are also several products of the animal kingdom dependent on vegetable
culture, which might be brought into this category, such as silk and
cochineal. Very few of these products of the vegetable kingdom come to
us in any other than an unmanufactured state; they are shipped to this
country as the chief emporium and factory of the world, either for
re-export or to be prepared for consumption by the millions to whom
they furnish employment, sustenance, and articles of clothing.

It is a wise ordination of Providence, that the different nations of
the earth are as it were mutually dependent on each other for many of
the necessaries and luxuries of life, and the means of progress and
civilization. Commerce is thus extended, the various arts and
manufactures improved by comparison and competition; and the acres yet
untilled in distant lands hold out strong inducements for immigration,
their climate and products affording health, freedom, and independence
to the over-tasked and heavily taxed artisan and agriculturist of
Europe. Although the systems of tropical agriculture, generally
pursued, are peculiar and effective, yet there is no doubt that much
improvement remains to be carried out in the practices adopted, in the
implements employed, and the machinery used for preparing the crops
for shipment. In the British Isles our insulated position, limited
extent of country, unsettled climate, and numerous population,
aggregated in dense masses, have compelled us to investigate and avail
ourselves of every improvement in agriculture, arts and manufactures,
which experience, ingenuity, and a comparison with the customs of
other countries, have placed at our disposal.

If we except sandy deserts, and some of the interior portions of the
polar regions, it will be found that there is scarcely any country but
what is capable of improvement. Indeed, so extensive are the resources