Strona 675 z 2651

It raises the price of animal food; because a great part of the

land which produces it, being rendered fit for producing corn,

must afford to the landlord and farmer the rent and profit of

corn land. It lowers the price of vegetable food; because, by

increasing the fertility of the land, it increases its abundance.

The improvements of agriculture, too, introduce many sorts of

vegetable food, which requiring less land, and not more labour

than corn, come much cheaper to market. Such are potatoes and

maize, or what is called Indian corn, the two most important

improvements which the agriculture of Europe, perhaps, which

Europe itself, has received from the great extension of its

commerce and navigation. Many sorts of vegetable food, besides,

which in the rude state of agriculture are confined to the

kitchen-garden, and raised only by the spade, come, in its

improved state, to be introduced into common fields, and to be

raised by the plough; such as turnips, carrots, cabbages, etc.