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manure, wiJi thrive and luxuriate in the very same situations 

 where it comes forward spontaneously, and grows vigo- 

 rously, without any of these helps. 



But this is not all; for although, it may be often neces- 

 sary to cultivate florin with care and labour in alpine 

 regions, I have promised that it shall grow there without 

 culture, and produce spontaneous crops of equal value to 

 those upon which we expend our labour and pains in any 

 country, high or low. 



To establish these extraordinary positions, I must recur 

 to general principles, and shew that what I promised is 

 not incompatible with the regular proceeding of Nature, 

 liough my measures may be very different from the usual 

 proceedings of ma?i. 



I^etus examine the population of the vegetable kingdom, 

 as originally disposed by Xature, and we shall find on every 

 part of our surface an heterogeneous mass of plants, 

 crowding upon each other, and contending for the pos- 

 session. Among these, man soon perceived, or was taught, 

 (whether by instinct or otherwise, is foreign to our present 

 object) that some were well adapted for his sustenance; 

 nor could it be long before he discovered, that from these 

 favourite vegetables, he could extract but little food, so 

 long as they remained in tlieir natural state, pressed upon 

 by rivals, impeding their growth, and diminishing their 

 produce. 



The idea of giving to these favourites the exclusive 

 possession of some area, must soon have occurred : hence 

 distinct cultivation, that is, apiculture; which I have 

 somewhere defined, a ivar between Man and Nature, 

 contending for the possession of certain portions of our 

 surface. 



That cultivation is an actual imr is obvious ; for man 

 ^-omm^nctshy extennination: he ploughs the ground, for 



