Pagina 406 de 2651

By the extension, besides, of cultivation, the unimproved wilds

become insufficient to supply the demand for butcher's meat. A

great part of the cultivated lands must be employed in rearing

and fattening cattle; of which the price, therefore, must be

sufficient to pay, not only the labour necessary for tending

them, but the rent which the landlord, and the profit which the

farmer, could have drawn from such land employed in tillage. The

cattle bred upon the most uncultivated moors, when brought to the

same market, are, in proportion to their weight or goodness, sold

at the same price as those which are reared upon the most

improved land. The proprietors of those moors profit by it, and

raise the rent of their land in proportion to the price of their

cattle. It is not more than a century ago, that in many parts of

the Highlands of Scotland, butcher's meat was as cheap or cheaper

than even bread made of oatmeal. The Union opened the market of

England to the Highland cattle.