240 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



From time immemorial they have ushered in the agricultural 

 year by a festival in which the emperor performs the opera- 

 tion of ploughing and sowing seed, and thus honors and 

 stimulates the husbandman in the pursuit of his calling. 

 Thus singularly honored, the farmer in China holds a rank 

 higher than the soldier or merchant. 



In India the great mass of the people have from the earliest 

 times been devoted to husbandry. Palestine, as we well 

 know, was for ages one of the most luxuriant of agricultural 

 countries ; by divine appointment its lands were divided into 

 small holdings, which could not be permanently alienated 

 from the line of its original possessors. It was so well cul- 

 tivated that it supplied a dense population, so that in the 

 time of Christ, according to Josephus, there were three 

 millions of people in Galilee alone. There, too, as in most 

 oriental countries, irrigation had much to do with the pro- 

 ductiveness of the soil. Its present desolation is due rather 

 to the lack of a paternal government than to the natural fault 

 of the soil, which is still as capable as of yore of supporting 

 a large population. 



The kings of ancient Rome fully realized the importance 

 of agriculture. They took a personal interest in the affairs 

 of the husbandmen, inquired into their success on the farm 

 and their methocTs. They praised or admonished, as the case 

 seemed to require, thus stimulating them to put forth their 

 utmost efforts in the application of manures to produce the 

 greatest quantity of crops. Numa, one of those early kings, 

 is said to have exacted a minute account from the husband- 

 man, how he carried on his farming; and when we consider 

 that the primal wealth of a nation comes from the cultivation 

 of the soil, the early rulers of the ancient nations gave evi- 

 dence of great wisdom in thus exerting their influence in 

 encouraging the agriculturist to carefully plan and prosecute 

 his work. 



The great men among the ancient Romans delighted in 

 husbandry, and toiled along with their servants on their 

 farms. Cincinnatus went from the plough to serve and save 

 his country ; many senators and generals who had been hon- 

 ored by triumphs lived in the country and labored on their 

 farms, though blessed with fortunes. Cato, the censor, often 



