"It is true, that high farming can maintain a large labouring population; but high farming requires, not only that high scientific knowledge which is of _slow growth_, but also a _large expenditure of capital_. It is the possession of _great skill_, _habitual energy_, and _vast capital_, which alone renders possible such a system of farming, horticultural rather than agricultural, as has grown up in Belgium in the midst of abundant markets, wealthy towns, and flourishing manufactures,--a system the _origin and growth of which has been favoured by every circumstance that can promote industry and protect its fruits_."--_Edinburgh Review_, January 1850, (p. 18.) Mr Mechi speaks problematically of the profit of high farming; that amiable experimenter, Mr Huxtable, ingenuously confesses his losses, and allows that last year he was _minus_ £32 of his rent; Mr M'Culloch even seems half disposed to leave you in the lurch. He is reported, in the _Scotsman_ of the 13th February last, to have said at a public meeting in Newton-Stewart, on the 1st February,--"That, before the improved system could be properly carried out, the landlords must give encouragement particularly in draining and buildings." Millions of money, which the proprietors have not, must be expended; and millions of additional capital must be at the command of the farmers, which they have not, before the system can be carried out. Enthusiast although he be, Mr M'Culloch begins to see the impracticable nature of the scheme. Moreover, before the improvements could be effected, supposing the requisite capital to be had, and before any profit could accrue from them, years would elapse. For the improvements and profits of agriculture, unlike those in manufactures, cannot be realised in a few months. The farmers, with a continuation of the present prices, will in the mean time be ruined, unless rents are diminished one-third, and, on the poorer soils, extinguished altogether--in which event, again, two-thirds of the proprietors of the kingdom would be ruined. These are the immediate accompaniments attending your cheap food for the people, your plethora of potatoes, and your plethora of beef. The ultimate issue will speedily reach the people whom you delude, and the Manchester Free-traders whose sweet voices you court.