flO HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. Part I. 



cal purpose ; but even this seemingly barren country has some good pastures, and nu- 

 merous droves of wild horned cattle, and every district abounds with horses, which are 

 supposed to have been brought hither by the Spaniards. 



1 220. Of the south yimerican islands, that of Juan Fernandez abounds in pasture, cattle, 

 and woods ; and Terra del Fuego, amidst its horrible snows, exhibits a variety of plants. 

 The Falkland islands contain a variety of fowls and plants, somewhat resembling those 

 of Canada. Georgia is a field of ice, in wliich, or in any of the other islands, there is no 

 cultivation whatever. 



BOOK II. 



AGRICULTURE AS INFLUENCED BY GEOGRAPHICAL, PHYSICAL, CIVIL, AND POLITICAL 



CIRCUMSTANCES. 



1 221 . Agriculture, considered in regard to climate, territorial surface, and society, presents 

 some features, which it may be instructive to recognize. Whoever has perused witli 

 attention the outline which we have now concluded of the field culture of the different 

 nations of the world, must have a general and enlarged view of that art ; and must ne- 

 cessarily have observed, that there are different species of territorial culture, founded on 

 difference of geographical position or climate ; difference of physical circumstances or 

 surface, and differences of civilization or human wants. The object of the present Book 

 is to characterize these different species, and to refer to them the proper districts through- 

 out the world. 



Chap. I. 



Agriculture as influenced hy Geographical Circumstances. 



\'2'22. The influence of climate extends not only to the kind of plant and animals 

 to be cultivated, but to the mode of culture. A few useful plants are universal, and but 

 a few. Of those belonging to agriculture, we may enumerate most of the pasture or 

 hay grasses which are annuals, and of the cereal grasses, the wheat, rye, and barley. The 

 oat, the pea, bean, turnip, potatoe, and the perennial pasture grasses, will neither thrive in 

 veiy hot, nor in very cold climates ; the maize, millet, and rice can only be grown in 

 warm countries, and the oat in temperate regions. The roots and fruits of what are de- 

 nominated hot climates, as the yam, plantain, bread-fruit, &c. are limited to them ; and 

 equally so the timber trees of temperate and torrid regions, as the oak and pine, the ma- 

 hogany or teak-tree. 



1 223. Animals as well as plants are similarly affected by climate. Some animals are 

 universal, as the ox and swine, which are found in every latitude ; others are limited in 

 their range, as the rein-deer, camel, elephant, and, considered as a cultured animal, the 

 sheep. The horse and ass are nearly universal, but cannot be substituted for the rein- 

 deer. The sheep will exist in India and also in Greenland, but lose their useful charac- 

 ter in both countries ; in Greenland they require protection during nine months of the 

 year, and in India their wool is changed to hair, and the carcase is too lean for the 

 butcher. 



1 224. The culture required for both plants and animals depends materially on climate. 

 It is not easy for a person who has never been out of Britain to conceive a just idea of 

 the aquatic culture even of Italy or Spain. In these countries though most crops, 

 whether of grain or roots, require Watering, yet some in the rainy season may be obtained 

 in the usual way, as melons in Italy and onions in Spain. But in Arabia, Persia, and 

 India no culture can be undertaken without water, excepting in the upper regions of 

 mountains. The fundamental process of culture in these countries is to prepare the 

 surface for the reception of water, and its circulation in trenches and gutters, and to 

 procure the water by raising it from wells or rivers by machinery. Wherever the surface 

 cannot be irrigated, no regular culture need be attempted or corn crop expected. Nature 

 in such situations produces periodical crops of annual succulents or bulbous rooted plants; 

 and man might, perhaps, to a certain extent, turn this circumstance of climate to account, 

 by changing the sorts of annual bulbs, &c. from such as are useless, to such as are 

 useful. The onion or edible crocus or cyperus might, perhaps, be substituted for the 

 ixiaof the Cape; and the sesamum, or some rapid annual> furnisliing useful seeds or 



