Ch. ix. Siberia, Northern and Southern. 169 



thinly peopled, and in none of them, perhaps, 

 does population increase in the proportion that 

 might be expected from the nature of the soil. 



Such countries seem to be under that moral 

 impossibility of increasing, which is well de- 

 scribed by Sir James Steuart* If either from 

 the nature of the government, or the habits of the 

 people, obstacles exist to the settlement of fresh 

 farms or the subdivision of the old ones, a part of 

 the society may suffer want, even in the midst of 

 apparent plenty. It is not enough that a country 

 should have the power of producing food in abun- 

 dance, but the state of society must be such as to 

 afford the means of its proper distribution; and 

 the reason why population goes on slowly in these 

 countries is, that the small demand for labour 

 prevents that distribution of the produce of the 

 soil, which, while the divisions of land remain the 

 same, can alone make the lower classes of society 

 partakers of the plenty which it affords. The 

 mode of agriculture is described to be extremely 

 simple, and to require very few labourers. In 

 some places the seed is merely thrown on the 

 fallow-! The buck-wheat is a common culture; 

 and though it is sown very thin, yet one sowing- 

 will last five or six years, and produce every year 

 twelve or fifteen times the original quantity. The 

 seed which falls during the time of the harvest is 

 sufficient for the next year, and it is only necessary 



* Polit. Econ. b. i. c. v. p. 30. 4to. 

 t Voy. cle Pallas, torn. i. p. 250. 



