182 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



earth advances, the means of subsistence are found 

 to increase in an equal, or even gi cater ratio. In 

 the early periods of hislory, famines were frequent 

 and terribly destructive ; wliile in modern times such 

 an event is never known, and this, too, notwith- 

 standing the number of inhabitants is some five or 

 six times as great as it was at the periods alluded 

 to. The reason for this improved state of things is 

 to be found in two causes : a more safe and pro- 

 ductive system of husbandry, and the introduction 

 of new vegetables and plants into general use as ar- 

 ticles of food. The first of these new substances, 

 we may notice, is maize or Indian corn, which, in- 

 troduced into Europe immediately after the discov- 

 ery of America, has made the circuit of the globe, 

 and now furnishes food to millions. The potato 

 succeeded maize, as a gift from the New World to 

 the Old ; and, if its spread was less rapid at first, it 

 has become far more general and extensive at the 

 present time, being found adapted to latitudes 

 where maize will not flourish, and, wherever it suc- 

 ceeds, doubling the means of subsistence upon the 

 cultivated grains. The introduction of the turnip 

 into general use has had an effect to increase the 

 means of subsistence but little- inferior to that of 

 the potato ; not, as in the case of that root, by di- 

 rectly furnishing food for man, but by so greatly in- 

 creasing the productiveness of the soil in nutritive 

 matter, that, Avherever its culture as a field-crop has 

 spread, it has exerted a surprisingly beneficial effect 

 on the interests of all connected with agriculture, 

 as well consumers as producers. 



The culture of the turnip as a field-crop in Britain 

 was introduced from Germany, and, in the opinion 

 of the celebrated writer on statistics, M'CuUoch, it 

 has added to the annual value of English agricultu- 

 ral products more than 60 millions. It is there the 

 foundation of alternate husbandry, and has contrib- 

 uted more than any other improvement in rural 



