NO. 11. 



TTir- FAR.MEKS' CABINKT, 



169 



Crossing with wliat? Ail tlie flocks around 

 me are similar. And it lias been found ne- 

 cessary to mingle some alloy, or in other 

 words, cr.\AS with some of the coarse wool 

 breeds to keep up the health, and in many 

 ivjstances even the continuance of their fine 

 wooled flocks. 



Hence we see the necessity of keeping a| 

 few of the different breeds. At the present 

 time, such has been the degree to which fine 

 fleeces have been produced that wool of a 

 coarser grade bears nearly the same price as 

 the finest, and hence as those sheep of a 

 somewhat coarser grade produce heavier 

 fleeces than the extra fine, the over plus of 

 wool thus produced will make up the small 

 deficiency in price. For a cross with the 

 Merino we do not at present know a finer or 

 more compatible breed than the South 

 Downs. 



We must follow the laws which nature 

 dictates and occasionally give our fine wool- 

 ed flocks a mix of some more hardy and ro- 

 bust blood, or they will become weak and 

 unprofitable. 



ARTS ANH SCIUNCHS. 



-Science has sought, on weary wing, 



On sea and sliore, each mute and living thin^'. 



Rise and Progress of Agriciil- 

 liire. 



The antiquity of this art is undoubtedly 

 beyond that of all others. From the earli- 

 est accounts of the eastern nations, we have 

 reason to think, that agriculture had been 

 understood by them in considerable perfec- 

 tion ; seeing they were always supplied not 

 only with the necessaries, but the greatest 

 luxuries of life. 



As soon as the descendants of Abraham 

 were settled in Palestine, they became hus- 

 bandmen, from the chiefs of the tribe of 

 Judah to the lowest branch of the tribe of 

 Benjamin. High birth or rank did not at 

 that time make any distinction ; for agricul- 

 ture was considered as the most honorable 

 of employments. 



The Chaldeans, who inhabited the country 

 where agriculture had its birth, carried that 

 valuable art to a degree of perfection un- 

 known in former times. They cultivated i 

 their lands with great assiduity, and seem to 

 have found out some means of restoring fer- 

 tility to an exhausted soil, having plentiful 

 harvests in succession ; on which account 

 they were not obliged, as their predecessors 

 had been, to change their situation, in order 

 to maintain a sufficiency for themselves and 

 their numerous flocks and herds. 



The Egyptians, who, from the natural 

 fertility of their country by the overflowing 



of the jN'ile, raised vast quantities of corn, 

 ascribed the invention of the art of agricul- 

 ture to Osris. They also regarded Isis, their 

 second diety, as the discoverer of the use of 

 wheal and barley, which before grew wild 

 in the fields. 



It is also related of the ancient Persians, 

 that tiieir kings laid aside their grandeur 

 every month to eat with husbandmen. 'I'his 

 is a striking instance of the estimation in 

 which they held agriculture; for at that 

 time other arts were practised among that 

 people in great perfection, particularly those 

 of weaving, needle-work, and etnbroidery. 

 The precepts of the religion taught by the 

 ancient magi, or priests, included the prac- 

 tice of agriculture. 



The Phcenicians, better known in Scrip- 

 ture by the name of Philistines, were re- 

 markable for their attention to, and skill in 

 agriculture; but finding themselves too 

 much disturbed and confined by the incur- 

 sions and conquests of the Israelites, they 

 spread themselves through the greater part 

 of the Mediteranean Islands, and carried 

 with them their knowledge of the art of cul- 

 tivation. 



The Athenians taught the use of corn to 

 the rest of the Greeks^. They also instruct- 

 ed them to cultivate the ground, and to pre- 

 pare it for the reception of the seed. The 

 Greeks soon perceived that bread was more 

 wholesome, and its taste more delicate than 

 that of acorns and the wild roots of the field. 

 Ilesiod was the first we know of among the 

 Greeks who wrote on this interesting sub- 

 ject. He lived about 900 years before the 

 Christain era. 



The ancient Romans esteemed agriculture 

 so honorable an employment, that the most 

 distinguished senators at their leisure inter- 

 vals applied themselves to the cultivation of 

 the soil. Numa Pompilius, one of their 

 kings, was much distinguished for his skill 

 in agriculture ; and such was the amiable 

 simplicity of those times, that their greatest 

 warriors and legislators were often called 

 from the active labors of the field to the 

 highest oflSces in the state. Regulus, the 

 celebrated Roman General, when in Africa, 

 requested of the senate to be recalled, lest 

 his farm might suff'erfor want of proper cul- 

 tivation in his absence ; and the senate wrote 

 to him for answer, that it should be taken 

 care of at the public expense while he con- 

 tinued to lead the armies. Cato the censor, 

 Varro, Virgil, Columella, and other dis- 

 tinguished Romans, wrote on the subject of 

 agriculture. 



In China, a day is still annually appointed 

 when the Emperor goes in solemn proces- 

 sion to a field, where he shows his sense of 



