How can you cultivate without men?
It is uninhabited because it is unwholesome.

How can you expect men to inhabit it at the risk of their lives?
Make it healthy, and it will populate itself, and the population will cultivate it, for there is not a finer soil in the world." Another replies, "You are wrong.

You confound cause with effect.

The country is unhealthy because it is uncultivated.

The decayed vegetable matter accumulated by centuries ferments under the summer sun.