The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1821-09-10 00:00:00

AGRICULTURAL REPORT.

Extract from the Evidence anruxed to the Re-
port of the Select Committee of the House of
Commons upon the Agriculture of the United
Kingdom.

Marti', 8 die Mali, 1821.
Tttotaaa SipaLoci Goocsr, Esq. in the Chair.
William Jacob, Era called in and examined.
You occupy some hod iu Surrey and Kent, and farm it'
—Yes; between 300 and 400 acres 1 have unfortunately
bald fur the last ten years.
The circumstance of your Arming that land has indebted
you to tura your attention to the interesta of agriculture—
That, and other ciritonseteoces of a literary nature.
Darin that period bay. yon visiscd the Continent with
reference to apiculture?-1 have, principally with that view.
What part of the Cor.inent ?-11ollassd, the whole of the
north of Germany, up In the frontier► of Poland, and m-
iscued ►lowly thrssitgh the middle of Germany and France.
Was yore prinsipel atteatirn, during that residence on the
Continent, directed to the state of the agriculture of the
different countries through which you passed 7—Princi pally ;
usy associations 'sere prisicipilly with Noblemen who were
both large owners and occupiers of land; and their amtmen,
who are a kind of htrediluoy bailiffs, with judicial powers
quite uuktiowit here.

lo bat year w.s you on the Continent'-1819, till the
b, irianing of 1820.

Ouse you had any means, since your return to England,
of knowing what is the present stale of agriculture in the
rots you visited in 1819?—Y•s; I have correspondents
there, and I hare seen in this courtly one Nobleman espe-
cially, a very large agricaliurist on the banks of the Oder.

State to the Cominittee what is the g 1 state of agri-
culture in the countries to which your attention was directed,
as to its being in a state of improvement or decline, in the
first instance ?—lt has uniformly the masks of vast improve-
ments, sines I saw it twenty years ago.
As compared with the period when you visited the Con-
finest list, and the period of twenty years preceding, there
have beets vast improvemeuts in the agriculture of those
countries ?—Very great.
To what do you ascribe that sapid improvement .?—To the
gradual increase of prices during those twenty years • in
proportion as a greater number of men were in arms, ;hey
cuasomeJ a greater portion of the more valuable produc-
tions ; all the productions rose.
'rha you ascribe it to the increased demand, growing
partly out of the effect of the nunsermss stones which the
people have sustaised is. those parts of the world ?—Ex-
actly so.
Was it in a slate of progressive improvement, and were
Ilse Wilms rising *hell you visitrd it last?—No, they were
then frau( ; ti .y have fallen must excessively.
Have you trauma to know, nbeilter they have continued
to fall since that period?—Ten, I have reason, as far as 1
can depend upon my coriespintilents, to believe they have
cuistioued to fall.
To what do you att. ibute this fins toutio• ?—To the ex-
cess of the eopply beyond the •
Wars this the ellfect of iiscreased production or dinsissished!
&mama, to of built firth I apprehend; it appears, that Ile.
lung as the war continued there was an
but especially a most prodiziotis deniansl took place in every
pail of the continent previous to the expedstinto of Bona-
parte to It.. -ons, as the took:00.)ms of the country knew that
large armies who to he marched through them, which
would be (toasters,' opus. them, and which t pro-
viriou, every one was mixtures to lay iti a large store of
provisions, that they might Plot have to al the too-
talent she soldiers •rIt•eol ; such stocks tieing provided
hefurehonsi, of course raised the prices vet? high, those
high prices gave n 1.11,71111U11 to agrieuittrie, mot brought into
cultivation lahil of sn iuferior a quality :IS Is. II :Se been COI-
Islfllled at a• great loss smiler soy other circumstances; ill-
other cause of the great demand for ago ten:tura! productions,
arose from the hest of lands all over the continent being
appropriated to grow articles, not of food, Init of commerce,
a.tb as tobacco, indigo, and various vegetables for the ma-
isufacture of sugar, amid substitute; for coffee ; when the
war ceased, and the 110,151 WIC thrown open, the col.
of those artirles fur hear generally reared, or
mu a great rle4rer, and as they weir, sonic of the rely
brat lauds, they acre very naturally appropriated to the
growth of corn, this increased gissiitity oat hand, had in
a,htitiors to it all these little petty :turns, which wire tours
or less to the haints of every family list the Grotinrnl, as a
provision for the ISOop• tiny rltlorflrol to hr qu irtered upon
them ; the whole of this instead of being consumed was re-
turned to the snorkel ; bristles that, in the memo time the
cultioatiou of INAIIIIIra had been eilffWei On to atrial very
far beyond what is Louvres its Great Britain, and in some
countries qual to what is grown in IT. I j this
forms the fowl therefore of the lower daises mil' ropfe
41111,0 eXCIU,IVeII; the cousicytience of these eiscumAassres
his tiered a reduction of the priers all agricultural poi-
duce v. ry for below a rs ntrisienstimg peke; at 11w same time
it may 1w proper to rirniark, that Ow surplus produce of any
indisedral Of the whole maim of cultivators Mire, is mom-
drralsly less than the whole sass, of 410111111110111 in this
country.
F.splain that t—The sorphis produrr of the whole moss
of cultivators so those commies iss considerably less than
the surplus produce of 11 mimic mass of totlivAlure in this
nctory.
Du you mesa by aurphas produce the produce sot eou-