State Agricultural Society. 109 



to disarm the cherubim of tliat flaminp: sword wliich debarred him 

 from the tree of life. 



The first pireat want of humanity was and is subsistence, the next 

 clothinjj; and a habitation. To supply this want the eartli is devoted, 

 and to it the first ellort of man was directed. The first man was 

 from necessity and direct command a tiller of the .soil, a farmer. Of 

 the various processes adopted by him we have no account; nor 

 indeed is any necessary, lie killed an animal for food witli a club or 

 pierced it with a spear, flayed it with a sharp stone, ate the flesh raw 

 until, enlightened by accident, the functions of the cook were intro- 

 duced. As to ve^a'table food, 1 have said elsewhere. The girl of the 

 period attended the man in war and in the chase, or if coquettish, 

 half nude, bathed her feet in the stream, combed her hair with a 

 stick, and studied her attitudes and graces in the mirror of a sj)ring. 

 But they suffered a strange want. Meat, fruit, and roots they had on 

 the land, and fish in the water. They must have been subject to 

 peculiar diseases. They felt a certain gnawing and unquiet in the 

 stomach — a salutary monition of nature l)y which men (and girls) 

 are admonished that it is nece.s.sary to work, and cook, and think. 

 They observed that the birds and herbiverous animals were greedily 

 consuming the heads of certain grasses. Thinking that what was 

 evidently good for other animals might be good for them, they 

 rubbed the seeds out of these heads and doubtingly ate them. They 

 found them of slightly saccharine taste, when thoroughly mastica- 

 ted, with the saliva, forming a glutinous mass, and when swallowed 

 sui)plying their previous want. They had sufficient observation to 

 know that like produces like; they selected the best seeds, planted 

 them with a sharpened stick, gathered tlieir harvests, and sowed 

 again, and soon, throughout a large portion of Southern Asia and in 

 Egypt, the fields were covered with golden grain — wheat, rye, oats, 

 rice, and barley — and the bread made from them soon became food 

 for all in those lands. The Greeks, from their Eastern conquests, 

 brought these grains into Europe, and the Komans not only did the 

 same, but carried them forward in their invasions. About the com- 

 mencement of our era they carried these grains into England, from 

 whence they were soon sent to Ireland, and later into Scotland. In 

 short, agriculture in rudest forms, carried on with the lowest intelli- 

 gence, was co-extensive with the human race. 



As the call for subsistence became more imperative, so in equal 

 degree arose the necessity for imi)lements, materials, and means with 

 which to facilitate labor, augment production, and accomplish 

 e.xchaiige. 



'J'hen, as now, the inventive faculty kept pace with the calls ui)on 

 it. The hollow gourd, the flat or concave stone, the dried indenta- 

 tion in clay holding water, suggested to the potter the culinary ves- 

 sels, and the substances from which they might be formed. 



The worker in metals came next. Iron took the i)lace of wood and 

 stone; indeed, as the most valuable of all metals, it became, as money, 

 largely the representative of value and agent of exchange. Other 

 mechanical occu[)ations followed. The moral sentiments kept pace 

 with intellectual and i)hysical progress. 



The adventurous and ambitious souls, knowing that the world was 

 open where to choose, left their native mountain or |)lain determined 

 to each for himself win a new home and a new dominion, and estab- 

 lish himself its central figure. Impelled by the love of acquisition, 



