Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 46.djvu/701

Rh physiology, the qualities of different soils, the influence of exposure and climate, the course of the seasons, and the accidents of meteorology; to sow and to harvest at the most favorable moment, and then to store the products in such a way as to prolong the enjoyment of them. The establishment of agricultural industry thus exacted much more investigation, observation, and knowledge than that of pastoral industry; and further, instead of being limited, as in the domestication of animals, to a small number of selected species, agriculture had to extend its empire over thousands. This sort of life demanded, besides, more foresight, for it was necessary to work for results the profit of which was not gathered till after a long waiting. Finally, the profession of agriculture was much more toilsome than that of herdsman, and man, averse to hard work, recoiled long before the fatigue of so rude a task. He could not undertake it resolutely except during a phase of progress in which he had become more capable of reasoning, persistence, and effort. Agricultural civilization is therefore superior in every aspect to pastoral civilization by the extent of knowledge and foresight it implies, by the amount of labor it imposes, and by the quantity of wealth it creates. And when the two functions are in exercise at the same time, while the care of the herds is left to the most ignorant and weakest of the population—children, women, and old men—the agriculturists compose the most active, the most intelligent, and the most experienced part.

A progressive era of agricultural operations did not arrive till after both the hunting and the pastoral phases. On the one side, in fact, the destruction of wild animals must be sufficiently advanced to permit the cultivator to enjoy the reward of his labors, which too many spoilers would render of no avail. Agriculture would be hard to establish in a country where a pillaging and devastating fauna flourishes. In South Africa, for example, the plantations, exposed to the ravages of deer, birds, and insects, give little return. On the other hand, the co-operation of domestic animals was necessary, in order to plow large surfaces expeditiously as well as to fertilize by their manure the ground which repeated croppings would exhaust. This is the reason why, while we find among many peoples just issued from the savage state and destitute of cattle—Polynesians, Mexicans, Peruvians, etc.—interesting attempts at agriculture, they have not been able, in the absence of that resource, to arise themselves above a limited scale of gardening. The real agricultural system comes after the pastoral system.

But, this given, the other should arise from it in time, when the multiplication of herds in the natural pastures has reached a limit which can not be well exceeded. The least accident tending