Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/313

Rh 291 AGRICULTURE CHAPTER I. IT would be interesting to know how the nations of antiquity tilled, and sowed, and reaped ; what crops they cultivated, and by what methods they converted them into food and raiment. But it is to be regretted, that the records which have come down to us are all but silent iipon these homely topics. In Mr Hoskyn s admirable treatise 1 we have an excellent specimen of what may yet be done to recover and construct an authentic history of the Agriculture of the ancients, from the casual allusions and accidental notices of rural affairs which lie thinly scattered through the body of general literature ; and, more especially, from those myste rious records of the past, which are now being rescued from their long burial under the ruins of some of the most famous cities of antiquity. Although comparatively little lias been found iii such records bearing directly upon the subject, we must not despair of the learned industry and masterly skill of an advancing and searching criticism, gathering together these gleams of light, and making them happily converge upon the darkness which has hitherto interposed between us and a circumstantial knowledge of the methods and details of ancient husbandry. Every reader of the Bible is familiar with its frequent references to Egypt as a land so rich in corn, that it not only produced abundance for its own dense population, but yielded supplies for exportation to neighbouring coun tries. Profane history corroborates these statements. Diodorus Siculus bears explicit testimony to the skill of tlia farmers of ancient Egypt. He informs us that they were acquainted with the benefits of a rotation of crops, and were skilful in adapting these to the soil and to the seasons. The ordinary annual supply of corn furnished to llcins has been estimated at 20,000,000 bushels. From the same author we also learn that they fed their cattle with hay during the annual inundation, and at other times tethered them in the meadows on green clover. Their flocks were shorn twice annually (a practice common in several Asiatic countries), and their ewes yeaned twice a year. For religious as well as economical reasons, they were great rearers of poultry, and practised artificial hatching, as at the present day. The abundance or scarcity of the harvests in Egypt depended chiefly upon the height of the animal inundation. If too low, much of the land could not be sown, and scarcity or famine ensued. On the other hand, great calamities befell the country when the Nile rose much above the average level. Cattle were drowned, villages destroyed, and the crops necessarily much diminished, as in such cases many of the fields were still under water at the proper seed tune. In 1818 a calamity of this kind took place, when the river rapidly attained a height of 3^ feet above the proper leveL It is from the paintings and inscriptions with which the ancient Egyptians decorated their tombs that we get the fullest insight into the state of agriculture amongst this remarkable people. Many of these paintings, after the lapse of two or three thousand years, retain the distinctness of outline and brilliancy of colour of recent productions. The acquaintance which these give us with their occupations, attainments, and habits is truly marvellous, and fills the 1 Short Inquiry into the History cf Agriculture, by Ohaudo.s Wren UosVyn, Esq. j reader of such works as Wilkinson s Egypt with perfect amazement. Every fresh detail seems to give confirmation to that ancient saying, &quot; There is nothing new under the sun.&quot; The pictures referring to rural affairs disclose u state of advancement at that early date which may well lead us to speak modestly of our own attainments An Egyptian villa comprised all the conveniences of a European one of the present day. Besides a mansion with numerous apartments, there were gardens, orchards, fish ponds, and preserves for game. Attached to it was a farm-yard, with sheds for cattle and stables for carriage horses. A steward directed the tillage operations, super intended the labourers, and kept account of the produce and expenditure. The grain was stored in vaulted chambers furnished with an opening at the top, reached by steps, into which it was emptied from sacks, and with an aperture below for removing it when required. Hand-querns, similar to our own, were used for grinding corn ; but they had also a larger kind worked by oxen. In one painting, in which the sowing of the grain is represented, a plough drawn by a pair of oxen goes first ; next conies the sower scattering the seed from a basket; he is followed by another plough; whilst a roller, drawn by two horses yoked abreast, completes the operation. The steward stands by super intending the whole. Nothing, however, conveys to us so full an impression of the advanced state of civilisation amongst the ancient Egyptians as the value which they attached to land, and the formalities which they observed in the transfer of it. In the time of the Ptolemies, their written deeds of conveyance began with the mention of the reign in which they were executed, the name of the president of the court, and of the clerk who drew them. The name of the seller, with a description of his personal appearance, his parentage, profession, and residence, was engrossed. The nature of the land, its extent, situation, and boundaries ; the name and appearance of the purchaser were also included. A clause of warrandice and an explicit acceptance by the purchaser followed, and finally the deed was attested by numerous witnesses (so many as sixteen occur to a trifling bargain), and by the president of the court. The nomades of the patriarchal ages, like the Tartar, Judea: and perhaps some of the Moorish tribes of our own, whilst ltriar&amp;lt; mainly dependent upon their flocks and herds, practised age&amp;gt; also agriculture proper. The vast tracts over which they roamed were in ordinary circumstances common to all shepherds alike. During the summer they frequented the mountainous districts and retired to the valleys to winter. Vast flocks of sheep and of goats constituted the chief wealth of the nomades, although they also possessed animals of the ox kind. When these last were possessed in abundance, it seems to be an indication that tillage was practised. We learn that Job, besides immense possessions in flocks and herds, had 500 yoke of oxen, which he employed in ploughing, and a &quot; very great husbandry.&quot; Isaac, too, conjoined tillage with pastoral husbandry, and that with success, for we read that he sowed in the land Gerar, and reaped an hundred-fold a return which, it would appear, in some favoured regions, occasionally rewarded the labour of the husband man. In the parable of the sower, our Lord (grafting his instructions upon the habits, scenery, and productions of Palestine), mentions an increase of thirty, sixty, and an