1837] 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



415 



Oilier views of the economy of nature coincide 

 with the precedinff. Tiiere is a known tendency 

 in all organized beings to multiply heyond the de- 

 gree necessary to keep up their actual numbers. 

 It is a wise provision of nature — 1, to guard 

 against the lliilure of the species; 2, to afford in 

 tlie surplus, a Ibod for animals whether subsisting 

 on vegetables, or on oilier animals which subsist 

 on vegetable. Nature has been equally provident 

 in guarding aixainst an excessive muliiplication of 

 any one species, which might too liir encroach on 

 others, by subjeciingeach, when unduly multiply- 

 ing itselli to be arrested in its progress by the ef- 

 fect of the nmltiplicalion — 1, in producing a defi- 

 ciency of tbod; and where that may not happen — 

 2, in producing a state of the atmosphere unfa- 

 vorable to lile and health. All animals, as well 

 as plants, sicken and die in a slate too much 

 crowded. It is the case with our domestic ani- 

 mals of every sort, where no scarcity lor food can 

 be the cause. To the same laws, mankind are 

 equally subject. An increase, not consisting with 

 the general plan of nature, arrests itself. Accord- 

 ing to ihe degree in which the number thrown to- 

 gether exceeds the due proportion of space and 

 air, disease and mortality ensue. It was the vitia- 

 ted air alone, which put out human life in the 

 crowded hole of Calcutta. In a space somewhat 

 enlarged, the effect would have been slower, but 

 not less certain. In all confined situations, from 

 the dungeon to the crowded work-houses, and 

 from these, to the compact population of over- 

 grown cities, the atmosphere becomes in corres- 

 ponding degrees, unfitted by reiterated use, for 

 sustaining human Hie and health. Were the at- 

 mosphere breathed in cities, and not diluied, and 

 displaced by fresh supplies from the surrounding 

 country, the mortality would soon become general. 

 Were the surrounding country, thickly peopled 

 and not refreshed in like manner, the decay of 

 health, though a later, would be a necessary con- 

 sequence. And were the whole habitable earth 

 covered with a dense population, wasteful mala- 

 dies might be looked for, that would thin numbers 

 into a healthy proportion. 



Were the earth in every productive spot, and in 

 every spot capable of being made productive, ap- 

 propriated to the food of man; were the spade 

 substituted for the plough, and all animals con- 

 suming the food of man, or food for which human 

 food might be substituted, banished from existence, 

 60 as to produce the maximum of population on 

 the earth, there would be more than an hundred 

 individuals, for every one now upon it. In the 

 actual population of many countries, it brings on 

 occasional epidemics to be traced to no other 

 origin than the state of the atmosphere. Increase 

 the numbers to ten or twepty fold, and can it 

 be supposed that they would, at any time, find the 

 breath ol lile in a condition to support it; or if that 

 supposition be admissible when limited to a sin- 

 gle country, can it be admitted, when not only the 

 contisruous countries, but the whole earth was 

 equally crowded? 



Must we then adopt the opinion entertained by 

 some philosophers, that no variation=whatever, in 

 the numbers and proportions of the organized be- 

 ings belonging to our globe, is permitted by the 

 system of nature; that the number of species and 

 of individuals in the animal and vegetable em- 

 pires, since they attained a destined compliment, 



has been, and must always be the same; that the 

 only change possible is in local nngmentations and 

 diminutions which balance each oilier, and thus 

 maintain the established and unalterable order of 

 thinirs? 



This would be the opposite extreme to that 

 which has been rejecied. Man, though so simi- 

 lar in his physical constitution to many other ani- 

 mals, is essentially distinguished from all other 

 or<faiiized beimrs, by the intellecuial and moral 

 powers with which he is endowed. He possessesa 

 reason and a will iiy which he can act on mailer or- 

 jxanized and unorgaiiizf^d. lie can, by the exer- 

 cise of these peculiar powers, increase his subsist- 

 ence, by which his numbers may be increased 

 beyond the spontaneous supplies of nature; and 

 it would be a reasonable conclusion, that making 

 as he does, in his capacity of an intelligent and 

 voluntary agent, an integral part of the terrestrial 

 system, the other partsof the system are so framed 

 as not to be altogeiherunsusceptible of his agency, 

 and unpliable to its efi'ects. 



This reasonable conclusion is confirmed by the 

 fact, that the capacity of man, derived fi'om his 

 reason and his will, has effected an increase of 

 particular plants and animals conducive to an in- 

 crease of his own race; and a diminution of the 

 numbers, if not of the species of plants and ani- 

 mals displaced by that increase. 



Most, if not all of our domesticated animals pro- 

 bably exceed the numbers which, without the in- 

 tervention of man, would be their natural amount; 

 whilst the animals preying on, or interfering with 

 them, are proportionably reduced in their numbers. 



The case is the same with cultivated plants. 

 They are increased beyond their natural am.ount ; 

 and banish, or proportionally reduce such as inter- 

 fere with them. 



Nor can it be said, that these changes made by 

 human art and industry in some regions, are bal- 

 anced by corresponding changes made by nature, 

 in other regions. Take for examples, the articles 

 of wheat, rice, millet, and maize, which are the 

 chief food of civilized man; and which are now 

 spread over such immense spaces. It is not pos- 

 sible to regard them as occupying no more than 

 their original and fixed proportions of the earth: 

 and that in other parts of it, they have disappear- 

 ed in the same degree in which they are thus ar- 

 tificially extended. These grains belong to the 

 torrid and temperate zones only; and so great a 

 proportion of these zones have been explored, 

 that it is certain, they could not have been dis- 

 placed from other parts of the globe, in the degree 

 in which they abound where they are now culti- 

 vated, and where it is certain they owe their abun- 

 dance to cultivation. There must consequently 

 be an absolute increase of them produced by the 

 agency of man. 



Take more particularly for an example, the arti- 

 cle of rice, which constitutes so large a portion of 

 human food. The latitudes to which iis growth 

 is limited by the nature of the plant, are for the 

 most part so well known, that it may be assumed 

 tor an unquestioned (iict, that this grain cannot al- 

 ways have prevailed any where, in the extent in 

 which it is now cultivated. And it is equally cer- 

 tain that the vegetable productions belonging to 

 the same climates, which must have been dis- 

 placed by its cultivation, have not received an 

 equivalent introduction and extension elsewhere. 



