Page:The Effects of Civilisation on the People in European States.djvu/51

Rh fertile, will not be sufficient for the sustenance of nearly the number of people that inhabit any civilised part of the world. In those parts of America which are not inhabited by Europeans, the spontaneous produce of the earth, with very little assistance from cultivation, is sufficient for the whole support of the inhabitants; but then these are very few in number, in comparison to the extent of the country they occupy. To support great numbers, the land must be cultivated; and the quantity of the produce of it will be, the degree of fertility of it being given, as the number of hands or the quantity of labour bestowed on it. If reduced to a state of pasture, it will produce more food for man than if covered with trees, or in the state of a forest. Again, this produce will be inferior to that of arable lands; and this again to that of land managed as in a garden. In these different modes of cultivation, namely, pasture, agriculture, and horticulture, the produce rises in quantity in the order in which they are here set down, or as the number of hands employed. This, therefore, being the case, it is obvious, that to produce plenty it requires, besides fertile land and good seasons, the employing a sufficient number of hands on the land. It will be shown hereafter, that not only in years of scanty crops, but that in all years, the produce