IV CAPITAL-THE MOTHER OF LABOUR. 159 



wells, or in which the flock has to be defended from 

 wolves or from human depredators. As to land, it 

 has been shown that, except as affording mere room 

 and standing ground, the importance of land, great 

 as it may be, is secondary. The one thing needful 

 for economic production is the green plant, as the 

 sole producer of vital capital from natural inor- 

 ganic bodies. Men might exist without labour (in 

 the ordinary sense) and without land; without 

 plants they must inevitably perish. 



That which is true of the purely pastoral con- 

 dition is a fortiori true of the purely agricultural * 

 condition, in which the existence of the cultivator 

 is directly dependent on the production of vital 

 capital by the plants which he cultivates. Here, 

 again, the condition precedent of the work of each 

 year is vital capital. Suppose that a man lives 

 exclusively upon the plants which he cultivates. 

 It is obvious that he must have food-stuffs to live 

 upon, while he prepares the soil for sowing and 

 throughout the period which elapses between this 

 and harvest. These food-stuffs must be yielded 

 by the stock remaining over from former crops. 

 The result is the same as before — the pre-existence 

 of vital capital is the necessary antecedent of la- 

 bour. Moreover, the amount of labour which con- 

 tributes, as an accessory condition, to the produc- 



* It is a pity that we have no word that signifies 

 plant-culture exclusively. But for the present purpose I 

 may restrict agriculture to that sense. 



