4 



IlfTRODrCTORT. 



The homeward commerce which we carry on with our numerous 

 Colonies, with our Indian Possessions, and with foreign countries, 

 is principally in articles furnished by the vegetable kingdom, 

 such as the cereal grains, wheat, rice, maize, &c. ; vegetables 

 used in preparing dietetic drinks aud distilled liquors, as tea, coffee, 

 cacao, and the sugar cane, grapes, &c. ; spices and condiments ; 

 drugs ; dyes and tanning substances, obtained from the bark, 

 leaves, fruit, and roots of various herbs and trees ; the expressed 

 or distilled oils of different plants ; fruits in the green, di'ied, or 

 preserved state ; starches obtained from the roots or trunks of many 

 farinaceous plants ; fibrous substances used for cordage, matting, 

 and clothing, as cotton, Indian hemp, flax, coco-nut coir, plantain 

 and pine-apple fibre ; timber and fancy woods. These substances, 

 in the aggregate, form at least nine-tenths in value of tlie whole 

 imports of this country. There are also several products of the 

 animal kingdom dependent on vegetable culture, which might be 

 brought into this category, such as silk and cochineal. Y ery few 

 of these products of the vegetable kingdom come to us in any 

 other than an unmanufactured state ; they are shipped to this 

 country as the chief emporium and factory of the world, either 

 for re-export or to be prepared for consumption by the millions 

 to Avhom they furnish employment, sustenance, and articles of 

 clothing. 



It is a wise ordination of Providence, that the different nations 

 of the earth are as it were mutually dependent on each other for 

 many of the necessaries and luxuries of life, and the means of pro- 

 gress and civilization. Commerce is thus extended, the various 

 arts and manufactures improved by comparison and competi- 

 tion ; and the acres yet untilled in distant lands hold out strong 

 inducements for immigration, their climate and products affording 

 health, freedom, and independence to the over-tasked and heavily 

 taxed ai^tisan and agriculturist of Europe. Although the systems 

 of tropical agriculture, generally pursued, are peculiar and effec- 

 tive, yet there is no doubt that much improvement remains to be 

 carried out in the practices adopted, in the implements employed^ 

 and the machinery used for preparing the crops for shipment. In 

 the British Isles our insulated position, limited extent of country, 

 unsettled climate, and numerous population, aggregated in dense 

 masses, have compelled us to investigate and avail ourselves of 

 every improvement in agricid.ture, arts and manufactures, wliich 

 experience, ingenuity, and a comparison with the customs of other 

 countries, have placed at our disposal. 



If we except sandy deserts, and some of the interior ])ortions of 

 the polar regions, it will be found that there is scarcety any 

 country but what is capable of improvement. Indeed, so exten- 

 sive are the resources of agriculture, that further improvements 

 may be most easily effected. 



Let us then examine and ascertain what new objects may be 

 improved upon, and if by our speculations only one single article, 

 either for food or use, is added to those already in u^e, or those 



