And therefore he that incloses land, and has a greater
plenty of the conveniencies of life from ten acres, than he could
have from an hundred left to nature, may truly be said to give
ninety acres to mankind: for his labour now supplies him with
provisions out of ten acres, which were but the product of an
hundred lying in common. I have here rated the improved land
very low, in making its product but as ten to one, when it is
much nearer an hundred to one: for I ask, whether in the wild
woods and uncultivated waste of America, left to nature,
without any improvement, tillage or husbandry, a thousand acres
yield the needy and wretched inhabitants as many conveniencies of
life, as ten acres of equally fertile land do in Devonshire,
where they are well cultivated?
Before the appropriation of land, he who gathered as much of
the wild fruit, killed, caught, or tamed, as many of the beasts,
as he could; he that so imployed his pains about any of the
spontaneous products of nature, as any way to alter them from the
state which nature put them in, by placing any of his labour
on them, did thereby acquire a propriety in them: but if they
perished, in his possession, without their due use; if the fruits
rotted, or the venison putrified, before he could spend it, he
offended against the common law of nature, and was liable to be
punished; he invaded his neighbour's share, for he had no right,
farther than his use called for any of them, and they might
serve to afford him conveniencies of life.
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