10 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. Part I. 



80. On the agriculture of the JewSy we find there are various incidental remarks in the 

 books of the Old Testament. On the conquest of Canaan, it appears that the different 

 tribes had their territory assigned them by lot ; that it was equally divided among the 

 lieads of families, and by them and their posterity held by absolute right, and impartial 

 succesion. Thus every family had originally the same extent of territory ; but as it 

 became customary afterwards to borrow money on its security : and as some families, 

 became indolent and were obliged to sell, and others extinct by death without issue, 

 landed estates soon varied in point of extent. In the time of Nehemiah a famine 

 occurred, on which account many had ** mortgaged their lands, their vineyards, and 

 houses, that they might buy corn for their sons and daughters ; and to enable them ta 

 pay the king's tribute." {Nehem, v. 2. ) Some were unable to redeem their lands other- 

 wise than by selling their children as slaves, and thereby " bringing the sons and daugh- 

 ters of God into bondage." Boaz came into three estates by inheritance, and also a 

 wife, after much curious ceremony. [Ruth i. 8. iv. 16.) Large estates, however, were 

 not approved of. Isaiah pronounces a curse on those " that join house to house, that 

 lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst." 

 While some portions of land near the towns were enclosed, the greater part was in 

 common, or in alternate proprietorship and occupation, as in our common fields. This 

 appears botli from the laws |and regulations laid down by Moses as to herds and flocks j 

 and from the story of widow Naomi, who in the progress of her manoeuvres to ingratiate 

 lierself with Boaz, " came and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and her hap was 

 to light on a part of the field, (that is, of the common field,) belonging unto Boaz." 

 {Ruth ii. 3.) 



31 . It would apjyear that every proprietor cidtivated his own lands, however extensive ; 

 and that agriculture was held in high esteem even by their princes. The crown-lands, 

 in King David's time, were managed by seven officers : one was over the store-houses, 

 and others over the work of the field, and tillage of the ground over the vineyards and 

 wine-cellars over the olive and oil-stores, and sycamore (Ficus'si/camorus, Linn.) plant- 

 ations over the herds over the camels and asses and over the flocks. (1 Chron. 

 xxvii. 25.) King Uzziah " built towers in the desert, and digged many wells ; for he had 

 much cattle both in the low country and in the plains ; husbandmen also and vine- 

 dressers in the mountains, and in Carmel, for he loved husbandry." (2 Chron. xxvi. 10.) 

 JEven private individuals cultivated to a great extent, and attended to the practical part 

 of the business themselves. Elijah found El isha in the field with twelve yoke of oxen 

 before him, and himself with the twelfth. Job had five hundred yoke of oxen, and five 

 hundred she-asses, seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels. Both asses and 

 oxen were used in ploughing ; for Moses forbade the Jews to yoke an ass with an ox, 

 their step or progress being different, and of course their labors unequal. 



32. Among the operations of agriculture are mentioned watering by machinery, plough- 

 ing, digging, reaping, threshing, &c. ** The ploughman plougheth all day to sow ; he 

 openeth and breaketh the clods of his ground. When he hath made plain the face 

 thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin {Cuminum cyminum, 

 Linn.), and cast in the principal wheat, and the appointed barley, and the rye, in their 

 place?" (/sataA xxviii. 24, 25.) The plough was probably a clumsy instrument, re- 

 quiring the most vigilant attention from the ploughman, for Luke (ch. ix. 62.) uses the 

 figure of a man at plough looking back as one of utter worthlessness. Covered thresh- 

 ing-floors were in use ; and as appears from the case of Boaz and Naomi, it was no 

 uncommon thing to sleep in them during harvest. Corn was threshed in different ways, 

 *' the fitches," says Isaiah, " are not threshed with a threshing-instrument, neither is a 

 cart-wheel turned about upon the cummin ; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, 

 and cummin with a rod (flail) ; bread-corn is bruised, because he will not be ever 

 threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horse- 

 men." (Ch. xxviii. 27, 28.) The bread-corn here mentioned was probably thenar of 

 the Romans (maize, Zea mays, L.), which was commonly separated by hand-mills, or 

 hand-picking, or beating, as is still the case in Italy and other countries where this 

 corn is grown. Corn was " winnowed with the shovel and with the van." [Id. xxx. 24.) 

 Sieves were also in use, for Amos says, *' I will sift the house of Israel as corn is sifted 

 in a sieve." (Ch. ix. 9.) And Christ is re- 

 presented by St. Luke as saying, *' Simon, 

 Simon, Satan hath desired to have you, that 

 lie may sift you as wheat." Isaiah men- 

 tions (vii. 25.) the '^^ digging of hills with the 

 Tnattock :" to which implement the original <* 

 pick (Jig' 2.) would gradually arrive, first, 

 by having the head put on at right angles, 

 and pointed (fg. 8. a) ; next, by having it 

 flattened, sharpened, and shod with iron {b,c); tF^l:=^^ ^ 

 and lastly, by forming the head entirely of t' 



