AGRICULTURE IN THE ANCIENT .WORLD. 25 



CHAPTEK III. 



AGRICULTURE IN THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



&quot;It began to be a question whether Egypt was going to live much longer, when she paid more 

 attention to embalming her grandiathers than she did to inspiring her children.&quot; 



CIVILIZATION A RELATIVE TEEM WEALTH WILD WHEAT AND WILD RICE THE 

 DATE MILLET EGYPTIAN AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE FLAX CULTURE 

 GRANARIES MODELS OP OUR ELEVATORS CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE 

 CHINA CONFUCIUS A TEACHER OF AGRICULTURAL THRIFT How SILK CULT 

 URE HAS BEEN PROMOTED IMPLEMENTS SIZE OF FARMS WAGES JAPAN 

 COMPARED WITH GREAT BRITAIN WHEAT CULTURE RURAL LlFE IN GREECE 

 XENOPHON A FARMER HESIOD S &quot; WORKS AND DAYS&quot; PUBLIC GARDENS 

 DECAY ARISTOTLE THE FATHER OF A RATIONAL POLITY SLAVERY ROME 

 PATRICIANS AND PLEBEIANS SIZE OF FARMS COMMON PASTURE TENANTS 

 CATO S DESCRIPTION OF A STEWARD THE ROME OF TO-DAY. 



A COMPLETE history of agriculture has yet to be written. 

 From the traditions of different nations, their works of art, 

 and their literatures, we find abundant evidence that, however 

 splendid the superstructure, the civilization of every nation has 

 rested where it does to-day, upon the toil of millions for their 

 daily bread the satisfaction of tiie common wants of humanity. 



Whatever may afterward be added to improve, adorn and 

 elevate the social or spiritual condition of man, his relation to 

 the soil remains unchanged; there is the basis of his pros 

 perity. It was given to him &quot;for usufruct alone,&quot; not for con 

 sumption, and still less for profligate waste. Wherever the 

 obligation to maintain the harmonious balance between organic 

 and inorganic nature has been met, there we find the oldest and 

 most permanent civilizations. Wherever the selfish pursuit of 

 profit, the vile principle &quot;After us the Deluge,&quot; has been the 

 ruling motive, the deluge has followed, leaving in its wake a 

 human deterioration which corresponds with the destruction of 

 virgin lands. From the old center and cradle of the race we 

 may trace man as he flies from the arena of his own actions, in 

 Palestine, in Greece, in Italy, in the north of Africa and Spain, 

 leaving behind him soils rendered infertile through the demoli 

 tion of forests, &quot;thorns and thistles,&quot; or the depauperated forms 

 of once noble races of plants. Having reached the western 

 limit, the tide of emigration must ere long return upon its 

 course, to restore and recover the wastes it has created. Indige 

 nous species of animals and plants needlessly extirpated, must 

 be replaced by alien forms, and the balance re-adjusted as far 



