A GLANCE AT THE HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 202, 17 August 1880, Page 3

A GLANCE AT THE HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE.

Agriculture ia usually placed among the natural sciences, and is universally cultivated among all civilized nations. The history of every nation, in any way celebrated for wealth or power is intimately connected with agriculture. The soil may justly he said to be the true riches of a country ; in ancient and in modem times, nations have increased in wealth, power, and importance, just in proportion as they have cultivated with industry this source of true riches. Commerce and manufactures are, no doubt, a means—and a powerful one—of multiplying the resources and wealth of a country ; but these never have nor ever can flourish till agriculture has reached a certain degree of prosperity. In the early ages of the world mankind were probably not much acquainted with the practice of agriculture, save that branch of it usually called gardening or horticulture ; for while men were few in cumbers, and thinly scattered over the face of the earth, they managed to provide themselves with sufficient food by hunting, fishing, and wild fruits. Later on a system of pasturage prevailed, the tribes wandering through the land according to the will or fancy of their chief, and grazing their flocii and herds wherever grass and water were most plentiful. As the population increased, and found it inconvenient to emigrate from place to place, or to depend on the casualties of the seasons, they would, in order to procure a more ready and certain subsistence, naturally turn their attention to tilling the soil. Spade husbandry'and gardening were probably the first attempts in this direction. The use of the spade was evidently prior to the use of the plough. This branch of knowledge might have been taught by Adam to his descendants, but whether it was lost again before the deluge or disappeared at the time of that calamitous event, wo have no means of ascertaining ; the probabilities are that the rise and progress of agriculture in after times was due to the wants and necessities of mankind. The Egyptians and Chaldeans attained considerable knowledge in astronomy and geometry, and seem to have studied these sciences in reference to success in agriculture; by astronomy they learned the changes and return of the seasons, and geometry taught them to make a just division of the land ; a knowledge of these two subjects being essential to improvement in agriculture. One of the' principal divinities of the Egyptians was Osiris, worshipped in the form of a beautiful white ox, and'they imagined it was by the aid of this animal that they wore successful in agriculture. The Grecians are said to be the first who taught agriculture as a science, having learned the art of sowing and reaping ns some maintain from the Sicilians. The Romans, too, in the early period of their history held agriculture in the highest estimation, and deemed it the most honorable occupation a man could follow, frequently calling their servants and generals from the plough. “In ancient times the sacred plough employ’d The 1 kings and ancient fathers of mankind ; Who held the scale of empire, ruled the storm Of mighty war ; then with victorious hand, Disdaining little delicacies, seized The plough, and greatly independent lived,” The crops most commonly by the early Romans were wheat, barley, turnips, and pulse, they also understood the culture of the vine and olive, and were proficient in the management of live stock. Historians state that honey, milk, butter, cheese, were common articles of diet; that wool, skins, and hern were turned to well known uses, and that sheep and cattle were plentiful and cheap; but horses, having probably to be imported, wore expensive, especially good war horses. The Romans were also acquainted with a process of land draining, which they are supposed to have derived from antecedent civilization. Columella, an agricultural writer in the time of the Emperor Augustus, is the first who mentions a mode of draining farm lands by moans of underground trenches filled with stones or brushwood, and ho gives a description of the manner of doing the work, which is very similar to the modern method. The implements of hu bandry in common use among the ancients wore such as to cause the farmers of the present day to wonder how they could possibly perform the work required of them. The plough mentioned by Virgil must have been a very clumsily constructed article. The fcribulum, or flail, consisted of a heavy plank, studded with stones or spikes of iron, and drawn over the corn by oxen. Their other implements, judging from the description of them, and from drawings preserved in some of our classical books, must have been exceedingly imperfect and inconvenient compared with those of modern times. The inhabitants of Eastern Europe and Asia are no more advanced in the practice of agriculture than were the farmers in Virgil’s time. Owing to the wretched implements used, and their deficiency in skill and science the people of Palestine, according to travellers’ accounts, are obliged to till the land all through the severest weather of winter because the frail ploughs and the tiny oxen they use are unable to stir the ground unless soaked with moisture, i In Persia the husbandmen are treated with

great respect and honor ; their chosen representatives are annually admitted to the king’s presence, who addresses them thus—“ Wo receive our subsistence from yon ; by uo you

are protected, being mutually necessary to each other ; lot us live, brethren, in unity.” The Emperor of Chino goes through the form every year of holding the plough, to show his people, by example, that no man ought to be ashamed of being a farmer. Institutions to facilitate production and honors to encourage talent and discovery in agriculture have been long common among many of the nations of Europe and Asia. In the Universities of Denmark, Sweden, and Germany agriculture has long been taught as one of the most useful branches of education. After Franco had been exhausted by the long wars of the reign of Louis XIY, the Government gave special encouragement to agriculture as the only permanent means of recruiting the resources of the country. During the Crimean War agriculture received considerable stimulus in Britain, owing to the increased demand for all productions of the soil; but it is probable that a state of comparative depression, rather than one of extraordinary prosperity, is to be looked to as favourable to permanent improvements.