8 INTRODUCTIO* 



bring thefe into aclion, mufl;, by ftimulatiiig the indolent 

 to exertion, have removed a load from tlie great body, and 

 eftablidied a balance between the labours and comforts of 

 the whole. 



But, to return to the fubje£t, many Inflances can be adduc- 

 ed of the imperfection of the inftruments originally ufcd in 

 Hufbandry, and the ignorance of the firft cultivators. At a 

 period fo near our own times as the conqued of Peru, the 

 inhabitants of that devoted country weie found by the Spa- 

 niards in the fituation we have defcribed : every thing was 

 done by manual labour, without any affiftance from beafts of 

 draught or burden : they turned over the earth with an in- 

 ftrument refe.mbling a fliovel, and afterwards dibbled in the 

 grain : even now, there re many nations whofe knowledge of 

 Agriculture is not greater. The inhabitants of Cliili make 

 ufe of a piece of wood, of a crooked fhape, fomething like 

 our plough, with which they turn over the foil ; the feed is 

 then fown, and covered, by dragging buflies over it in place 

 of harrows. In the province of Lithuania, a part of ancient 

 Poland, their plough is of the fame rude conftruclion ; anci 

 in many other parts of the Ruflian empire they are in pof- 

 feffion of no better inftruments. To come nearer home, the 

 ploughs of the Shetland and Faro Iiles, and of Ireland, are 

 as bad, and their Agriculture equally imperfc6l. 



The inftruments originally ufed, and fuch as we have nov/ 

 defcrihed them, no doubt, went through all the different gra- 

 dations, from the coavfeft wooden ftiovel, to the plough. That 

 inftrument was ufed by the Egyptians at a very early period ; 

 it was alfo ufed by tlie Babylonians, the Phoenicians, and 

 Greeks, and was well known iii Falefline. The other inftru- 

 ments ufed in Agriculture would follow, as a matter of courfe : 

 thefe, in their original ilate, muft alfo have been extremely 

 rude, and much time, and great labour required, before men 

 were able to perfe£l what vvas neceffaryfor harrowing, rhrafh- 

 ing, and feparating the grain from the chafF, and, laftly, of 

 grinding it into .meal. It would appear, that Agriculture had 

 proceeded confiderably to the weftward, before it arrived at 

 much perfesSlion : It was referved for the fliores of the Me- 

 diterranean^ 



