88 



LETTERS ON TREES. 



19. Now, his various wants are mairdy such as vege- 

 tables only can meet. We have already seen how 

 dependent he is, in common with all animals, on vege- 

 tables for food; and we may just add, with reference 

 to this, that besides the enormous quantities of corn 

 and other kinds of vegetables grown annually, to be 

 directly consumed by him, a large part of every year's 

 vegetation is raised for the support of animals which 

 he lives upon, and rears exclusively for their use as 

 food. The grass of the field is thus indirectly but as 

 truly his stay and support as the corn. But, passing 

 from this class of vegetable productions, and from that 

 more immediate and pressing want which they supply, 

 let us ask what kind of vegetables come next in impor- 

 tance to man — what sort of vegetable produce is he 

 most dependent on ? Were we to say trees and tim- 

 ber, and trees as producing timber, should we be far 

 from the truth ? Doubtless not. Wanting timber, 

 what could man have done ? What would have been 

 — what would now be his condition ? He could have 

 done very little towards subduing the earth, or replen- 

 ishing it ; he could have made little or no progress in 

 arts, or commerce, or civihsation. It may be ques- 

 tioned whether he could have continued on the earth 

 at all, so intimately are the properties and uses of 

 timber bound up with the very conditions of his exist- 

 ence. 



20. We are now arrived at the point to which I 



