t^2 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



Him to prevent chance-combinations in the larldât^ 

 ■which might be in fallow all at once, he would 

 have it, at leaft, in his power to prohibit the tranf- 

 portation of the grain of the country, in thofe 

 years when the greateft part of the land was in full 

 crop, for it is clear, almoft to a denionftration, that 

 the following year, the general produce will be {o 

 much lefs, as a confiderable proportion of the lands 

 will then, of courfe, be in fallow. 



Small farms are not fubje^led to fuch viciffi-' 

 tudes; they are every year producflive, and almoft 

 at all feafons. Compare, as I have already fug- 

 gefled, the quantity of fruits, of roots, of pot- 

 herbs, of grafs, and of grain annually reaped, and 

 without intermiffion, on a track of ground in the 

 vicinity of Paris, called the Pré Saint-Gervais, the 

 extent of which is but moderate, fituated befides 

 on a declivity, and expofed to the North, with the 



merce of the great Towns ; the puddles and Jayftalls which 

 poifon the villages, and feed perpetual focufes of epidemic dif- 

 eafe ; the fafety of the great roads, and the regulation of the inns 

 upon them ; the militia-draughts and imports of the peafantry ; 

 the injuftice to which they are in many cafes fubjefted, without 

 daring fo much as to complain, thefe would prefent to him a 

 multitude of ufeful eftablifliments which might be made, or of 

 abufes which might be correded. I am aware that moft of thefe 

 functions are apportioned into divers departments ; but it is ini- 

 poffible they fliould harmonize, and etfedually co-operate, till 

 the refponfibility attaches to a fingle individiiaU 



produdions 



