STATUS OF AGRICULTURE IN ANCIENT TIMES. 37 



probable that two-thirds of the farmers of this country 

 would laugh at the idea of the existence of any intimate 

 relation between science and agriculture. 



STATUS OF AGRICULTURE IN ANCIENT TIMES. 



It is well known that, at some periods of ancient times, 

 and in some countries, agriculture was held to be an honor-? 

 able calling, and kings, princes, and statesmen did not 

 disdain to till the soil with their own hands. In ancient 

 Egypt, where labored the men who reared the mighty pyra 

 mids, the priests and soldiers owned the lands, about six 

 acres of the Delta of the Nile being allotted to each warrior, 

 At war s alarm they sprang forth ready armed to fight for 

 their estates and homes. In times of peace they grew and 

 spun flax, and with the roots, herbs, wheat, and leguminous 

 fruits which they raised, they supplied food for a large por 

 tion of the then known civilized earth. 



The Carthaginians considered agriculture to be of all call 

 ings the most aristocratic, and the kings, princes, and nobles 

 were among the most active cultivators of the soil. When 

 the Romans finally subdued and laid waste the land, the 

 only books which they deemed worthy of being carried away, 

 it is said, were twenty-eight volumes of manuscripts relating 

 to agriculture. 



The Chinese, who have bridges constructed two thousand 

 years ago, still consider agriculture so noble an art that a 

 solemn ceremony is each year performed at which the em 

 peror is required to turn the soil. This nation fed silk 

 worms before Solomon reared his temple. They built the 

 great wall around the empire while Europe was yet wrapped 

 in the gloom of the Dark Ages. They cultivated cotton cen 

 turies before the discovery of America. In many respects, 



