land in cultivation; consequently two acres for each individual. Were all living on a full animal diet, the land could only supply food for five millions six hundred thousand inhabitants; on the greatest delicacies of fruit, grain, and roots, one hundred and twelve millions; on grain, and other vegetables, (when, according to Lord Lauderdale, one acre will support four persons,) two hundred and twenty-four millions; on potatoes and common fruit, five hundred and sixty millions;—without including the extra produce from improved culture. Or let us suppose that, in Great Britain and Ireland, there are (in round numbers) eighty millions of acres; of which sixty millions are arable, or capable of being cultivated. Let half of these be appropriated to the production of the finest fruits, flowers, and timber; and to the support of cattle, sheep, and other animals, for the production of milk, wool, &c.; we shall then have thirty millions of acres for potatoes, wheat, and other grain. Let one-half of this remnant be sown with wheat, and the remaining ten millions planted with potatoes: then

15,000,000 of acres of wheat, @ 3 qrs. per acre, will

INHABITANTS.

45,000,000

..150,000,000

15,000,000 of acre of potatoes, at 10 persons per

Total 195,000,000

which is equal to seven times the present population, and more than thirty times the number that the land would support on flesh alone; without taking into consideration the produce of the thirty millions of acres appropriated

to fruit and other delicacies. Many useless trees now stand in hedge-rows by the side of common roads; if these were replaced by varieties of apple and pear trees, not only would they be more ornamental, but the owner and the hungry traveller would be supplied with many delightful repasts.

508. In the vegetable kingdom, man has resources without end for the production of food; and when science shall have shed its meridian light upon the subject, every tree, shrub, and herb, will lend its assistance in the production of nutriment for the human race. When man shall be able to ascertain the properties which any article of nutriment must possess, to be in direct relation with his alimentary organs, his blood, and tissues, he will (in all probability) discover an easy and efficient mode of combining the various properties of vegetables, so as to produce in infinite abundance the food best adapted to the perfect development of his organic structure. If fruit, or bread (as formed by the ordinary means), should be scarce, there is little doubt but the skill and ingenuity of man, will aid him in artificially combining the juices and fibre of plants; so as abundantly to supply that of which the vicissitudes of climate, or other unforeseen contingencies, may have deprived him. Wood can be converted into starch, and starch into sugar or vinegar. "When lignin is comminuted and reduced by artificial processes," observes Dr. Prout, "it is said to form a substance analagous to the amylaceous principle, and to be highly nutritious." Professor Autenrieth (of Tubingen) states, that when wood is deprived of every thing soluble, reduced

to powder, repeatedly subjected to the heat of an oven, and then ground in the manner of corn, and boiled with water, it yields a flour, which forms a jelly, like that of wheat-starch; and, when fermented with leaven, makes a perfectly uniform and spongy bread.

509. The "Moniteur", in May 1830,-mentioning that wheat-straw, chopped and ground, yields a flour of a coarse description, but agreeable and nutritious,-added, that its bread was superior to the common bread used by the lower orders on the Continent. Chance led a miller, in the Côte D'or, to discover the means of converting straw into a farina of pretty good quality. Lately the Duc d' Angoulême, passing through Dyon, tasted some small loaves made of it, and took some to shew the king. It was M. Maitre, founder of the agricultural establishment of Viloffe, near Chatillon, who first discovered it. He has since found, that not only the straw of corn and other grains may be made into flour; but that hay and the stalks of trefoil, lucerne, and sainfoin, are also convertible. Flour from these last, he gives to his sheep and lambs.*

510. The public papers of March 1830 stated, that Mr. Gouldson had discovered a mode of separating and preparing the farinaceous parts of such bulbous roots as carrots, turnips, parsneps, beet, &c., and of converting it into a fine flour. After two years' experiment, he has now obtained a patent. He declares, that he really produces good and nutritious bread; equal, both in quality and colour, to the finest white wheaten bread.

"BULL. UNIVER." June 1830. P. 157.

The quantity of farina to be obtained from the roots grown upon any given quantity of ground, compared with that produced from the ears of wheat on the same space, is increased (he says) at least twenty times.

511. I may here briefly notice another reason for supposing that man will, in future ages, have recourse to a vegetable diet; though it refers to a period so distant, that it will be deemed worthy of little attention. It is a well ascertained fact, that while plants decompose the carbonic acid contained in the air, and liberate the oxygen, all animals (except the microscopic animalcules) consume the oxygen, and restore the carbonic acid to the atmosphere. Combustion also diminishes the oxygen, and increases the amount of carbonic acid. Now, in proportion as animals multiply and vegetation decreases, the constitution of the atmosphere must be altered, and rendered less fit for the respiration of man. But it has been shown (200, 254) that, on vegetable food, man requires less oxygen than on animal diet; therefore, by increasing the growth of vegetables for his food, and contracting the numbers of other animals, he preserves the purity of the atmosphere for an increasing human population, and for the continued existence of his species. An exclusively animal diet for man, however, is not advocated by any person; and the calculations are only introduced here for the sake of a comparison.

512. Some, perhaps, may be inclined to doubt the truth of calculations, which show resources for a number so immensely beyond the present population of Great Britain. They are, however, based on undeniable facts,

It

which were fully admitted by Mr. Arthur Young and Mr. Newenham, in their researches respecting the comparative amount of food yielded by wheat and potatoes; and, if not minutely correct, (which cannot be expected with such variable data,) they will at least be found a pretty near approximation to the truth. Some, again, will say-"Why look forward to a provision for such an amazing increase of mankind in these islands, which can only take place at an immeasurably distant period?" has been proved, that in many countries where the means of subsistence are not limited, population has a tendency to increase in a geometrical ratio ;—doubling its numbers, in some instances, every twenty or five and twenty years; and if there were no checks to the fulfilment of this law of increase, the present twenty-eight millions of inhabitants in the united kingdom would, in the space of from one hundred to one hundred and twenty-five years, amount to eight hundred and ninety six millions ;nearly equal to the present population of the earth; and a number which the most productive kind of food would not support in these islands, unless assisted by foreign produce. But it is evident, that this law of increase among mankind must, in all countries and in all ages, have met with many checks;—such as scarcity of food, wars, pestilence, &c.; otherwise the world would have long since received its maximum of human inhabitants.

513. Our population returns supply us with many valuable facts; and from these we learn, that the population of this country has, for the last forty years, been increasing after the rate of fifteen per cent in ten years,