HISTORY OF AGRICUL 



London, printed in England, in 1834, from which I shall make 

 extended quotations. 



Mr. London says that the history of agriculture may be 

 considered chronologically, or in connection with that of the 

 different nations, which have successively flourished in different 

 parts of the world ; politically, as influenced by the different 

 forms of government which have prevailed ; geographically, as 

 affected by different climates ; and physically, as influenced by 

 the character of the earth's surface. 



The first kind of history is useful, by displaying the relative 

 situation of different countries as to agriculture ; instructive, as 

 enabling us to contrast our present situation with that of other 

 nations and former times ; and curious, as discovering the route 

 by which agriculture has passed from primitive ages and coun- 

 tries to our own. 



The political and geographical histories of the art derive their 

 value from pointing out causes favorable and unfavorable to 

 improvement, and countries and climates favorable or unfa- 

 vorable to particular kinds of cultivation and management. 

 Traditional history traces man back to the time of the deluge. 

 After that catastrophe, of which the greater part of the earth's 

 surface bears evidence, man seems to have recovered himself in 

 the central parts of Asia, and to have first attained to eminence 

 in arts and government on the alluvial plains of the Nile. Egypt 

 colonized Greece, Carthage, and some other places on the Medi- 

 terranean Sea ; and thus the Greeks received their arts from the 

 Egyptians ; afterwards the Romans from the Greeks ; and finally, 

 the rest of Europe from the Romans. 



Such is the route by which agriculture is traced to our part 

 of the world. How it may have reached the eastern countries 

 of India and China is less certain, though, from the great antiq- 

 uity of their inhabitants and governments, it appears highly 

 probable that arts and civilization were either coeval there, or, 

 if not, that they travelled to the east much more rapidly than 

 they did to the west. Very few facts are recorded on the sub- 

 ject, previous to the time of the Romans. That enterprising 

 people considerably improved the art, and extended its practice 

 with their conquests. After the fall of their empire, it declined 

 throughout Europe, and, during the Dark Ages, was chiefly 



