第631页 / 共2651页

The inferiority of the quality, indeed, compared with that of the

produce of English dairies, is fully equal to that of the price.

But this inferiority of quality is, perhaps, rather the effect of

this lowness of price, than the cause of it. Though the quality

was much better, the greater part of what is brought to market

could not, I apprehend, in the present circumstances of the

country, be disposed of at a much better price; and the present

price, it is probable, would not pay the expense of the land and

labour necessary for producing a much better quality. Through the

greater part of England, notwithstanding the superiority of

price, the dairy is not reckoned a more profitable employment of

land than the raising of corn, or the fattening of cattle, the

two great objects of agriculture. Through the greater part of

Scotland, therefore, it cannot yet be even so profitable.