Puslapio vaizdai
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tained the power of crystallizing matter into gems, and of reviving insects or infusoria by the aërial electricity, will acquire the knowledge how to imitate the vegetable process; and, like this, to put the material particles of our surface into an alimentary condition for our use, no one now living can either affirm or deny. It is not more unlikely than the galvanic metallization of the earths and alcalies, or the crystallizations of Mr Crosse, before the last year, 1836."

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If, from chemistry, we turn to natural philosophy, we need not despair of seeing this department of science made subservient to the same important object. It is known, for example, that the electric fluid, that mysterious but universal agent, is intimately connected with the vegetable process. Will it be supposed incredible, that the astonishing investigations which are at present in progress, with the assistance of this principle, may lead to some great revolution in the cultivation of the soil. It has been already proposed, by means of thunder-rods, to collect the electric fluid, and distribute it over the soil; and although this scheme may fail, it would be rash to aver that some other mode of adding fertility to vegetation, by the application of this agent, may not be found effectual.

Again, if we attend to mechanical contrivances, we shall here find a new opening for agricultural improvement. The instruments employed in tilling the soil, and in other departments of the farmer's employment, are confessedly imperfect. Improvements have of late been proceeding in an accelerated ratio, which, while they show the defects of former implements, afford the promise of still further advances. That there is room

* Sacred History of the World, vol. iii. letter 30. The result of the experiments of Mr Crosse, which appeared to produce insects from silex, has been probably with justice disputed. These insects are of a well known species, which infest the cabinets of the naturalist; and it has been supposed that they were produced from the germ by the stimulus of the electric fluid, or introduced in some other way. When the experiments were

carefully repeated, no such result followed.

for such advances, there can be no doubt. Compare, for example, the husbandry of the plough with that of the spade. The former is more speedy,the latter more effectual, so that what is gained in the one case, is, at least, to a certain extent, lost in the other. An instrument is therefore still a desideratum that shall combine the speed of the one with the efficiency of the other. A similar observation may be made with regard to other farming implements. What the power of mechanism may effect, is partly seen in the invention of the threshing-machine. The application of the steam-engine to the purposes of agriculture is a probable method by which this department of the arts may again be advantageously employed to bestow additional power on the cultivator of the soil, and increase the quantity of human food.* "There is such a spirit of enterprise and intelligent ingenuity among our countrymen," says Mr Turner truly, "that we may expect that all improvements which can be invented and brought to bear usefully on this point, will in time occur as our population enlarges, because that increase will bring more acting minds into existence, and stimulate their activity.”+

These views are thrown out, not with any other intention than that of addressing an argument to our ignorance. I speak of possibilities, not certainties, nor even, perhaps, probabilities in some of the instances

* Lord Henniker stated, at the last Suffolk agricultural dinner on 8th September, 1836, that in Lincolnshire they had already a steam plough, which would harrow thirty acres, and plough eight acres a day. The author witnessed the operation of Mr Heathcoat's steam-plough, exhibited at the meeting of the Highland Society in Dumfries in October, this year (1837). Its work on a large area of moss land, through which the Lochar flows, was very surprising; but much improvement must be effected before it can prove practically useful. The expense alone is sufficient to prevent its employment; and it is only fit to be used on such a locality as the Lochar moss. The saving of food in the article of horses alone, would be immense were this experiment to succeed. It is calculated by Mr Brown, in the New Farmer's Journal (1st November 1833), that the horses now used in husbandry alone, are maintained at an yearly expenditure of thirty millions. This expenditure is, of course, chiefly in food. Each horse is said to require eight times the soil and substance which would supply food for a man. + Turner's Sacred History, vol. iii. letter 30.

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mentioned; and the inference I would draw is this,— that the boundaries of agricultural improvement are far from being capable of distinct definition, and may be placed at a distance far more remote than our present knowledge can warrant us to assign. From past experience, we have reason to conclude, that the field will gradually open as the necessities of man require. Such is the undeviating system; and as this system is not the result of chance, but the appointment of an infinitely intelligent and all powerful mind, we may rest assured, that it will continue to fulfil its high destination to the very last. The power of producing additional food, by whatever means it may be acquired, will undoubtedly prove co-extensive with the increasing propagation or our species. Both shall have an end, so the divine oracles declare,—but they will end together.

On the preceding conjectures, however, I am far from resting the case. There are at present powers at work, and materials in existence, which sufficiently indicate a vast future accession of the means of subsistence, and the beneficent intentions, and the wise arrangeprove ments, of Providence. To these I shall advert in the next paper.

Meanwhile, I conclude at present with the following pious observations of the well informed writer, whom, on this part of my subject, I chiefly consult, and whose spirit I would gladly infuse into my own pages:— "Let us repose calmly on the fact, that society has hitherto been supplied regularly from the natural system of things with the food it has required. We have, in this advanced period of the world, enough for our present wants; and all the providing causes from which this sufficiency has resulted to us, are still in their efficacious operation, and discover no sign of diminution, of general failure, or of distressing insufficiency. The same benevolent plan, and all its associated purposes, are in steady execution; and the true principle of our trust and hope has been delivered to us from the highest authority.

'Your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these things.' As long as He means us to exist on earth, nature will be made to yield the surplus which that existence will require. He must be expunged from His creation before the result can be otherwise."*

FOURTH WEEK-THURSDAY.

HUMAN FOOD.-PROVISION FOR THE FUTURE.-MEANS NOW IN EXISTENCE.

IN a former paper, the conclusion has been drawn, that were the inhabitants of the earth to increase at the rate which has been experienced in England for the last century, supposing agricultural skill meanwhile to be stationary, it would be, at least, three centuries before the whole improveable land on our globe could be fully occupied. This supposition, however, is far more unfavourable than existing facts seem to warrant; and many reasons might be advanced to prove, that events continuing to proceed as they have hitherto done, it would require an immensely longer period before the soil capable of raising human subsistence would be exhausted.

Taking for granted, however, that the calculations already made are just, and descending from conjecture and speculation to existing facts, let us see if there are not in the powers of nature with which we are acquainted, indications of a provision for the existence of a far more numerous population, than would result from the mere cultivation of an additional extent of surface.

I have, in a previous volume,† instanced the banana tree as a vegetable product, which might be cultivated to such an extent, as to increase, in a very extraordinary * Sacred History of the World, vol. iii. letter 30.

+ " Summer."

degree, the amount of human food. It is said by Humboldt, to be capable of subsisting twenty-five individuals on a patch of ground which, if sown in wheat, would only support a single person. It is propagated with the utmost ease; it is a native of every tropical region; and flourishes freely wherever the mean heat exceeds 75° of Fahrenheit. All hot countries seem equally to favour the growth of its fruit; and it has been cultivated in Cuba in situations where the thermometer descends so low as 45. Now, this tree, which yields a nutritive and grateful food,* might be cultivated to an extent immensely greater than has yet taken place. Humboldt remarks, that a European, newly arrived in the torrid zone, is struck with nothing so much as the extreme smallness of the spots under cultivation round a cabin which contains a numerous family of Indians. He mentions this circumstance to confirm his statement of the prolifie and nutritive qualities of the tree; but it, at the same time, indicates the vast extent of ground which might yet be brought into cultivation, and, as a necessary consequence, the amazing accession which, by this means alone, might be made to the population of the tropics.

In temperate climates, the recent introduction of the potato as an article of husbandry shows, in one instance, what may be done for the more extensive production of human food, by exploring the storehouse of nature. The growth of this plant has, within the last century, produced a new era in our agriculture. "The potato has this great and peculiar advantage over all other substantive esculent vegetables, that it can be not only cultivated in places where no others can be profitably grown, but that it can be cultivated there at small expense; while it is less subject to disease, and more secure

"The ripe fruit of the banana is preserved, like the fig, by being dried in the sun. This dried banana is an agreeable and healthy aliment. Meal is extracted from the fruit, by cutting it in slices, drying it in the sun, and then pounding it."-Lib. of Entertaining Knowledge-Vegetable Sub

stances.

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