THE RELATIONS OF AGRICULTURE TO CIVILIZATION. 



BY EZRA S. CARR, M. D., LL. D. 



A complete history of agriculture has yet to be written. From the 

 traditions of different nations, their works of art, and their literature, 

 we find abundant evidence that however splendid the superstructure, 

 the civilization of every nation has rested where it does to-day, upon 

 the toil of millions for their daily bread — the satisfaction of the common 

 wants of humanity. 



Whatever may afterwards be added to improve, adorn, and elevate the 

 social and spiritual condition of man, his relation to the soil remains un- 

 changed; there is the basis of his prosperity. It was given him "for 

 usufruct alone," not for consumption, and still less for profligate waste. 

 Wherever the obligation to maintain the harmonious balance between 

 organic and inorganic nature has been met, there we find the oldest and 

 most permanent civilizations. Wherever the selfish pursuit of profit, the 

 vile principle "after us the deluge," has been the ruling motive, the 

 deluge has followed, leaving in its wake a human deterioration which 

 corresponds with the destruction of virgin lands. From the old center 

 and cradle of the race we may trace man as he flies from the arena of 

 his own actions, in Palestine, in Greece, in Italy, in the north of Africa, 

 and Spain, leaving behind him soils rendered infertile through thedemo- 

 lition of forests, " thorns and thistles," or the depauperated forms of 

 once noble races of plants. Having reached the western limit, the tide 

 of emigration must ere long return upon its course, to restore and re- 

 cover the wastes it has created. Indigenous species of animals and 

 plants needlessly extirpated, must bo replaced b} r alien forms, and the 

 balance readjusted as far as a better knowledge of the laws of animal 

 and vegetable life will make such readjustment possible. 



Civilization is a relative term. It does not consist in the multiplica- 

 tion or modes of supply of the artificial wants of mankind; it is the 

 development of social order in place of individual independence and 

 savage lawlessness. It is the improvement of the mass through the per- 

 fection of its units. This is a common sense view of the subject, and 

 common sense, as Mr. Guizot says, "is the genius of mankind." 



Civilization, therefore, determined by the character of the units of the 

 social order, is susceptible of continual progress and the highest perfec- 



