289 



GEOGRAPHICAL COLLECTIONS. 



Comparative Fertility of the Old and New Continents. — Paradoxical as the 

 fact may appear, we are satisfied that the New Continent, though less than 

 half the size of the old, contains at least an equal quantity of useful soil, and 

 much more than an equal amount of productive power. America is indebted 

 for this advantage to its comparatively small breadth, which brings nearly 

 all its interior within reach of the fertilizing exhalations of the ocean. In 

 the old Continent, owing to its great extent from east to west, the central 

 parts, deprived of moisture, are almost everywhere deserts ; and a belt round 

 the western, southern, and eastern shores, comprises neai'ly all that con. 

 tributes to the support of man. How much fruitful land, for instance, ia 

 there in Continental Asia ? If we draw a line from the Gulf of Cuteh, 

 (near the Indus,) to the head of the Yellow Sea, we cut off India and China, 

 with the intervening Birman em^iire, and the southern valleys of Thibet ; 

 and this space, which comprises about 3,500,000 square miles, if we take 

 surface and fertility together, embraces five-sixths of the productive power 

 of Asia, though it covers 17,000,000 of square miles ! Arabia, Persia, 

 Central Thibet, Western India, Chinese and Independent Tartary, are 

 deserts, with scattered patches of useful soil, not amounting to the twentieth 

 part of their extent. Siberia, or northern Asia, is little better, owing ta 

 aridity and cold together. Anatolia, Armenia, the Punjab, and a narrow 

 strip along the western shores of the Pacific Ocean, north as far as the 60th 

 parallel, compose the only valuable agricultural territory beyond India and 

 China. Europe, which is merely the western margin of Asia, is all fruitful 

 in the south ; but, on the north, its fruitfulness terminates at the 60th or 

 62d parallel. Africa has simply a border of useful soil, round three-fourths 

 of its sea-coast, with some detached portions of tolerably good land in its 

 interior. Of the 31,000,000 of square miles which these three continents 

 occupy, we cannot find, after some calculation, that the productive SGal'aoii|4 

 stitutes so much as one-third, and of that third a part is but poor. ^ n^i^ 



Now, in estimating the useful soil in America, we reject, 1. All the 

 region northward of the latitude of 53°, amounting to 2,600,000 square 

 miles ; 2. A belt of barren land about 300 miles broad, by 1000 in length, ou 

 300,000 square miles, lying on the east side of the Rocky Mountains ; 3. A 

 belt of arid land of similar extent, situated on the east side of the Andes, 

 between 24° and 40° of south latitude ; 4. The desert shore of Peru, equal 

 to 100,000 square miles ; 5. An extent of 100,000 square miles for the arid 

 country of California and Sonora ; and, 6. An extent of 500,000 square 

 miles for the summits of the Andes, and the south extremity of Patagonia. 

 These make an aggregate of 3,900,000 square miles ; and this deducted frora 

 13,900,000, leaves 10,000,000 square miles as the quantity of useful soil in 

 the New World. 



Now, what relation does the fruitfulness of the ground bear to the latitude 

 of the place ? The productive powers of the soil depend on two circum- 

 stances — heat and moisture ; and these increase as we approach the equator. 

 First, the warm regions of the globe yield larger returns of those plants 

 which they have in common with the temperate zones ; and, next, they 

 have peculiar plants, which afford a much greater portion of nourishment" 

 from the same extent of surface. Thus, maize, which produces 40 or 50 

 for one in France, produces 150 for one on an average in Mexico ; and 

 Humboldt computes that an arpent, (five-sixths of an acre,) which will 

 scarcely support two men when sown in wheat, will support fifty whe» 

 planted with bananas. From a consideration of these and other facts, we 

 infer, that the productive, or rather nutritive powers of the soil, will be 

 VOL, III. ^, , , 2 o , , 



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