12 THE FARMER AT HOME. 



constitutes the grand distinction between savage and civilized life. 

 In the necessity of cultivating the earth for subsistence, social order 

 commenced. The wandering life of a nation of hunters admits of 

 little or no improvement. Agriculture has the merit of having re- 

 claimed mankind from this hopeless state ; by drawing them together 

 in communities, and imposing on them the necessity of a fixed habi- 

 tation. Hence the ancient nations, amongst which this art originated, 

 held it in the greatest veneration. The Egyptians considered it as a 

 gift from their gods, and even paid divine honors to the ox, on 

 account of his usefulness in agricultural labors. The ancient Romans 

 venerated the plough, and in the earliest and purest times of the 

 Republic, the greatest praise of an illustrious citizen was, to be called 

 an industrious and skillful husbandman. 



We learn from the writings of Moses, that agriculture was the 

 primitive employment of man. The earth no longer yielded her pro- 

 ductions spontaneously after the fall. It had been cursed with barren- 

 ness for Adam's transgression ; and, under the new constitution of 

 things, could be made to minister to his wants, only by patient toil, 

 and careful and assiduous cultivation. He was therefore " sent forth 

 from the garden of Eden to till the ground ;" and it is probable that 

 Adam arid his immediate descendants were instructed in this art by 

 G od himself. 



In the early ages of the world, before mankind had become very 

 numerous, and whilst every tribe or family could range over a large 

 extent of country, their principal wealth consisted in flocks and herds, 

 and their chief employment in the care of them. This continues to 

 be the condition of the Nomade nations of Northern Asia to the 

 present day ; and under such circumstances agriculture is but little 

 attended to. The Egyptians were undoubtedly the first people, who 

 applied themselves successfully to the cultivation of the earth ; and 

 they were invited to it by the extraordinary fertility and productive- 

 ness of their soil, occasioned by the annual overflowings of the Nile. 

 The wealth and power which they acquired from this source, and 

 their extraordinary advances in knowledge and the arts, are fully 

 attested by those wonderful monuments still remaining of their former 

 greatness. The Greeks probably borrowed their agriculture, as they 

 did their arts and early principles of science from the Egyptians. 

 The Chaldeans and Phoenicians held husbandry in the highest estima- 

 tion. The Garth agenians, descended from the latter, carried it to 

 great perfection. The Romans devoted themselves to agriculture 

 with extraordinary zeal and success ; and several of their treatises on 

 this subject are still extant. In fact all the celebrated states of 

 antiquity rivalled each other in promoting and improving this impor- 

 tant art. 



During the ages of anarchy and barbarism, which succeeded the 

 fall of the Roman emph 3, agriculture was almost wholly abandoned. 



