134 STATES OP THE RIVEK PLATE. 



historians and philosophers have pointed this out as a 

 warning to present and future generations. 



Pastoral pursuits are those of nomadic tribes and, 

 unconnected with agriculture, of nations in their infancy, 

 when population is scanty; and wants easily suppUed ; 

 but for a populous, or moderately populated country to 

 exist and progress without agriculture, is a physical 

 impossibility. 



There is a prevalent opinion that these countries of the 

 Eio de la Plata are unsuited for agricultural pursuits by 

 reason of their climate, &c. This popular error cannot 

 be too soon discarded ; indeed, to hold such an opinion, 

 is to presuppose the impossibihty of these countries pro- 

 ducing great and prosperous nations. 



The prevalence of this opinion arose from the monopoly 

 of pastoral pursuits under circumstances particidarly 

 favourable to them on a primitive system, the small 

 necessity there was for the practice of husbandry, and the 

 veiy limited consumption of agricultural products but a 

 few years ago — the bulk of the population living almost 

 exclusively on flesh meat, like the wild huntsmen of forest 

 and plain ; the almost total ignorance on the part of the 

 native population of the elementary principles or practice 

 of husbandry ; an almost equal absence of knowledge of 

 these subjects on the part of the foreign settlers and com- 

 mercial men of those days ; the rude attempts made with 

 rude implements, and the consequent precariousness, and 

 comparatively small yield of crops. Men who know not, 

 and do not profess to know, how or why a plant grows, 

 or under what influences different plants thrive,' cannot 

 possibly form a judgment of the capabilities of a country 

 for agriculture. Furthermore, the man who has sown 

 oats in England, Ireland, or Scotland— where the mean 

 temperature is many degrees lower than here, and the 



