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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 65

Famines

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Famines.

To man was given the dominion of the beasts, birds, and fishes, as well as the herbs and the seeds of the field. (See Genesis i., 28 and 29.) And it is noteworthy that the dominion of the animal world seems now necessary to his safety. When he leaves it he gets on dangerous ground. In Ireland, India, and China, where a too heavy and unenlightened population compels to a sort of vegetable civilization, he is subject to die by starvation. In such a state there is no room for animals. A heavier population can subsist by unwearied cultivation of the soil than by pastoral pursuits, however ably conducted. But a too hot wind, or a too cold one, or a too dry or a too wet season, which do but little harm to the ox or the sheep, drive the population to want and its extremities. In other countries where corn is difficult to grow, as in Iceland, and where the animal world can only be depended on for sustenance, there is also page 196 often a famine. For animals are liable to be attacked by many diseases. In Iceland in 1762, 280,000 sheep (nearly the half in the country) died. In 1783, 11,000 cows, and 27,000 horses, and 186,000 sheep died; 9,000 of the inhabitants then died of starvation. The action of floods and volcanoes has sometimes grievously impoverished districts and communities.