fees his crops feel the injury o f climate : fame laid p r o ftra tj
the more ripe corn flied by the violence o f the elements. T il
poor forefee famine, and confequential difeafe : the humane ta ck !
men agonize over diftreffes, that inability, not want of inclini.1
tion, deprives them o f the power of remedying. The nearer c a ll
of family and children naturally firft excite their attention : J
maintain and to educate are all their hopes, for that1 of accumjl
lating wealth is beyond their expectation : fo the poor are left to I
Providence’s care : they .prowl like other animals along the fhora]
to pick up limpets and other fhell-fiffi, the cafual repafts of huiil
dreds during part o f the year in thefe unhappy iflands. Huij
.dreds thus annually drag through the feafon a wretched life : a n il
numbers, unknown, in all parts of the weftern highlands (nothing]
local is. intended) fall beneath the preffure, fome of hunger, more of :
the putrid fever, the epidemic of the çoafts, originating from un- j
wholefome food, the dire effefts o f neceffity. Moral and innoceiS
viilcims ! who exult in the change, firft finding that place where tM
■wicked ceafe jrotn troubling^ and where the weary are at refi.
The farmer labors to remèdy this diftrefs to the beft of h'sj
power, but thé wetneis o f the land late in fpring prevents hitfl
from putting into the ground the early feed of future crops, beaM
and fmall oats : the laft are fitteft for the climate : ' they bear thj
rfury o f the winds better than other grain, and require lefs mM
nure, a deficiency in this ifland. Poverty prevents him iron*
making experiments in rural ceconomy : the ill fuccefs of a few
made by the more opulent, determines him to follow the old tract®
.as attended with more certainty, unwilling, like the dog in thal
fab le, ;
fable, to grafp at the fhadow and lofe the fubftance, even poor as
it is.
The produce of the Crops very rarely are in any degree pro*
portioned to the wants of the inhabitants: golden feafons have
happened, when they have had fuperfluity; but the years o f famine
are as ten to one.. The helps of the common years are Potatoes:
it is difficult to fay whether the difcovery o f America by
the Spaniards has contributed to preferve more lives by the intro-
duftion of this vegetable; or to have caufed more to periih by
the infatiable luft after the pretious metals of the new world.
The difficulties the farmer undergoes in this bad climate are
unknown in the South ; there he fows his feed, and fees it flourifh
beneath a benign fun and fecured from every invafion. Here
a wet iky brings a reludant crop * : 'the ground, inclofed only with
turf .mounds, acceffible to every animal: A continual watch employs
numbers of his people : fome again are occupied in repairing
the damages fuftained by their houfes from ftorms the preceding
year; others are laboring at the turberies, to provide fuel to
keep off the rigor of the fevere feafon: or in fencing the natural
(the onlyf graffes o f the country to preferve their cattle
from ftarving; which are the true and proper ftaple o f thefe
iflands. .
The quantity of .corn raifed in tolerable feafons m this lftand,
is efteemed to be about nine thoufand bolls. The number o f
* The moment the corn is cot down, a certain number of fheave, are gathered in
i heap, and thatched on the top : the firft dry moment that happens, the thatch is
taken off, and the iheaves now dry, are carried in; and this «repeated till the whole
cropisfecured, ^ ^ mouths