NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



2C, 1828. 



Btill less valuable, by being kept on the floor long 

 enough for the barley to come forward. It is 

 thus sacrificed, or spent, or if tiie big be treated 

 fairly, as in those cases in which it constitutes the 

 largest portion of the parcel. The other iiortion, 

 namely, the barley or bear, being grains of slower 



observance of times atid seasons. Other Greek 

 writers wrote on rural economy, and Xenophoii 

 among the number, but their works have been lost 

 in the lapse of ages. 



The implements of Grecian Agriculture were 

 very few and simple. Those mentioned by Hesi 



growth, must be dried before they are half malted. | od are a plough, consisting of three parts, the 

 With great respect, 



your obed't serv't, 

 Boston, Oct. 1828. GAM. BRADFORD. 



AGRICULTURE. 



The following article was written for llie Conversation-Lexkiyn, 

 a Popji/ar Encyclopedia, translated from the German, with 

 Corrections and Large Additiotis, edited by Dr Francis 

 LiEBER, and soon to be published by Carey, Lea & Carey, 

 Philadelphia. By ihe Editor of the New England Farmer. 



Agriculture is the art of cultivating t!ic earth in 

 such a manner as to cause it to produce in the 

 greatest plenty and perfection, those vegetables j jg ascribed to 'the Grecian" kin 



share-beam the draught-pole and the plough-tail 

 but antiquarians are not agreed as to the exact 

 form of tiie implement. A cart with low wheels, 

 and ten spans (seven feet six inches) in width. — 

 The rake, sickle and ox-goad are mentioned, but 

 no (lescri[ition is given of the mode in which they 

 were constructed. The ojierations of Grecian 

 culture according to Hesiod were neither numer- 

 ous nor complicated. The ground received three 

 plonghings, one in autumn, another in spring, and 

 a third immediately before sowing the seed. Mu- 

 lures wore applied, and by Pliny their invention 



Augeas. Theo- 



which are useful to man, and to the animals which phrastus mentions six different species of manures. 



he has subjected to his dominion. This art is the 

 basis of all other arts, and in all countries coeval 

 with the first dawn of civilization. Without agri- 

 culture mankind would be savages, sparsely scat- 

 tered through interminable forests, with no other 

 habitations than caverns, hollow trees, or huts 

 inore rude and inconvenient than the most ordi- 

 nary hovel or cattle-shed of the modern cultivator. 

 It IS the most universal as well as the most an- 

 cient of the arts, and requires the greatest number 

 of operators. It employs seven-eighths, and feeds 

 the whole mass of population of almost every civ- 

 ilized cominunity. Agriculture is not only indis- 

 pensable to the |)rosperity of a nation at large, but 

 is eminently conducive to the welfare of those 

 who are engaged in its pursuits. It gives health 

 to the body, energy to the mind, is favorable to 

 virtuous and tempei-ate habits — that knowledge 

 and purity of moral character, which are the pil- 

 lars of good government, and the only supporters 

 of national independence, which can be relied on 

 in the hour of danger. 



With regard to the history of agriculture, slight 

 sketches only can be given in a work, which, like 

 the present, professes rather to present general 

 outlines than minute dilincations of the subjects, 

 which it brings to view. The first notices, which 

 history has aflbrded of agriculture, are found in 

 the writings of Moses. From them we learn that 

 Cain was a " tiller of the ground," that Abel sacri- 

 ficed the " firsthngs of his flock," and that Noah 

 "began to be a husbandman and planted a vine- 

 yard." The Cliinese, Japanese, Chaldeans, Egypt- 

 ians and Phoenicians appear to havSheld husband- 

 ry in high estimation. The Egyptians were so 

 sensible of the blessings resulting from that art, 

 that they ascribed its invention to superhuman 

 agency ; and even carried their gratitude to such 

 superstitious and absurd excess as to worship the 

 ox, as a tribute due to the animal for his services 

 as a laborer. The Carthagenians cultivated the 

 science, and carried the art of agriculture to a 

 higher degree than other nations their cotempora- 

 ries. Mago, one of their most famous generals, 

 wrote no less than twenty-eight books on agricul- 

 tural topics, which, according to Columella, were 

 translated into Latin, by an express decree of the 

 Roman Senate. 



Hesiod, a Greek writer, supposed to be cotem- 

 porary with Homer, wrote a poem on agriculture, 

 entitled " Weeks and Days," which was so de- 

 nominated because husbandry requires an exact 



and adds that a mixture of soils produces the same 

 effect as manures. Clay, he observed, should be 

 mixed with sand, and sand with clay. Seed was 

 sown by hand, and covered with a rake. Grain 

 was reaped with a sickle, bound in sheaves, 

 threshed, then winnowed by wind, laid in chests, 

 bi?is, or granaries, and taken out as wanted by the 

 family, to be pounded in mortars or quernmills 

 into meal. 



The ancient Romans venerated the plough, and 

 in the earliest and purest times of the Republic, 

 the greatest praise which could be given to an il- 

 lustrious character was to say that he was an in- 

 dustrious and judicious husbandman. M. Cato, 

 the censor, who was celebrated as a statesman, 

 orator and general, having conquered nations, and 

 governed provinces, derived his highest and most 

 durable honours from having written a volumin- 

 ous work on agriculture. In the Georgics of Vir- 

 gil the majesty of verse and the harmony of num- 

 bers add dignity and grace to the most useful of 

 all topics. Columella, who has been celebrated 

 as a writer, flourished in the reign of the emperor 

 Claudius, and wrote twelve books on husbandry, 

 wjiich constituted a complete treatise on rural af- 

 fairs. Varro, Pliny, and Palladius were likewise 

 among the distinguished Romans, who wrote on 

 agricultural subjects. 



With regard to the Roman implements of agri- 

 culture, we learn that they used a great many, hut 

 their particular forms and uses are so imperfectly 

 described that veiy little is known concerning 

 them. From what we can ascertain respecting 

 them, they appear more worthy of the notice of 

 the curious antiquarian than the practical cultiva- 

 tor. The plough, the most important implement 

 of agriculture, is mentioned by Cato as of two 

 kinds, one for strong, the other for light soils. — 

 Varro mentions one with two mould boards, with 

 which, he says, " when they jdough, after sowing 

 the seed, they arc said to ridge." Pliny mentions 

 a plough with one mould board, and others with 

 a coulter, of which, he says there are many kinds. 



Fallowing was a practice rarely de\iated from 

 by the Romans. In most cases a fallow and a 

 year's crop succeeded each other. Manure was 

 collected from nearly or quite as many sources as 

 have been resorted to by the moderns. Pigeon's 

 dung was esteemed of the greatest value, and next 

 to that a mixture of night soil, scrapings of the 

 streets and urine, which were applied to the roots 

 of the vine and olive. 



The Romans did not bind their corn into 

 sl)eaves. When cut it was sent directly to the 

 area to be threshed, and was separated from the 

 chaff by throwing it from one part of the floor to 

 the other. Feeding down grain when too luxuri- 

 ant was practised. Virgil says, " What comuien- 

 diition shall I give to Iiim, who, lest bis corn 

 should lodge, pastures it while young, as soon as 

 the blade equals the furrow. Geor. lib. 1, 1. 111. 

 Watering on a large scale was applied both to 

 arable and grass lands. Virgil advises to " bring 

 down the waters of a river upon the sown corn, 

 and when the field is parched, and the plants drj-. 

 ing, convey it from the brow of a hill in channels." 

 Gfo. lib. 1,"|. 106. 



T!ie farm management most approved of by 

 the scientific husbandmen of Rome, was, in gen- 

 eral, such as would meet the approbation of mod- 

 ern cuLivators. The imjjortance of thorough til- 

 lage is illustrated by the following apologue. "A 

 vine dresser had two daughters and a vineyard : 

 I when his oldest daughter was married he gave 

 her a thinl of his vineyard for a portion ; notwith- 

 standing vhich he had the same quantitj^ of fruh 

 as formerly. When his youngest daughter was 

 married, le gave her half of what remained, still 

 the produL-e of his vineyard was undiminished." — 

 This result was the consequence of his bestowing 

 as much labour on the third part left after his 

 daughter; had received their portions, as he had 

 been accistomcd to give to the whole vineyard. 



The lomans, unlike most conquerors, insteai' 

 of desohting improved' the countries which 

 they subcued. " To benefit mankind and increast 

 their corrfort and haiipiness seemed lo be the in 

 variable vishes of the Roman commanders. The) 

 seldom o' never burned or laid waste the countrj 

 which tley conquered, but rather strained everi 

 nerve to civilize its inhabitants, ancF introduce tht 

 arts necessarj' for promoting their comfort and 

 happiness. To facilitate communications from 

 one district or town to another seems to have 

 been a primary object of the Romans, and the 

 works of this kind, accomplished by them, are still 

 discernible in numerous places. Bj' employing 

 their troops in this way, when not engaged in 

 more active service, their commanders seem to 

 have had greatly the advantage over our modern 

 generals. Instead of suflering their soldiers to 

 loiter in camps, or riot in towns, and thus enervate 

 their strength and relax their morals, the Roman 

 com:nanders kept their soldiers regularly at work, 

 and what was still better, at work on objects high- 

 ly beneficial to the interests of those whom they 

 suhj jgated." 



Ill the ages of anarchy and barbarism which 

 succeeded the fall of the Roman empire, agricul- 

 ture was almo.st wholly abandoned. Pasturage 

 was prefered to tillage, and the reason for such 

 preference consisted in the facility with which 

 sheep, oxen, Sec. can be driven away or concealed 

 on tie approach of an enemy. 



The conquest of England by the Normans con- 

 tribited to the improvement of agriculture iu 

 Great Britain. By that event many thousands of 

 huslaudmcn from the fertile and well cultivated 

 plains of Flanders, and Normandy, settled in Great 

 Brittin, obtained farms and employed the same 

 metlods iu cultivating them which they had been 

 accustomed to use iu their native countries. — 

 Some of the Norman barons were great improv- 

 vers of their lands, and were celebrated in history 

 for their skill in agriculture. The Norman clergy. 



