8 



HIST0R1 OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part I. 



tcrs of God into bondage." Hoaz came into tliree estates by inheritance, and also a 

 wife, after much curious ceremony. (Hath, iv. 8 — 1'2.) Large est a t es, however, were 

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

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

 While some portions of land near the towns wife enclosed, the greater part «as in 

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

 appeals both from the laws and regulations laid down by Moses as to herds and flocks; 

 and from the beautiful rural Story of Ruth, w ho, to procure sustenance for herself and 



her widowed mother-in-law Naomi, "came and gleaned in the field after the reapers, 

 and her hap was to light on a pari of the Jield [that is, of the common field] belonging 

 unto BOBS." (linth, ii- 3.) 



19. B would appear that every proprietor cultivated 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 storehouses. 

 one over the work of the held and tillage of the ground, one over the vineyards and wine- 

 cellars, one over the olive and oil-stores and sycamore (i-'icus Sycomorus Linn.) plant- 

 ations, one over the herds, one over the camels and asses, and one over the flocks. 

 (I Chron., xxvii. 2.5.) King Uzziah " built towers in the desert, and digged many wells ; 

 for lie 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., xx\i. 

 10.) Even private individuals cultivated to a great extent, and attended to the practical 

 part of the business themselves. Elijah found Elisha 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 labours unequal. 



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

 ing, digging, reaping, threshing, &c. " Doth the ploughman plough all day to sow ? 

 doth he open and break 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 

 I inn.], and cast in the principal wheat, and the appointed barley, and the rye, in their 

 place?" (Isaiah, 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 the plough looking back, as one of utter worthlessness. Covered thresh- 

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

 uncommon Uiing to sleep in them during the 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 the cummin with a rod [flailj. Bread corn is bruised, because he will not ever be 

 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 the far 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 fan." (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 

 he may sift you as wheat." Isaiah men- 

 tions (vii. 25.) the " diggi/tg of hills with the 

 mattock :" to which implement the original c 

 pick (fig. 2.) would gradually arrive, first, 

 by having the head put on at right angles, 

 and pointed (Jig. "■ a) ; next, by having it 

 flattened, sharpened, and shod with iron (b c) ; I 

 and lastly, by forming the head entirely of 

 metal, and forked (</), such probably as we see it in use in Judea, and the land of Canaan, 

 at the present day. 



21. Vineyard* were planted on rising grounds, fenced round, the soil well prepared, and 

 a vintage-house and watch-tower built in a central situation (Isaiah, v. 2.), as is still 

 done iii European Turkey and Italy. Moses gives directions to the Jews for culti- 

 vating the vine and other fruit trees ; the three first years after planting, the fruit is not 

 to be eaten ; the fourth it is to be given to the Lord; and it is not till the fifth year 

 that they are " to eat of the fruit thereof." (Levi!., xix. 25.) The intention of these 

 precepts was, to prevent the trees from being exhausted by bearing, before they had 

 acquired sufficient strength and establishment in the soil. 



22. Of other agricultural operations and customs, it may be observed with Dr. Brown, 



