206 



HISTORY OF AGRICULTl/RE. 



Paut I. 



slavery, fcontent themselves with roots and rags, the latter often the cast off refuse of other 

 countries (830). 



1 245. The state of civilization and refinement of a jyeople not only influences agriculture 

 by the nature of the products such a state requires, but also by the means it affords of pro- 

 ducing these products. By the superiority of the means of information on every subject ; 

 by the existing state of knowledge, for example, in mechanics, chemistry, and physiology, 

 by which the implements and machines are improved, the operations of soils and manures 

 regulated, the influence of water, the atmosphere, and the functions of plants and animals 

 understood. The difference in the means taken to effect the same end in a poor but yet 

 ingenious country, and in one rich and enlightened, is exemplified in China and India, 

 compared with Britain ; and between a comparatively poor and intelligent country, and 

 a rich ignorant country, in comparing Scotland and England, at least as far as agriculture 

 is concerned. Wealth and ignorance, as contrasted with poverty and ingenuity, may also be 

 exemplified in comparing the farmer of Hindustan with the English farmer. The latter 

 to stir the soil, employs an unwieldly implement drawn by several oxen or horses ; the 

 former uses a small light implement drawn by one ox or buffalo, but effects his object by 

 repeating the operation many times. The Englishman effects it at once, often in spite of 

 the worst means, by main force. The processes of Chinese manufacture are exceed- 

 ingly curious and ingenious, and form a remarkable contrast to the rapid and scientific 

 processes of Britain. There are many curious 216 

 practices in France and Germany, the result 

 of poverty and ingenuity. In Brittany the 

 whin is used as horse provender : to bruise 

 the spines one man operates on a simple but 

 ingenious machine (fg. 216.), and effects his 

 purpose completely. Here the same thing is 

 done by a couple of iron rollers turned by a 

 horse or by water. But the farmer of Brittany, 

 who would purchase a pair of whin bruising- 

 rollers, must first sell the greater peirt of his 

 stock and crop. 



1246. The political state of a country/ will 

 powerfully affect its agriculture. Where se- 

 curity, the greatest object of government, is pro- 

 cured at too high a rate, the taxes will depress 

 the cultivator, and not only consume his profits, 

 but infringe on his capital ; where security, 

 either relatively to external circumstances, or 

 internal laws, is incomplete, there the farmer 

 wlio has capital will be unwilling to risk it ; 

 few who have capital will engage in that pro- 

 fession ; and if any finds it profitable, the fear 

 of exposing himself to exactions from government or his landlord, will prevent him 

 from making a proper use of his profits either in the way of employment or consump- 

 tion. Many instances of this state of things are to be found in the foregoing history. 

 Wherever the metayer system, or short leases prevail, whatever maybe the nature or 

 practice of the government, these remarks will apply. Security and liberty at a moderate 

 price are essential to the prosperity of agriculture, even more so than to manufactures 

 or commerce. 



1247. Religion may be thought to have very little influence on agriculture : but in a 

 Catholic or Mahommedan country where the religion enjoins a frequent abstinence from 

 animal food , and long periodical fasts from even the produce of the cow, surely the 

 rearing and feeding of stock for the shambles or the dairy cannot prosper to the same ex- 

 tent as in a country less enslaved by prejudice, or whose religious opinions do not inter- 

 fere with their cookery. The number of holidays is also a great grievance. 



1248. The natural character of a people may even have some influence on their agri- 

 culture, independently of all the other circumstances mentioned. The essential character 

 of a people is formed by the climate and country in which they live, and their factitious 

 or accidental character by their government and religion for the time being. The latter 

 may alter, but the original or native character remains. Thus the French appear to be 

 the same gay people which they were in the time of Julius Caesar ; and as far as history 

 enables us to judge, the Greeks and Romans have only lost their accidental character. 

 The love of society and social amusements inherent in every class of Frenchmen, will 

 probably long prevent their agriculturists from isolating their farmeries, as in the vale of 

 Arno and the Alpine regions of Europe, and indeed of every mountainous country. 

 French and Italian farmers, in general, live together in villages, sometimes five or six miles 

 distant from their farms : early in the morning the household set out with the cattle and 



