gree in which this labour is aided by capital, and the skill with which it is directed. Of these circumstances, the original fertility of the land, or abundance of spontaneous gifts, may frequently be found the least important. It is one, likewise, over which human labour has no influence, and therefore is not the subject of economy, foresight, or contrivance. Of the others, as they have been already noticed in regard to industry generally, we need not repeat our remarks upon them in this place.

CHAPTER XII.

AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRY.

UNDER this division of our subject should be comprehended all those labours which have for their object the augmenting or improving the useful products of the soil. It will include pasturage as well as tillage; embracing the operations which multiply the useful products of the animal, no less than of the vegetable, kingdom.

The agricultural arts are the offspring of human intellect, and peculiar to man. No occupation calls into exercise so great and so varied a portion of practical knowledge. The husbandman studies the soil, notes the seasons, selects the seed, interchanges the crops, adapts the composts; in a word, by means the most studied, and efforts the most varied, he succeeds in meliorating and multiplying the fruits of the earth, as well as the animals destined for his use, far beyond the first promises of nature, even in the most fertile soils and most favoured climates, subduing to his purposes the very impediments which she seems to interpose in his career.

The fruits of the earth adapted to the use of man cannot be procured in sufficient abundance for his wants without the appropriation of land, either to individuals or to communities. The land must be enclosed with fences to prevent the ravages of wild animals, it must be broken up and planted with fitting

vegetables, and the growing crops protected. Now no one would take the trouble to enclose and cultivate a piece of ground, unless he were secured in the right of gathering and appropriating its fruits when ripe to his own exclusive use. The same may

be said of the land employed for breeding, rearing, and fattening domestic animals. In order, therefore, to the production of artificial crops for the food of man and animals, it is necessary to secure to individuals a property in land. This necessity has been perceived and acted upon, with various modifications, and with more or less completeness, in the exclusive possession allowed in all countries and ages advanced beyond the hunting state. The stronger and more perfect the right permitted to an individual, the greater must be the inducement to him to improve the land he owns, and consequently the greater and more valuable will be the produce. It is perhaps not sufficiently the subject of general observation, that the population and the condition of a people in civilization and opulence is wholly dependent on the laws and customs that prevail amongst them respecting the occupation and ownership of land, whether production shall be restrained within the narrowest limits, or allowed to grow to the full extent of the other circumstances by which it is favoured.

Upon the vast importance of agriculture in procuring the supply of our wants it is unnecessary to enlarge. Indeed, when we compare the quantity of produce which is raised on a given surface in England, with that which is procured from the same extent of surface in those naturally fertile districts of America which continue to be inhabited by nations of hunters, the effective powers of agricultural industry appear almost miraculous; and our surprise somewhat abates that, in the infancy of economical science, the striking phenomena which it exhibits should have arrested inquiry, and induced the conclusion, that the only productive labour is that which is employed upon the soil.

In agriculture, nature co-operates with industry towards the formation of the product, in a more striking manner than in any other branch of industry. Its co-operation is gratuitous to man, and the results of agricultural labour seem, accordingly, to be of larger and more ample quantity than ordinary, whilst their

indispensable necessity as food seems to confer on them superior value and importance.

Hence, it has been thought that capital employed in agriculture, though it produce no greater profit than when employed in any other way, is, nevertheless, more productive of the public advantage than the other employments of industry. It has been said to be more especially advantageous to a nation. from the circumstance, that, not only do the individuals engaged in it procure a remuneration for their labour and capital in common with persons engaged in other occupations, but that, in addition to this, it yields a rent to the owner of the soil; and this as a return for the productive agency of nature, which cooperates with industry in the production of the fruits of the earth. It is true the landlord procures a revenue as well as the farmer and labourer. But it would be erroneous to suppose that the rent acquired by the landlord is a public advantage; that his riches, or revenues, are an addition to the riches or revenue of the state. In another place it is shown, that rent accrues through the scarcity of fertile land; and is, consequently, a disadvantage rather than an advantage to the nation; that whatever rent is paid to the landlord is paid out of the revenue of the rest of the community; that as much as his circumstances are improved by high rents, so much are the circumstances of the people at large, who have to pay them, made

worse.

In one respect, agriculture holds a pre-eminence over most of the other arts, in that it is concerned in the production of food, and therefore of the primary necessaries of subsistence, while the other arts are directed for the most part to the production of superfluities. So long as famine and want shall continue the scourges of mankind, every friend of humanity must desire to stimulate the production of corn in preference to the manufacture of silks and muslins, or of toys and trinkets. But it should not be forgotten that the miseries of hunger and want are averted more by such measures as conduce to production in general, and the advancement of public opulence, than by any unnatural direction of industry which should diminish its general fruitfulness.

While, then, we admit the paramount importance of agriculture, as regards the supply of our wants, and that in the order in which that supply is raised and furnished to us, it takes precedence of manufactures and commerce, we cannot admit that the public interest could be promoted by any greater direction of capital to agriculture than would take place of itself naturally, and without any external interference. If an excited or forced application of industry to agriculture take place, the profits of the cultivators and the wages of the labourers must fall, through the more active competition amongst them, and through a superabundant supply of the market, below what is gained in other occupations. Now, though food would, in this way, be sold at a lower price, and the consumer in one respect be benefited thereby, yet in another respect he would be injured; because he must remain in want of the other products, of which he is more in need, which the same industry would have furnished had it not been directed in excess to agriculture. An unequal rate of wages and profits, and too low a remuneration in this branch, the same as in any other, is, on the whole, as was before noticed, not beneficial, but adverse to the general good. Highly necessary as agriculture is to our supply, it is not more so than some other employments. The industry of the miller who grinds the corn, and of the baker who makes it into bread, are scarcely less essential than that of the farmer who raises the corn itself. Were the miller and baker to give up their businesses, and become cultivators, of what possible benefit could it be to the nation to have an additional quantity of corn, and more farmers than are sufficient, when, from not having millers and bakers enough to grind and bake it, we are deficient in our supply of bread? Clothing and lodging are but little less necessary to the comfort of man, and even to his existence, than food. Though the husbandman should produce the flax, the wool, and the timber, yet, without the labour of the spinner, the weaver, and the builder, these articles would be useless to us, and we must remain destitute of clothing and lodging. The productiveness of agricultural industry itself depends mainly on the assistance it derives from the other branches of industry, and the demand which they afford for its produce. The kinds

of industry which furnish the materials and fabricate the implements of husbandry are not less efficacious than the industry of the husbandman himself. Without the aid of these, it is impossible that agricultural industry can be exerted with effect. Neither can the farmer devote himself entirely to cultivation, unless his clothing and lodging be supplied by the labours of other classes. If he himself must work up the raw materials, a part of his time must be withdrawn from the cultivation of his farm to be devoted to manufactures. In fact, all the different arts, and even the sciences, are so indissolubly connected that they cannot be separated. While each co-operates to fulfil its particular object, all must combine in order to furnish a supply of our several wants, and to constitute that direction of industry which is most productive of the public advantage. To say that one kind of industry is more advantageous than another, is merely saying that our supply of the particular products it furnishes is more scanty than of others. That kind is the most beneficial, of which we have most need. This is not always agricultural. At one time it is agricultural; at another manufacturing; at another commercial. But the actual wants of the people at all times indicate what particular employments are at the time most conducive to the general good, by their emoluments being higher than those of other employments. And individual interest constantly tends to direct industry into these most advantageous employments. When, then, industry is left without restraint, and without factitious excitements, it cannot but flow, so far as the knowledge and abilities of the parties enable it, into those channels which most advance the public welfare; and this, without any regulation or external interference whatever.

Intimately connected with each other as are the different branches of industry, it is impossible that an undue preference and factitious advantages, can be given to one, but at the expense of the rest, and without working injustice and mischief to others; and thus an unnatural extension and heightening of tillage, would but deteriorate our circumstances rather than improve them. "Land and trade," to borrow the expressions of Sir Josiah Child," are twins, and have always, and ever will, wax