says--

"This general law of agricultural industry is the most important
proposition in political economy. If the law were different, almost
all the phenomena of the production and distribution of wealth would
be other than they are."

In the view thus presented by Mr. Mill there is no exaggeration. The
law of the occupation of the land by man lies at the foundation of all
political economy; and if we desire to know what it is that tends to
the emancipation of the people of the earth from slavery, we must
first satisfy ourselves that the theory of Messrs. Malthus and Ricardo
has not only no foundation in fact, but that the law is directly the
reverse, and tends, therefore, toward the adoption of measures
directly opposed to those that would he needed were that theory true.
The great importance of the question will excuse the occupation of a
few minutes of the reader's attention in placing before him some facts
tending to enable him to satisfy himself in regard to the universality
of the law now offered for his consideration. Let him inquire where he
may, he will find that the early occupant _did not_ commence in the
flats, or on the heavily timbered-land, but that he _did_ commence on
the higher land, where the timber was lighter, and the place for his
house was dry. With increasing ability, he is found draining the
swamps, clearing the heavy timber, turning up the marl, or burning the
lime, and thus acquiring control over more fertile soils, yielding a
constant increase in the return to labour. Let him then trace the
course of early settlement, and he will find that while it has often
followed the course of the streams, it has always avoided the swamps
and river bottoms. The earliest settlements of this country were on
the poorest lands of the Union--those of New England. So was it in New