DIVISION IV.

INDUSTRY.

SECTION I.

AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRY.

INDUSTRY IN GENERAL.-Industry in general is divided into three principal branches; viz., Agricultural industry, Manufacturing industry, and Commercial industry: these are, however, so intimately connected that the one cannot exist without the others, and the prosperity of either is sure to have a beneficial influence on the rest.

There is yet another kind of industry which, properly speaking, belongs to neither of the former, but is equally necessary to them all-the industry or labour of the mind, comprising the writings of authors in general, whatever be the subjects they write upon; the labour of organisation and direction of various establishments, &c. Of this kind of industry we shall speak presently.

AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRY IN PARTICULAR.— The three great branches of industry, we have said, are intimately connected, so that it is impossible to analyze the one without meeting with several objects which belong to the rest; and this renders a strict classification extremely difficult, if not impossible. Under the present head of Agricultural Industry, however, we will speak of the different occupations which have for their object, to obtain from the land and water the necessaries of life, and those raw materials of different kinds which are afterwards to be worked up by the Manufacturing Industry. Under this same head of agricultural labours, we also include all those

preparatory manipulations which are executed by the country people to render certain objects marketable, as well as everything relating to cattle, to agricultural implements, buildings, &c. We shall, therefore, divide agricultural industry as follows:

1. Those labours or occupations whose object is the collection of the spontaneous products of the land and water, animal, vegetable, and mineral.

2. The labours whose objects is to preserve, to increase, and to bring to perfection the fruits of the earth, the useful animals and their produce; which labours will also be subdivided according as they refer to animals, vegetables, or minerals.

3. Agricultural implements and buildings.

COLLECTION OF SPONTANEOUS PRODUCTION. -This includes hunting, fishing, the collection of wild honey, and of insects used in dying, in medicine, for the cabinets of the curious, &c.

Hunting.-Beasts and birds are hunted for different purposes; sometimes it is in order to rid a country, province, or neighbourhood of noxious animals; sometimes it is for food; and sometimes for their hides, feathers, &c. In America, whole herds of cattle to the number of 30,000 or 40,000 are hunted and killed for their skins. The Chamois in Europe is also hunted for its skin. Sometimes animals are hunted in order to obtain specimens for cabinets, and sometimes with no other object in view than what many consider an amusement. The hunting of noxious animals is either with a view to diminish their numbers, or wholly extirpate them; and for this purpose governments occasionally offer considerable rewards. It was by such means that wolves were destroyed in England, and in the neighbourhood of Calcutta a premium is given for every tiger killed.

But carnivorous animals are not the only ones that are noxious; rats, moles, &c. sometimes cause considerable damage; in like manner there are destructive birds which it is desirous to get rid of, such are sparrows, among others. The mischief occasioned by these little birds is inconceivable; every one of them eats, upon an average, from ten to twenty pounds weight of grain annually, and their number in certain districts is immense. In Brandenburg and in Baden Durlach, a price used to be, and for all we know, is still, set upon their heads.

The hunting of animals as an object of food, is almost the sole occupation of the male population of many savage nations, known accordingly as hunting tribes. These, however, do not always hunt merely for food. The great value of the furs of many animals and their extensive use in clothing, has rendered them a most important article of traffic, and, accordingly the animals whose skins are in most repute, are hunted for their furs. The quantity killed for this purpose in America and in Asia is immense.

In civilized countries beasts and birds are hunted generally for amusement, or to procure delicate viands for our tables. Some few animals are taken for their skins, which are all, more or less, a valuable, and therefore a marketable commodity.

As

The taking of animals for our ménageries and museums, hardly forms a distinct occupation, though some few individuals in the Brazils and in the East, get a living by taking and selling animals, or beautiful birds and insects, &c. we are not, however, speaking of the animals themselves, but of that branch of rural industry which is confined to hunting, we would point out as worthy of the traveller's observation the following objects:

In

The number of persons occupied solely in hunting. this number will be comprised hunters of every description, game-keepers, &c.

In this number, are there any regularly paid and maintained for the exclusive purpose of destroying noxious animals, and are they all paid by the state or by individuals?

At Baden Durlach the sparrow killers are numerous; they sell the dead birds to the peasants, who are obliged to produce a certain number of them, and who have not time to devote to their destruction.

What is the annual expense incurred for this necessary extirpation of noxious animals? Is any profit derived from their furs or feathers, and to what amount?

What may be the number, and what are the kinds of noxious animals annually destroyed.

In countries where the right of killing game does not belong exclusively to any privileged class, there are generally a number of persons, who, in the hunting season, devote themselves to procuring game for sale: what may be the number of such persons, and the annual produce in number and value of this their labour. This class of men in some parts of Russia is very numerous, and the loads of game an

nually brought to St. Petersburg and Moscow are truly astonishing.

Nevertheless, as in most cases it is the peasants who, in their leisure hours, kill a few heads of game, and as the consumption in thickly peopled countries is very limited, this species of hunting is not important. The skins, however, of wolves, of foxes, of hares, of badgers, &c. have a certain value, and are often kept by the country people till a sufficient quantity be collected to take to market, where they are bought up by furriers, tanners, hatters, &c. The quantity sold by each individual is generally insignificant, but the total number of skins of wild animals thus used, even in populous countries, is very considerable, and should, if possible, be ascertained.

In some countries the rigour of the climate is such that furs are an article of indispensable necessity. In such countries hunting is always an object of importance, but, of course, greater or less according to the demand for furs and the facility or difficulty of procuring them. Some countries produce furs enough to form an extensive branch of export trade, others are obliged to buy them.

In a word, hunting may or may not be of sufficient importance in a country to fix attention in a statistical point of view; when it is, the main object should be to ascertain the kinds, the quantity, and the value of the several products obtained, whether raw hides, precious furs, castoreum, feathers, &c., and the number of persons employed in the several occupations of hunting. What is the capital engaged in this kind of industry?

Should hunting, however, not be sufficiently important to fix attention as to its products and the number of persons employed, it may, nevertheless, be extremely interesting as to its various operations, whether they be grand hunting expeditions or lesser hunts, with dogs, falcons, or weapons, or whether the animals be taken in snares or otherwise. Hunting is also worthy of attention in connexion with the manners, the character, and the physical constitution of the people.

Fishing is carried on, more or less, in every country, savage or civilized: there are even whole nations who feed exclusively on fish, and who are therefore styled Ichtyophagi. In some places fisheries are free, in others they are a monopoly, enjoyed either by the government, by companies, or by certain individuals.

Individual fishing, like individual hunting, that is to say, such fishing as is practised by a few indigent persons for their own subsistence, or for the occasional sale of its slender produce, is not worthy of fixing our attention, in any way; but the great fisheries of lakes, of rivers, and of the sea, are often an object of the highest importance as well from the value of their produce, as for the number of persons employed, and the large capital sometimes engaged in such enterprises. The Roman and Greek Catholics, by reason of their fasts, and also the Jews, consume an immense quantity of fish. Thus in Poland where the whole of the population is composed of Catholics and Jews, the quantity of fish consumed is very great, though much less than it would be but for two causes, the extreme poverty of the peasants and of the Jews, and the mediterranean position of the country, it being at a distance from the sea. This latter circumstance is the reason why by far the greater quantity of the fish consumed is obtained from the small lakes and the rivers of the country.

The sea fisheries along the coasts of all civilized countries give employment to a very great number of persons; sometimes they are carried on by independent fishermen, and sometimes by companies, and these latter extend their operations to distant seas, and fish for whales, for cod, for herrings, &c. Fisheries are undertaken either for obtaining the fish as food, or for some particular produce which they furnish, as whale oil, seal skins, &c. Be the objects, however, what they may, the details regarding the fisheries should be noted by the traveller, who would do well to make the following observations :

What is the kind, the quantity, and the value of the produce; the number of persons engaged in fishing, exclusively of those employed in the construction of the fishing vessels and boats, their rigging, &c.; for these builders do not in general confine their labours to working for the fisheries, and enter into the class of artisans. The persons employed in salting and packing herrings must not be included either, for their occupation is not simply the collecting of raw produce, but the preparation of it. Eventually, every thing not mentioned hore, but which may be pointed out in other parts of this work, as having a direct relation to the fisheries, may be collected by the traveller under one head, but the operation is not easy; it is difficult to ascertain the precise amount of capital employed in the fisheries themselves ex