PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

Agriculture, and Commerce. . 449
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II. Next to the mode or living, we are to ~on.\
sider "the quantity of provi~on ",uited to that .n-lode,
'Which is either raised in the country, or impurted in ..
to it:" for thi.> is the (.rder in whj",h we assigned ·the
causes of population, and undertc~k. to treat of them.:
Now, if we measure the q~tiry of provision by the
number of lluman bodies it will ~ upport in due health
and vigour, this quantity, the extent and quality of
the soil from which it is rai~ed being given, will depend
greatly up\Jn the kind. For instance, a piece of
ground capable of supplying aninlal food sufficient
for the subsis(enc~ of tei! persons, would sustain, at
least, the double of that nunlber with grain, roots,
2Ild 111ilk. The first resource of saval!e life is in the
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llesh of wild animals: hence u~e ilumbers amongst
savage- nations, compared with the tract of country
which they occupy, are universally small; because
thi~ species of provision is, of all others, sup.plied iu.
the slend~rest proporticn. The next step .:wtNas the
invention of pasturage, or the rearing of Hocks and
herds of lame aninials: tllis alteration added to the
ttock of pr()yisiGn much. But the last and principal
improvement ~~as to follow; namely, tillage, or the
arrificial prcdllcrion of corn, esculent plants, and
roots. This disrovery, whilst it l.hanged (he quality
of !lum~ln fooe] , auznlented the quantity in a vast
proportion. So far as the state of population is gov-~
erned ;..;ia !imit~d by the quantity of pro\'ision, per ..'
h~f\S thEre !s no ~ingle cause that affects it so powerful-t
Iy, as the kil!d and quality of food which chance or J
llsagt: hath intt oduced into a country. In England,
notwithstanding the produce of the soil has been, of
late, considerably increased, by the inclosure of wastes,
and the adoption, in many places, of a more successful
husbandry, yet we do not observe a corresponding
addition to the number of inhabit~nts; the reason Of
which appears to me to be the more general consumption
of animal food amongst us. Many ranks
of people whose ordinary diet was, in the last centu.
Cy, prepared almost tntirely from milk, roots!J and
~egctablefi, now require every day a considerable por ..