^54 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



was abundantly realized — and the land of Canaan, that good land, flow- 

 ing with milk and honey, was divided equally between the eleven tribes, 

 two portions being given to Joseph, as the tribe of Levi could not re- 

 ceive any inheritance. 



As to the division of the land, Josephus says in his quaint way: 

 *' Joshua sent one man out of every tribe, such as had the testimony 

 of extraordinary virtue, who should measure the land faithfully, with- 

 out any fallacy or deceit, and sent with them some geometricians who 

 could not easily fail of knowing the truth on account of their skill in 

 that art. He also gave them a charge to estimate the measure of that 

 part of the land that was most fruitful, and what was not so good. For 

 such is the nature of the land of Canaan that one may see large plains 

 and such as are exceeding fit to produce fruit, which yet if they were 

 compared to other parts of the country might be reckoned exceedingly 

 fruitful; yet, if it be compared with the fields about Jericho and those 

 that belong to Jerusalem will appear to be of no account at all." 



At one time in Sparta, the land having been absorbed or taken 

 possession of by the rich, leaving the masses of the people in poverty 

 and distress, there was a redistribution of the land made, giving an 

 equal portion to each citizen. This act of tyrany is a fair sample of 

 the state of the common people in all of those ancient countries. 

 The land was held by the kings and given to their favorites. When 

 our Aryan ancestors first took possession of Briton, and founded 

 the English nation, the land was divided among the freemen only, 

 no laet or slave being permitted to hold land or real estate of any 

 kind. For land with the German race seems, at a very early time' 

 to have become everywhere the accompanyment of full freedom. 



The freeman was strictly the freeholder, and the exercise of his 

 full rights as a free member of the community to which he belonged 

 became inseparable from the possession of his holding in it. 



For a long time the plow land alone was permanently allotted in 

 equal shares to the families of the freeman, though it was subject to 

 fresh divisions as the number of claimants become greater. But the 

 pasture and meadow land was common property among all freemen. 

 But no laet or slave was permitted to have part or lot in the common 

 land of the village. The ground which he tilled he held of some free- 

 man of the tribe to whom he paid rent. 



Land surveys were formerally constructed on a basis of points, 

 whose positions were fixed astronomically. And in some countries 

 this method of operation is still adopted, but as all astronomical ob- 

 servations are liable to more or less error arising from uncertainties 



