IV CAPITAL THE MOTHER OF LABOUR 159 



portance of the shepherd's labour, under the cir 

 cumstances first defined, with its indispensability 

 in countries in which the water for the sheep has 

 to be drawn from deep wells, or in which the flock 

 has to be defended from wolves or from human 

 depredators. As to land, it has been shown 

 that, except as affording mere room and standing 

 ground, the importance of land, great as it may 

 be, is secondary. The one thing needful for 

 economic production is the green plant, as the 

 sole producer of vital capital from natural inorganic 

 bodies. Men might exist without labour (in the 

 ordinary sense) and without land ; without plants 

 they must inevitably perish. 



That which is true of the purely pastoral con 

 dition is a fortiori true of the purely agricultural 1 

 condition, in which the existence of the cultivator 

 is directly dependent on the production of vital 

 capital by the plants which he cultivates. Here, 

 again, the condition precedent of the work of each 

 year is vital capital. Suppose that a man lives 

 exclusively upon the plants which he cultivates. 

 It is obvious that he must have food-stuffs to live 

 upon, while he prepares the soil for sowing and 

 throughout the period which elapses between this 

 and harvest. These food-stuffs must be yielded 

 by the stock remaining over from former crops. 



1 It is a pity that we have no word that signifies plant-culture 

 exclusively. But for the present purpose I may restrict 

 agriculture to that sense. 



