Book II. AGRICULTURE UNDER VARIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES. 207 



1272. The political stale of a country will 

 powerfully aft'ect 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 

 who has capital will be unwilling to risk it : 

 in either case, few who have capital will engage 

 in that profession ; and if any find it profitable, 

 the fear of exposing himself to exactions from 

 government or from his landlord, will prevent 

 him from making a proper use of his profits 

 either in the way of employment or of consump- 

 tion. Many instances of this state of tilings are 

 to be found in the foregoing history. Wherever 

 the metayer system orthat of short leases prevails, 

 whatever may be 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 that of manufactures or commerce. 



1273. lielinion may be thought to have very little influence on agriculture : but in a 

 Catholic or Mohammedan country, where the religion enjoins a frequtnt abstinence from 

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

 ing and feeding of stock for the shambles or the dairy cannot prosper to the same extent 

 as in a country less enslaved by prejudice, or whose religious opinions do not interfere 

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



1274. 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 Ficnch appear to be 

 the same gay people that they were in the time of Julius Ca?sar ; and, as far as history 

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



1275. The agriculture of the world, in regard to the state of society, may perhaps admit of 

 the following divisions : — 



1276. The agriculture of science, or modern farming, in which the cultivator is secure 

 in his property or possession, both with relation to the government and to the landlord 

 he lives under, as generally in Britain and North America 



1277. The agriculture of liabit, or feudal culture, in which the cultivator is a metayer, 

 or a tenant at will, or on a short lease, or has covenanted to pursue a certain fixed system 

 of culture. 



1278. Barbarian agriculture, or that of a semi-barbarous people who cultivate at ran- 

 dom, and on land to which they have no defined right of possession, roots or grain, 

 without regard to rotation, order, or permanent advantage. 



1279. The economy of savages, such as hunting, fishing, gathering fruits, or digging 

 up roots. 



Chap. IV. 



Of the Agriculture of Britain. 



1 280. To which of these geographical, physical, and social divisions of agriculture that of 

 the British isles may be referred, is the next object to be determined, and we submit the 

 following as its classification : — 



1281. Geographically it is the agriculture of draining and manures. 



12S2. Physically, those of water- fed and sun-burnt lands, mountains, and variable 

 plains. 



1283. Socially considered, it is the agriculture of science. 



1284. The following Parts of this work, therefore, are to be considered as treating of a 

 kind of agriculture so characterised ; that is, of the agriculture of our own country. Who- 

 ever has paid a due attention to what has preceded, can scarcely fail to have formed an 

 idea of the agriculture of every other part of the world. 



