From the first, the British colonists had applied themselves to agriculture as the great business of life; then trade followed, to supply luxuries in exchange for superabundant products; and manufactures came next, to satisfy the increasing necessities of a higher civilization. From the peculiarities of the country, and the restless and irregular habits of many of the earlier immigrants, a system of cultivation arose, which, however detrimental to the progress of some individuals, tended to develop the resources of the country with astonishing rapidity. A number of the hardy men, who first began the clearing of the wilderness, only played the part of pioneers to those who permanently settled on the fertile soil: they felled the trees with unequaled dexterity, erected log houses and barns, hastily inclosed their farms, and, in an incredibly short space of time, reduced the land to a sort of cultivation. With their crops, a few cattle, and the produce of the chase, they gained subsistence for themselves and their families. These men could not endure the restraints of regular society; as the population advanced toward them, and they felt the obnoxious neighborhood of the magistrate and the tax gatherer, they were easily induced to dispose of their clearings at a price enhanced by that of surrounding settlements: once again they plunged into the wilderness, and recommenced their life of almost savage independence. The new owner of the pioneer's clearing was generally a thrifty and industrious farmer: his object, a home for himself and an inheritance for his children. In certain hope of success, he labored with untiring energy, and converted the half-won waste into a fruitful field. His neighbors have progressed equally with himself; the dark shadows of the forest vanish from the surrounding country; detached log huts change to clusters of comfortable dwellings; churches arise, villages swell into towns, towns into cities. This system exercised an important influence on the politics and manners of the colonists; the restless, impatient, and discontented found ample scope and occupation in the wilderness, instead of waging perpetual strife against the restraints of law and order in the older districts: many of these men ultimately even became useful and industrious. The acquisition of a little property of their own, and the necessity of law and order for the preservation of that property, reconciled them to the forfeiture of the wild liberty in which they had before exulted. The truculence of the desperate often turned into the healthy ambition of the prosperous.