1S37] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



413 



Ihat ol" his counirj'. The cnhivaior, in situations 

 |irosoiitin<r an option, nrelerr: to ihe labors ol' the 

 fit'lil, the more easy einploytiien; of rparinji a 

 h(M-(l. Arui as the name of the tbrest is approacli- 

 eil, tlie liuntiniT lile displays tlie force of its at- 

 tractions. Where do we heiiolil a march in the 

 opposite liirectioii — lite hunter heconiintr the iienls- 

 niaiithe latter a liillower nl the plough — and the 

 last repaiiing to the niaiiufiiclory or the, work- 

 shop? 



Such indeed is tlie fiiscination of that personal 

 independence which belonos to the uncivilized 

 S!ate, and such the disrelish and contempt of the 

 monotonous labor of tillas;e, compared with the 

 excitiriiT ocru[nitions of the chase, or with the in- 

 dolence enjoyed by those who subsist chiefly on 

 the mere bounties of nature, or on their migrratory 

 flocks, that a voluntary relinquishment of these 

 latter modes of life, is little to be expected. We 

 certainly perceive nothinir in the character of our 

 savage neiirhbors, I'rom which it could be inferred 

 that even the germs of agriculture observed in their 

 spots of maize, and a ihw other cultivated plants, 

 would ever be developed into the extent implied 

 by an agricultural lile. To that little resource 

 combined with the game furnished by the forests 

 and by the lake or the stream, their population 

 and habiis are adjusted. There may be said, in 

 fact, to be a plenum of the former; because it is 

 commensurate with their food and this cannot be 

 increased without a change of habiis, which be- 

 ing Ibunded in natural pro])ensilies, do not change 

 of themselves. 



The first introduction of agriculture among a 

 savage people appears, accordingly, never to have 

 taken place without some extraordinary interposi- 

 tion. Where it has not been obtruded by colonies 

 transplanted h'om agricultural countries, as Irom 

 Phoenicia and Egypt into Greece, and Irom Greece 

 herself aniongsl her savage neighbors, the revo- 

 lution has proceeded from some individual whose 

 singular endowments and supernatural preten- 

 sions had given him an ascendency lor the pur- 

 pose. All these great reformers, in ancient times, 

 were regarded as more than men, and ultimately 

 worshipped as gods. A very remarkable exam- 

 ple of modern dale, is found in the revolution from 

 the savage to the agricultural state, said to have 

 been brought about by Manco Capac, among the 

 Peruvians, to whom he represented himself as tlie 

 ofispring of the sun. 



Agriculture once effectually commenced, may 

 proceed, of itselfj under impulses of its own crea- 

 tion. The mouths ft-d by it increasing, and the 

 supplies of nature decreasing, necessity becomes a 

 spur to industry, which finds another spur, in the 

 advantages incident to the acquisition of property 

 in the civilized state. And thus a progressive 

 agriculture, and a progressive population ensue. 



But, although no determinate limit presents 

 itself to the increase of food, and to a population 

 commensurate with it, other than the limited pro- 

 ductiveness of the earth itself, we can scarcely 

 be warranted in supposins that ail the productive 

 powers of its surli^ice can be made subservient to 

 the use of man, in exclusion of all the plaiits and 

 animals, not entering into hi? stock ol' subsistence; 

 that all the elements ai!,l coiubinaiioii of fli'iUi":i',- 

 in theeanh, ih« atmosphere and r!ie water, wfiich 

 now support such various and such numerous des- 

 criptions of created beings, animate and inani- 



mate, could be withdrawn from that general desti- 

 nation, and appropriated to the exclusive support 

 and increase cf the human pari of ihe creation; 

 so that the whole haliitable earih should be as full 

 of people, as the spots most crowded now are or 

 niiyht he made, and as destiinlc as those spots, of 

 the plants and animals not used by man. 



The supposition cannot well be reconciled with 

 that symmetry in Ihe face of nature, which derives 

 new beauty from every insight that ctin be trained 

 into it. It is forbidden afso, by the principles and 

 laws which operate in various departments of her 

 economy, lidlinir within the scope of common ob- 

 servation, as well as within that of philosojihic re- 

 searches. 



The earth contains not less than thirty or forty 

 thousand kinds of plants; not less than six or sev- 

 en hundred of birds; not less than three or lour 

 hundred of quadrufieds ; to say nothing of the 

 thousand species of fishes. Of reptiles and in- 

 sects, there are more than can be numbered. To 

 all these must be added, the swarms and varie- 

 ties of animalcules and minute vegetables not vis- 

 ible to the natural eye, but whose existence is 

 probably connected with that of visible animals 

 and plants. 



On comparing this vast proflisiun and multipli- 

 city of beinirs with the few grains and grasses, 

 the few herbs and roots, and the few fowls and 

 quadrupeds, which make up the short list adapted 

 to the wants of man; it is difficult to believe that 

 it lies with him, so to re-model the work of na- 

 ture, as it would here-modelled by a destruction, 

 not only of individuals, but of entire species, and 

 not only of a few species, but ol every species, 

 with the very lew exceptions which he might 

 spare (or his own accommodation. 



Such a multiplication of the human race, at the 

 expense of the rest of the organized creation, im- 

 plies that the food of all plants is composed of 

 elements equally and indiscriminately nourishing 

 all; and which consequently may be wholly ap- 

 propriated to the one or lew plants best fitted for 

 human use. 



Whether the food or constituent matter of ve- 

 getables, be furnished from the earth, the air or 

 water, and wheiher directly, or by cither, through 

 the medium of the others, no sufiicient ground 

 appears for the inference that the food tor all is 

 the same. 



Difl'erent plants require different soils ; some 

 flourishing in sandy, some in clayey, some in 

 moist, some in dry soils, some in warm, some in 

 cold situations. Many grow only in water — and 

 a few subsist in the atmosphere. The forms, the 

 textures, and the qualities of plants are still more 

 diversified. That things so various and dissimi- 

 lar in their organizations, their constitutions and 

 their characters, should be wholly nourished by, 

 and consist of precisely the same elements, re- 

 quires more proof than has yet been ofi'ered. 



A case which has been relied on to prove that 

 different foods are not necessary lor diflerent plants, 

 is that of grafiing or inoculating one kind of plant 

 on another kind; the sap obtained by the stock 

 for itself, being found to feed and perlt'ct the 

 Sfraft. But this operation has i's liiiiiis. I;,l;)i'„- 

 .-i! cxteiid beyond p'anis having a c^rtUiii uiiinny. 

 The apple tre'.- may be planted on the pear or the 

 quince. It will not succeed on the peach or the 

 cherry. If the cases prove that the same food 



