is at present somewhat higher. THE great rife in the price both of hogs and poultry has in Great Britain been frequently imputed to the diminution of the number of cottagers and other fmall occupiers of land; an event which has in every part of Europe been the immediate forerunner of improvement and better cultivation, but which at the fame time may have contributed to raise the price of those articles, both fomewhat fooner and fomewhat faster than it would otherwife have rifen. As the pooreft XI. pooreft family can often maintain a cat or a dog, CHA P. without any expence, fo the pooreft occupiers of land can commonly maintain a few poultry, or à fow and a few pigs, at very little. The little offals of their own table, their whey, fkimmed milk and butter-milk, fupply those animals with a part of their food, and they find the reft in the neighbouring fields without doing any fenfible damage to any body. By diminishing the number of those fmall occupiers, therefore, the quantity of this fort of provifions which is thus produced at little or no expence, must certainly have been a good deal diminished, and their price must confequently have been raised both fooner and faster than it would otherwise have rifen. Sooner or later, however, in the progress of improvement, it must at any rate have risen to the utmost height to which it is capable of rifing; or to the price which pays the labour and expence of cultivating the land which furnishes them with food as well as these are paid upon the greater part of other cultivated land. THE bufinefs of the dairy, like the feeding of hogs and poultry, is originally carried on as a fave-all. The cattle neceffarily kept upon the farm, produce more milk than either the rearing of their own young, or the consumption of the farmer's family requires; and they produce moft at one particular season. But of all the productions of land, milk is perhaps the most perishable. In the warm feafon, when it is most abundant, it will fcarce keep four-and-twenty hours. The farmer, by making it into fresh BOOK butter, stores a small part of it for a week: by I. making it into falt butter, for a year: and by making it into cheese, he ftores a much greater part of it for several years. Part of all these is referved for the use of his own family. The reft goes to market, in order to find the best price which is to be had, and which can scarce be fo low as to difcourage him from fending thither whatever is over and above the use of his own family. If it is very low, indeed, he will be likely to manage his dairy in a very slovenly and dirty manner, and will scarce perhaps think it worth while to have a particular room or building on purpose for it, but will fuffer the bufinefs to be carried on amidst the smoke, filth, and naftiness of his own kitchen; as was the cafe of almost all the farmers dairies in Scotland thirty or forty years ago, and as is the cafe of many of them still. The fame caufes which gradually raife the price of butcher's-meat, the increase of the demand, and, in confequence of the improvement of the country, the diminution of the quantity which can be fed at little or no expence, raife, in the fame manner, that of the produce of the dairy, of which the price naturally connects with that of butcher's meat, or with the expence of feeding cattle. The increase of price pays for more labour, care, and cleanlinefs. The dairy becomes more worthy of the farmer's attention, and the quality of its produce gradually improves. The price at last gets fo high that it becomes worth while to employ fome of the moft fertile and beft cultivated lands |