AGRICULTURAL CAPABILITIES PROGRESSIVE. 47 



dry, is as susceptible of agricultural improvement, and 

 of being made a source of rural wealth, as the apparently 

 richer patches which rise above the common level, and 

 naturally free themselves from superabundant water. 

 Contrary, therefore, to the indications of both geology 

 and chemistry, thousands of acres in these countries, 

 which will at some future period yield abundant crops, 

 must, in actual circumstances, be pronounced to be 

 almost worthless. 



It is, in fact, physical characters such as this, in con 

 junction with the mechanical conditions of the soil, 

 which determine the first settlers in every country in 

 their choice of land. That which is easily reclaimed, 

 and can be cultivated at little cost of labour, is not 

 always better often not even so good as that which 

 long lies uncultivated and unesteemed. In England, in 

 those districts where clay soils, more or less cold, extend 

 over considerable breadths, the oldest towns, villages, and 

 churches, are almost invariably situated on banks, ridges, 

 or hills, of lighter land, sandy or gravelly often, but which 

 was originally dry and easily tilled. From these spots, 

 as centres, in the progress of population and of peaceful 

 pursuits, improvement by drainage and other necessary 

 means spreads itself over the adjoining, originally 

 altogether neglected and untillable, moister flats and 

 clays. 



Thus the agricultural capabilities of a country are 

 progressive. As they decrease where an exhausting 

 system of culture is followed, so they increase where the 

 means of improvement are understood and sedulously 

 adopted. And that this progressive increase may con 

 tinue for a long series of years before it brings into 

 practical use the possible capabilities of large tracts of 

 land, is illustrated very strikingly by the case of Great 

 Britain, where for so many centuries great skill and 

 intelligence have, in so many places, been applied to 



