you might take the labour from the men, clap any little horse, pony, or even ass to the wheel; and he would grind you off eight or ten bushels of wheat in a day, and both he and you would have the thanks of your men into the bargain.

96. The cost of this Mill is twenty pounds. The Dresser is four more; the horse-path and wheel might, possibly, be four or five more; and I am very certain, that to any farmer living at a mile from a mill (and that is less than the average distance perhaps); having twelve persons in family, having forty pigs to feed, and twenty hogs to fatten, the savings of such a mill would pay the whole expenses of it the very first year. Such a farmer cannot send less than fifty times a year to the mill. Think of that, in the first place! The elements are not always

water fails, and sometimes

propitious: sometimes the the wind. Many a farmer's wife has been tempted to vent her spleen on both. At best, there must be horse and man, or boy, and, perhaps, cart, to go to the mill; and that, too, observe, in all weathers, and in the harvest as well as at other times of the year. The case is one of imperious necessity: neither floods nor droughts, nor storms nor calms, will allay the cravings of the kitchen, nor quiet the clamorous uproar of the stye. Go, somebody must, to some place or other, and back they must come with flour and with meal. One summer many persons came down the country more than fifty mlles to a mill that I knew in Pennsylvania; and I have known farmers in England carry their grists more than fifteen miles to be ground. It is surprising, that, under these circumstances, hand-mills and horse-mills should not, long ago, have become of more general use; especially

when one considers that the labour, in this case, would cost the farmer next to nothing. To grind would be the work of a wet day. There is no farmer, who does not at least fifty days in every year, exclaim, when he gets up in the morning, "What shall I set them at to-day!" If he had a mill, he would make them pull off their shoes, sweep all out clean, winnow up some corn, if he had it not already done, and grind and dress, and have every thing in order. No scolding within doors about the grist; no squeaking in the stye; no boy sent off in the rain to the mill.

97. But there is one advantage which I have not yet mentioned, and which is the greatest of all; namely, that you would have the power of supplying your married labourers; your blacksmith's men sometimes; your wheelwright's men at other times; and, indeed, the greater part of the persons that you employed, with good flour, instead of their going to purchase their flour, after it had passed through the hands of a corn Merchant, a Miller, a Flour Merchant, and a Huckster, every one of whom does and must, have a profit out of the flour, arising from wheat grown upon, and sent away from, your very farin! I used to let all my people have flour at the same price that they would otherwise have been compelled to give for worse flour. Every Farmer will understand me when I say, that he ought to pay for nothing in money, which he can pay for in any thing but money. His maxim is to keep the money that he takes as long as he can. Now here is a most effectual way putting that maxim in practice to a very great extent. Farmers know well that it is the Saturday night which empties their pockets; and here is the means of cutting off a good half of the Saturday night. The men have

of

better flour for the same money, and still the Farmer keeps at home those profits which would go to the maintaining of the Dealers in wheat and in flour.

;

98. The maker of my little mill is Mr. HILL, of Oxford-street. The expense is what I have stated it to be. I, with my small establishment, find the thing convenient and advantageous; what then must it be to a gentleman, in the country who has room and horses, and a considerable family to provide for. The Dresser is so contriveda to give you at once, meal, of four degrees of fineness so that, for certain purposes, you may take the very finest ; and, indeed, you may have your flour, and your bread of course, of what degree of fineness you please. But, there is also a steel-mill, much less expensive, requiring less la bour, and yet quite sufficient for a family. Mills of this sort, very good and at a reasonable price, are to be had of Mr. PARKES, in Fenchurch-street, London. These are very complete things of their kind. Mr. PARKES has, also, excellent Malt-Mills.

99. In concluding this part of my Treatise, I cannot help expressing my hope of being instrumental in inducing a part of the labourers, at any rate, to bake their own bread; and, above all things, to abandon the use of "Ireland's lazy root." Nevertheless, so extensive is the erroneous opinion relative to this villanous root, that I really began to despair of checking its cultivation and use, till I saw the declaration, which Mr. WAKEFIELD had the good sense and the spirit to make before the " AGRIcultural CommitteE." Be it observed, too, that Mr. WAKEFIELD had, himself, made a survey of the state of Ireland. What he saw there did not encourage him, doubtless, to be an advocate for the growing of this root of wretched

ness. It is an undeniable fact, that, in the proportion that this root is in use, as a substitute for bread, the people are wretched; the reasons for which I have explained and enforced, a hundred times over. Mr. WILLIAM HANNING told the Committee that the labourers in his part of Somersetshire were " almost wholly supplied with pota"toes, breakfast and dinner, brought them in the fields, and "nothing but potatoes; and that they used, in better, "times, to get a certain portion of bacon and cheese, "which, on account of their poverty, they do not eat "now." It is impossible that men can be contented in such a state of things: it is unjust to desire them to be contented: it is a state of misery and degradation to which no part of any community can have any show of right to reduce another part: men so degraded have no protection; and it is a disgrace to form part of a community to which they belong. This degradation has been occasioned by a silent change in the value of the money of the country. This has purloined the wages of the labourer; it has reduced him by degrees to housel with the spider and the bat, and to feed with the pig. It has changed the habits and, in a great measure, the character of the people. The sins of this system are enormous and undescribable; but,thank God! they seem to be approaching to their end! Money is resuming its value, labour is recovering its price; let us hope that the wretched potatoe is disappearing, and that, we shall, once more, see the knife in the labourer's hand and the loaf upon his board.

[This was written in 1821. Now (1823) we have had the experience of 1822, when, for the first time, the world saw a considerable part of a people, plunged into all the horrors of famine, at a moment when the govern

ment of that nation declared food too be abundant ! Yes, the year 1822, saw Ireland in this state; saw the people of whole parishes receiving the extreme unction preparatory to yeilding up their breath for want of food; and this, while large exports of meat and flour were taking place in that country! But, horrible as this was, disgraceful as it was to the name of Ireland, it was attended with this good effect it brought out, from many Members of Parliament (in their places), and from the public in general, the acknowledgment, that the misery and degradation of the ́ Irish were chiefly owing to the use of the potatoe as the almost sole food of the people.]

100. In my next number I shall treat of the keeping of cows. I have said that I will teach the Cottager how to to keep a cow all the year round upon the produce of a quarter of an acre, or, in other words, forty rods, of land; and, in my next, I will make good my promise.

No. IV.

MAKING BREAD.

(Continued.)

101. IN the last Number, at paragraph 86, I observed that I hoped it was unnecessary for me to give any directions as to the mere act of making bread. But, several correspondents inform me that, without these directions, a conviction of the utility of baking bread at home is of no use to them. Therefore, I shall here give those