RELATION OF AGRICULTURE TO THE STATE. 43 



those who have health and happiness in the country. Better 

 that it should be so. The vast proportion of infantile deaths 

 even among the healthy but hard-worked portion of the city 

 population from those nurseries in the midst of the fetid air 

 of those crowded marts, are not propitious to a prolonged or 

 healthy existence. 



About the middle of the last century, great excitement was 

 caused in England and Europe by the publication of a treatise 

 by Mr. Malthus, attempting to show that the population was in- 

 creasing so fast that unless some check was resorted to, there 

 would be a difficulty of procuring food. A scientific examina- 

 tion of the whole subject soon disproved the theory of the essay- 

 ist, but in the interim many suggestions were offered on the 

 subject of restraining marriages and reducing the increase of 

 the people. Dean Swift even ventured to suggest that the most 

 agreeable way to get rid of fat babies was to eat them ! "VVe 

 need have no fears on the score of inability to support a popula- 

 tion in our country. Without taking into consideration the 

 constant and necessary checks upon population, by death caused 

 by diseases, wars and the natural end of existence, the extrav- 

 agance of fashionable life, the selfishness of men and women, 

 we have ample room and verge enough to sustain the rest of the 

 universe, if the land should be cultivated to its fullest capac- 

 ity, and as but a portion of the Old World's inhabitants are 

 likely to settle here just now, we can maintain those that do, and 

 our own population, with even the present slighting style of cul- 

 ture. Let us not be afraid, then, to emulate our fathers in the 

 possession of large families. Among them the average number 

 of children to a family was from eight to ten. In our day it is 

 reduced to three. 



Ciiildren may increase the cares as they do the blessings of 

 life, but a philosopher saith, " they mitigate the remembrance 

 of death." " Happy is the man," saith the Psalmist, " that hath 

 his quiver full of them ! " 



Next to having children, it is important to educate them. 

 Education in what is called the best society is apt to consist 

 more of the ornamental than the useful. Humboldt tells us 

 that an Oronoco Indian, though quite regardless of bodily com- 

 fort, will yet labor for a fortnight to purchase pigment where- 

 with to make himself admired, and that the same woman who 



