AGRICULTURE. 



AGRICULTURE. 



that makes an attention to fallowing so strictly I sided over the manures ; Volutia guarded the 



enjoined. 

 &c.) 



(Levit. xix. 23 ; xxv. 3; Hosea, x. 12, 



The landed estates were large, both of the 

 kings and of some of their subjects; for we read 

 that Uzziah, king of Judah, " had much both in 

 the low country and in the plains ; husband- 

 men also, and vine-dressers in the moun- 

 tains and in Carmel, for he loved husbandry" 

 (2 Chron. xxvi. 10); that Elijah ^ound Elisha 

 with twelve yoke of oxen at plough, himself 

 being with the twelfth yoke (1 Kings, xix. 19) ; 

 and that Job, the greatest man of the east, had 

 14,000 sheep, 6000 camels, 1000 yoke of oxen, 

 and 1000 she-asses. (Job, i. 3 ; xlii. 12.) In 

 the time of Isaiah, the accumulation of landed 

 property in the hands of a few proprietors was 

 so much on the increase, that a curse was ut- 

 tered against this engrossment. "Wo unto 

 them," says the prophet, " that join house to 

 house, that lay field to field, till there be no 

 place, that they may be placed alone in the 

 midst of the earth." (Lnuah, v. 8.) 



II. THE AGRICULTURE OF THE GREEKS. 



crops whilst evolving their leaves ; Flora re- 

 ceived the still more watchful duty of shelter- 

 ing their blossom ; they passed to the guardian- 

 ship of Lact'antia when swelling with milky 

 juices; Rubigo protected them from blight; 

 and they successively became the care of Has- 

 tilina, as they shot into ears; of Matura as 

 they ripened ; and of Tutelina when they were 

 reaped. Such creations of polytheism are fa- 

 bles ; but they are errors that should even now 

 give rise to feelings of gratification rather than 

 of contempt. They must please by their ele- 

 gance ; and much more when we reflect that it 

 is the concurrent testimony of anterior nations, 

 through thousands of years, that they detected 

 and acknowledged a Great First Cause. 



Unlike the arts of luxury, Agriculture has 

 never been subject to any retrograde revolu- 

 tions ; being an occupation necessary for the 

 existence of mankind in any degree of com- 

 fort, it has always continued to receive their 

 first attention ; and no succeeding age has been 

 more imperfect, but in general more expert, in 

 the art than that which has preceded it. The 

 Greeks are not an exception to this rule ; for 

 their agriculture appears to have been much 

 the same in the earliest brief notices we have 

 of them, as it was with the nation of which 

 they were an offset. The early Grecians, like 

 all new nations, were divided into but two 

 classes ; landed proprietors, and Helots, or 

 slaves ; and the estates of the former were 

 little larger than were sufficient to supply their 

 respective households with necessaries. We 

 read of princes among them ; and as we dwell 

 upon the splendid details of the Trojan war, 

 associate with such titles, unreflectingly, all 

 the pageantry and luxury of modern potentates, 

 that are distinguished by similar titles. But 

 in this we are decidedly wrong ; for there was 

 probably not a leader of the Greeks who did 

 not, like the father of Ulysses, assist with his 

 own hands in the farming operations. (Ho- 

 mer's Odyss. 1. xxiv.) Hesiod is the earliest 

 writer who gives us any detail of the Grecian 

 agriculture. He appears to have been the 

 contemporary of Homer ; and, in that case, to 

 have flourished about nine centuries before 

 the Christian era. His practical statements, 

 however, are very meager ; we have, therefore, 

 preferred taking Xenophon's (Economics as our 

 text, and introducing the statements of other 

 authors, as they may occur, to supply deficien- 

 cies or to afford illustrations. 



Xenophon died at the age of ninety, 359 

 years before the birth of Christ. The follow- 

 ing narrative of the Greek agriculture is from 

 his " Essay," if not otherwise specified. 



In Xenophon's time the landed proprietor 

 no longer laboured upon his farm, but had a 

 steward as a general superintendant, and nu- 

 merous labourers, yet he always advises the 

 master to attend to his own affairs. ' My ser- 

 vant," he says, " leads my horse into the fields, 

 and I walk thither for the sake of exercise in 



__, , _., ... apurer air; and when arrived where my work- 



eyery operation of agriculture, and every pe- | men are planting trees, tilling the ground, and 

 riod of the growth of crops, obtained its pre- the like, I observe how every thing is per- 

 siding and tutelary deity. The goddess, Terra, \ formed, and study whether any of these opera- 

 was the guardian of the soil ; Slercutius pre- ; tions may be improved." After his ride, his 



35 



1. Ancient implement from a tombstone at Athens. 

 2. The Greek plough. 3. The spade. 4 and 5. Hoes. 



Revelation has taught us to offer up our 

 prayers and thanksgivings for all benefits to 

 the one omni-beneficent Creator and provider 

 of the universe. The less enlightened ancients, 

 whose religion was mythological, equally con- 

 vinced with ourselves of the existence of some 

 divine first cause and providence, like us of- 

 fered up their votive petitions and hymns of 

 praise, though the objects of their worship 

 were as many as the benefits or the evils to 

 which man is subject. 



Agriculture was too important and too bene- 

 ficial an art not to demand, and the Greeks and 

 Romans were nations too polished and dis- 

 cerning not to afford to it, a very plentiful se- 

 ries of presiding deities. They attributed to 

 Ceres as their progenitors, the Egyptians, did 

 to Isis the invention of the arts of tilling the 

 soil. Ceres is said to have imparted these to 

 Triptolemus, of Eleusis, and to have sent him 

 as her missionary round the world to teach 

 mankind the best modes of ploughing, sowing, 

 and reaping. In gratitude for this, the Greeks, 

 about 1356 years before the Christian era, es- 

 tablished, in honour of Ceres, the Eleusinian 

 mysteries, by far the most celebrated and en- 

 during of all their religious ceremonies ; for 

 they were not established at Rome till the close 

 of the fourth century. Superstition is a pro- 

 lific weakness ; and, consequently, by degrees, 



