James Edwin Thorold Rogers

“ It is difficult for us to realize what were the scourges which afflicted the world, before the Dutch found out winter roots, and brought them to comparative excellence. It was nearly a century before English farmers began generally to copy the Dutch model. It was more than a century before their familiar practices were adopted in the agricultural economy of other nations. It is impossible to overrate the benefits which Dutch enterprise and the spread of Dutch discoveries had on the health of the world. ”

“ But keen as the Dutch were after the profits to be obtained by trade, by manufactures and husbandry, diligent as they were in working out any expedient which might add to the material resources of their country, and the citizens who governed the republic, they were as distinguished in the pursuits of literature and science. ”

“ The English writers on husbandry are constantly calling the attention of English farmers to the marvellous progress which the Dutch were making in these directions, and commenting on the folly and slothfulness which forebore to imitate them. The population of England was more than doubled in the seventeenth century, by adopting the agricultural inventions of the Dutch. The extension of their discoveries in the eighteenth century again doubled the population. ”

“ The Dutch had not, indeed, land enough to grow grain for the maintenance of the densely peopled republic, and they had to save and keep by incessant watchfulness much of the soil of their country from the ever-present danger of the sea. ”

“ Their cattle were the finest in Europe, and the produce of their dairies found a ready market in foreign countries. On the land which they had conquered from the foreign enemy and the sea, they laboured with the diligence and the success of market gardeners. They supplied all Europe with the means of gratifying the fashion which they set of ornamental and domestic horticulture. For a long time they exported all the best garden produce to their neighbours. ”

“ In the days when paper currencies were unknown, and would not have been trusted had they been known, and the most honest governments levied considerable charges on the mintage of the national currency, the more widely the trade of the country extended, the fuller are great mercantile centres of money. ”

“ The cultivation of the turnip and potato, with other products of the same character, has rendered it possible that three times as many persons could live in security on the same area of land, as were maintained with great risks of famine before these capital discoveries were made. ”

“ In course of time they extended the cultivation of winter roots from the garden to the field, and gradually taught European nations how to preserve cattle in sound condition through the winter, and to banish scurvy and leprosy by the constant supply of wholesome fresh diet. ”