"In Zelania, save for sport, the chase has been abandoned, and the living and wealth come from herding on, delving into, or cultivating the soil."
I gather from Leo's notes, that of some 66,000,000 acres of land in Zelania, there are but 6,000,000 subdued by the plough, 1,400,000 acres in crops, 4,600,000 acres in grass, and 7,000,000 unploughed--also in exotic grasses--and that chiefly from this source of wealth 800,000 of the best fed, best clothed, best housed, best educated and best satisfied, most progressive, healthy, happy and free people, that ever loafed about on the surface of this planet are quite alive, and satisfied to remain--_sine die_.
In grain and root crops, etc, the soil yields more abundantly than that of any other country. In pasture it carries more stock, in fruit it is promising, and as for the dairy, Denmark must fight to retain her laurels.
It will be seen that but a small portion of the land of Zelania is devoted to its "best use," so there is room for many millions of people, whose lot there should be blessed indeed, for in no country is the fortune of the land dweller so happy a one. His soil is fertile, his climate is genial, his seasons are reliable, his health is perfect, he has the best implements in use, his taxes are light, and his prices are always good. Happy Zelania's farmer!
"And God made the beasts of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and God saw that it was good."
But only a few miserable little "creeping things" got to Zelania, until the British brought others.
Oseba, in a review of the "animal business," remarked, that as all animals--save the long-wooled goat herded on the desert and mountain sides--had long retired from Cavitorus to make room for people, he would use the terms common among the Outeroos in his present statement, leaving the more minute explanation to be studied in his published report.
He claimed again that man had never been able to work out a civilisation without the use of tameable animals, and many of the Outeroos had been most fortunate in these aids of Nature.
Where man had the association, company and use of the camel, the horse, the ox, the sheep, and the dog, he had been able to keep up the march towards a higher goal. The animals became at once servants, beasts of burden, motive force, food and raiment.