576 THE PHILOSOPHY OF FARMING. 
developement can arise in no other way, than from 
a greater or less supply of the requisite material 
furnished by the air and the soil, for augmenting 
the whole, or suppressing certain parts. This 
supply is obtained by plants in their uncultivated 
state, from the results of natural physical processes. 
For God in his wisdom has not only appointed 
vitality as His builder, but He has taxed all inert 
and mineral water of the earth, to furnish, by their 
various and continuous decompositions, ratios of 
the necessary supplies. And as man’s good seems 
to be the ultimate object of all God’s visible 
creation; man’s good is provided for by this 
arrangement. Yet the working out of this good, 
the full efficiency of such an arrangement for the 
provision of his species, is put into man’s hand 
almost as much as if it depended upon himself 
alone. Just, then, according to man’s knowledge 
and skill, will be the nature and properties of 
the natural products whereby that good itself is 
secured to him. And the finest fabrick of the 
loom ever produced by human ingenuity, aided 
by the physical powers of nature, differs not more 
in its texture from the rude cloth woven from the 
fibres of the stems and leaves of plants, which 
cover the nudity of an Indian, than will differ the 
produce of the field, when duly and fully culti- 
