14 AGRICULTURE. 



manufacturing, as in Prussia ;* where public opin- 

 ion has degraded manual labor, as in Spain, Portu- 

 gal, and the Papal territory ; or where laws villa- 

 nize it, as in Russia, Prussia, Poland, Hungary, &c., 

 &c., it is in vain to expect pre-eminent agriculture. 

 These principles will receive illustration as we go 

 along. 



I. in the Campania of Rome, where, in the time 

 of Pliny, were counted twenty-three cities, the trav- 

 eller is now astonished and depressed at the silence 

 and desolation that surround him. Even from Rome 

 to Trescati [four leagues of road the most frequent- 

 ed], we find only an arid plain, without trees, with- 

 out meadows natural or artificial, and without villa- 

 ges or other habitation of man ! Yet is this wretch- 

 edness not the fault of soil or climate, which, with 

 little alteration,! continue to be what they were in 

 the days of Augustus. " Man is the only growth that 

 dwindles here" and to his deficient or ill-directed in- 

 dustry are owing all the calamities of the scene. J 



one of the most enlightened agriculturists of the age, aided by 

 the instruction in agriculture which is now given in the normal 

 and primary schools of that kingdom, has already produced a 

 wonderful improvement in Prussian agriculture. The march of 

 improvement in Scotch husbandry, in the present century, has 

 probably not been surpassed in any country ; while in England, 

 at no time has there been greater or more wisely directed efforts 

 for improvement than within the last few years. Instead of 

 manufactures depressing, it would seem that they now operate 

 as the strongest stimulant to agricultural improvement, by of- 

 fering a ready home-market for the surplus products of the soil, 

 both of raw materials and provisions. This also appears to be 

 true with regard to our country. J. B. 



* Although great attention has been given to manufactures in 

 Prussia within the last half century, still it is too much to say 

 that she is "principally manufacturing." Agriculture is un- 

 doubtedly, by far, the most important interest. 



t The climate of Italy is now warmer than it was in the Au- 

 gustan age, which Buffon ascribes to the draining of great tracts 

 of swampy land in Germany. 



t " Un Romain meme le plus indigent rouglroitde cultiverla 

 terro." Bosc. The poorest Roman would blush to cultivate the 

 earth. 



