. ‘ 
2792. on manufactures and agriculture. 2449 
even where there seemed to be no superabundant 
“produce at the time the population began to in- 
erease. 
But in this case the exertions to augment the pro- 
duce of the soil must be uninterrupted. In the meli. 
ration of barren soils, it may be admitted as a fun- 
damental axiom, to which there is fio exception, that 
every thing depends upon labour ;—“ all is the gift | 
of industry.” Nor can it be doubted, that, in general, 
extensive and important meliorations originate in the 
actual culture of the-soil: nor can the greatest pof- 
sible quantity of human sustenance ever be obtain- 
ed from the soil, except by means of cultivation, 
aration, or digging of some sort or other ; for it is 
by means of these operations, alone, that a soil, origi- 
mally barren, can be brought to be highly productive ; 
or that manures can be made to produce their fullest 
effect, without waste or an uneconomical profusion in 
their application*. ' 
From this mode of reasoning, it appears, that 
every country which is not already brought into the 
highest pofsible state of productivenefs, admits of an 
increased population, beyond the numbers it can at 
present subsist, without being obliged to have re- 
course to any other country; but that this increas. 
ed population can only be supported by augmenting 
the quantum of actual culture in that country, and 
increasing the quantity of labour employed on rural 
* The writer fears that the full force of his reasoning here will not he 
understood by all his readers; but it would be no difficult matter to prove 
these positions were this a proper place for it. Perhaps this may form a 
separate difsertation in this Miscellany at some future period, if such dig» 
wisions thall apgear to be agreeable to the readers» 
