State Agricultural Society. 257 



nourishing seed or bean, from which the bread of the common people 

 was made. Later the thourra, or millet, which now yields to the labor 

 of upper Egypt a return of two hundred and forty fold, served the 

 same purpose. All these plants, and their modes of culture, are de- 

 scribed in the pictures and hieroglyphics which seem to defy the effac- 

 ing finger of time. 



We also find upon the Egyptian monuments the earliest records of the 

 application of machinery to the cultivation of the soil. We see the plow 

 represented, with handles to guide it, yoked oxen harrowing in the 

 grain, laborers hackling it upon an implement set with sharp teeth, and 

 herdsmen, distinguished from other laborers by their dress, bringing in 

 sheep and wool. In the tomb of Menophres at Saccara, two bulls are 

 represented. The symbolic worship of the bull gave a peculiar sanctity 

 to bovine animals. 



Not only does picture writing reveal the condition of the art of agri- 

 culture, but it gives us a glimpse of the social state. In a tomb at Erle- 

 thya we see a proprietor inspecting his farm. Before him goes a writer 

 with implements; obsequious servants follow with stool and slippers, 

 his bow and quiver. His dress shows what manner of man he was; he 

 wears a collar and robe, and holds in his hand both scepter and staff. 

 Two herdsmen bring in cattle, one prostrates himself, while the other 

 is in the attitude of a person reporting the condition of the flocks. Upon 

 the tablet is written, "cattle, one hundred and twenty-two; rams, three 

 hundred; goats, one thousand two hundred; swine, one thousand five 

 hundred." On another tomb nine hundred and forty-four sheep are 

 mentioned as the property of the'occupant. 



Horticulture in all its departments was also carried to great perfec- 

 tion; the variety of gourds, cucumbers, melons, fruits, and vines, which 

 added to the luxury of a vast population, is most surprising. Flax was 

 grown in abundance, and the modes of its preparation for the spinner 

 were identical with those now used. Their gi*anaries, of which millions 

 lined the banks of the Nile, are the models of the grain elevators of our 

 own time. 



But in all this creation of utilities man himself was left out of the ac- 

 count. What remain to us as monuments of a civilization falsely so 

 called, are but stupendous and convincing proofs of a revolting despot- 

 ism, based upon cruelty and upheld by superstition. " The very resources 

 which the people had created Avere turned against themselves." The 

 condition of' the captive Israelites was that of the toiling millions upon 

 both hemispheres, where the accumulation of wealth without its disper- 

 sion secured to the upper classes a monopoly of the very sources of 

 power. National improvements are made which are the wonder of 

 modern times, but the masses of the people received no benefit from 

 them. The reckless prodigality with which labor was expended in 

 works of doubtful utility showed the esteem in which it was held. A 

 man was of as little account to the builders of the Pyramids as is the 

 reef-making polyp to the inhabitant of the coral islands. 



What was true of Egypt was equally true of India, of Mexico, and 

 Peru, wherever the separation of a nation into castes divided society 

 against itself, and planted the seeds of its dissolution in the ignorance 

 of the masses of the people. 



33_(agri) 



