170 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



DEC. 9, 1835- 



importance in which the ciiltivation of the eartl) 

 was held, as well as the perfection to which it had 

 attained, from the well tilled field of the husband- 

 man, to those superli gardens, which embellished 

 the princely establishments in the environs of 

 Thebes, Memphis, and Heliopolis. 



By a long matured theory and practical system 

 of culture, every foot of land was reclaimed, from 

 the bordering deserts, which the fertilizing waters 

 of the Nile could be made to irrigate. Thus the 

 luxuriant valley of that majestic river, in th« total- 

 ity of its lengthened course, was covered with the 

 rich and various products of rural industry, and 

 not only furnished the whole subsiste.:ce of a nu- 

 merous native population, but was rendered for 

 centuries the garden and granary of the world. 



From Egypt, civilization gradually extended 

 .nlong the sliores of the Mediterranean, the Archi- 

 pelago, and Euxine ; and Phoenicia, Judea, Greece, 

 Carthage and Rome, with theirnumcrous colonies, 

 became cacli distinguished for their progress in 

 intellectual attainments, and whatever tends to 

 give digiiity to man, or glory to an empire. — 

 There were cultivated in a pre-eminent manner, 

 the useful and ornamental arts, and none claimed 

 more attention, or were carried to greater perfec- 

 tion, than those connected with the tillage of the 

 tarth. In the march of their victorious armies, 

 letters, and their ever constant and insejiarahle 

 companion, agriculture, were extended over north- 

 ern Africa, and through Asia Slinor, Spain, Gaul, 

 and Germany, to the distant isles of Britain. 



In each of those nations, the cultivation of the 

 earth was the most honorable of all pursuits. — 

 The Egyptians were so fully sensible of its im- 

 fjortance, that its introduction was ascribed to the 

 God of their idolatry ; and the Greeks and Ro- 

 mans dedicated temples, and erected statues to the 

 numerous divinities of their mythology, who pre- 

 .sided over its various departments. As ear 3' as 

 iha time of Homer, Hesiod, and subsequently 

 _Xenophon, with many of his eminent countrymen, 

 "wrote on rural affairs. The Cai-thagenians, in the 

 "palmy days of their prosperity and glory, cousid- 

 flred the occupation of a husbandman, not less 

 aneritorious than the profession of arms, exalted as 

 "was the estimat on in which that was held, by the 

 warlike coimtrymen of Hamilcar and Hannibal, 

 'i'hey were so nnich tiiore distinguished than any 

 other contemporaneous nation, in the science and 

 })ractical fipef'ations of tillage, that a voluminous 

 work by Mago, one of their most celebrated gen- 

 erals, was so highly appreciated, by their haughty 

 nnd implacable enemies, that it was translated, for 

 a.'ie benefit of the people, by an express decree of 

 the Roman Senate. 



As to the value placed ob agriculture by the 

 Romans, we have the fullest evidence. It was 

 encouraged by liberal dotiations of land, elevated 

 liy the sanctions of religion, and rendered not 

 merely a mcri.orfons jujiiguit, but an .object of the 

 first consideration, by the most wealthy and illus- 

 trious citizens. In their conquests, if not always 

 more magnanioaous than most other nations, they 

 never lost sight of the grand object for which their 

 invasions wore projected — the augmentation of 

 the resources, and prospective aggrandizement of 

 the empire. Instead, therefore, of desolating, 

 they endeavored to improve the countries which 

 they subdued, and were solicitous to civilize the 

 inhabitants by the introduction of letters, with the 

 useful and ornamental arts. Cato derived as 

 Much honor from his writings on husbandry as 



by his eloquence in the Senate house, his victo- 

 ries in the field, or his lofty |)atriotism at Utica. 

 Cincinnatus was twice called from his plough to 

 the dignified offices of Consul and Dictator. Vir- 

 gil acquired as much fame for his poems on rural 

 economy, as by his epic on the adventures of the 

 Ilian prince. Piiny, the Linnjeus of antiquity, 

 was iis ambitious to obtain the honors which were 

 lavishly bestowed on the cultivators of the soil, as 

 the distinction of pro-consul in Spain. Varro, 

 the intimate friend of Cicero, and who bad the 

 reputation of being one the greatest philosophers, 

 and the most learned man of Rome, has his name 

 perpetuated by a treatise on rustic affairs, being 

 one only of his five liundred writings which have 

 come down to us. Columel!a was the agricultu- 

 ral Cyclopediastof the Clandian age, and his great 

 work, in which he treats on all the branches of 

 agriculture and gardening, is still extant. 



Simultaneous with the advanceinent of the arts 

 of civilization in the West, — if not at an earlier 

 period, — there was a like movement in the East, 

 by which they were extended over Palestine, Per- 

 sia, Media, and the ])opulous valleys of the Indus 

 and Ganges, and probably to the ocean bounds of 

 China ; and considerable portions of that immense 

 region had become eminent for improvements in 

 tillage, anterior to the expedition of the Macedo- 

 nian conqueror. 



But all those once powerful kingdoms of anti- 

 quity were destined to ex|)erience a tremendous 

 reverse of fortune. By slow advances, each had 

 reached the. loftiest point of national grandeur, 

 from whence their decadence was r.ipid and irre- 

 mediable. Neither wisdom, numbers, wealth, or 

 valcr, could arrest their disastrous fate; and they 

 were successively, eixhtr subjugated or inqjover- 

 ished by some ambitious chieftain of a rival pow- 

 er, or overwhelmed by those tribes of barbarians, 

 which in all ages have come down, like a furious 

 tempest, from the northern wilds of Asia and Eu- 

 rope, spreading fire, slaughter and devastation in 

 their^errjfic course. The whole human race was 

 thus thrown back into such a degraded condition, 

 that the moral firmament was obscured like a per- 

 petual night, by the dark and lurid clouds of ig- 

 norance, superstition and wretchedness. Entire 

 nations were so thoroughly exterminated, or so 

 blended in the population of^ their savage conquer- 

 ors, as to have lost their distinctiveness of charac- 

 ter. _ Egyptians and Carthagenians have disap- 

 peared from the earth, leaving no traces of their 

 existence, but in the stupendous ruins of their 

 cities, pyramids, temples, aqueducts and tombs ; 

 and even the inscriptions on those of the former 

 are /low unintelligible, while not a single book, or 

 page of the language — no, not so much as tlje 

 alphabet — of the other has survived: so com- 

 plete has been the work of destruction. Had it 

 not been for the sacred volume of the Jews, and 

 a few of the Greek and Roman authors, which 

 have reached us, the history of the world, from 

 the creation to the revival of letters, would have 

 been as unknown as that of the American conti- 

 nent, before the voyage of Columbus. By his 

 transcendent genius, a way was opened over the 

 ocean to this western hemisphere, and by the aid 

 of those precious repositories of learning, an arch 

 has been thrown across that immense gulf of ob- 

 livion, which sej)arated the far distant past from 

 the present. 



Amidst the universal gloom, which so long en- 

 veloped tho earth, a few but widely separated 



beacon-lights faintly glimmered in the distant ho- 

 rizon. They arose in the midst of the wide ex- 

 tended encampments of the Arab, the Saracen 

 an I the Moor, where yet glowed the unextinguish- 

 ed embers of that general conflagration, in which 

 was consumed the accumulated wisdom of thirty 

 centuries. There it was, that the lamps of litera- 

 ture, science and the arts were reillumiuated. At 

 Bagdad and Ispahan, Bassora and Cairo, Fez and 

 Cordova, were again reared the temples, and 

 thither thronged the devotees of intellect. It was 

 there the " revival of learning commenced and 

 graduall}' spreading over Southern Europe, the 

 progress was onward, until it reached 



" That bleak coast, which 

 Hears the German ocean roar, 



Whence full-bloom'd, strong, 

 And yellow hair'd, the blue cy'd Saxon came, 



then with him, and freedom, and Christianity, 

 ultimately crossed the broad Atlantic, and in con- 

 formity to prophetic annunciation westward still, 

 they keep their glorious course. 



During the ages of bloodshed, desolation, anar- 

 chy and barbarism, which succeeded the over- 

 throw of the Roman Empire, agriculture was 

 almost wholly abandoned, and pasturage was sub- 

 stituted for tillage. The earliest efforts for its 

 restoration was made by the Moors in Spain, and 

 was there carried to great perfection, during the 

 period of their supremacy in that kingdom. Re- 

 mains of luimerons hydraidic structures, which 

 were erected for the purposes of artificial irriga- 

 tion, so indispensible in that sultry climate, are to 

 be seen in several parts of the country, which 

 evince ^the intelligence and enterprise of the 

 Moorish inhabitants. Some of the most learned 

 men of that extraordinary race also wrote able 

 works on huebandr}', which are still preserved in 

 the royal libraries of Madrid : but after the Im- 

 politic expulsion of that most enlightened and 

 industrious portion of the population, the cultiva- 

 tion of the earth rapidly declined, and has never 

 since regained its former consequence. 



The Italian States early adopted the agricultural 

 iujprovements which had been introduced into 

 Sicily bj' its Saracenic conqueroi-s. The Normans 

 and Flemings next became conspicuous for their 

 advancement in husbandry ; and afterthe invasion 

 of Great Britain by the ambitious sovereign of 

 the former numerous emigrants from both of 

 those nations, soon followed, who gave such a 

 powerful impulse to rural industry, tliat it extend- 

 ed with various success, over the whole island, 

 where it has finally reached a higher state of per- 

 fection, in all its applications, than in any other 

 country. 



Stiinulated by the favorable results, which had 

 boon produced in England, most of the continen- 

 tal nations were induced to attempt like ameliora- 

 tions, in their antiquated and very imperfect modes 

 of cultivation. Scientific experiments and practi- 

 cal illustrations in the renovated art of tillage were 

 made, and beneficial changes gradually effected, 

 so far as the character of the soil, the products 

 best adapted to their variousclimatcs, and the 

 peculiar demands of other branches of industry, 



jht dictate or require. This spirit of im- 

 proveitient has continually extended, with vary- 

 ing energy and advantage, but most successfuly 

 in portions of France, Holland, Belgium, Ger- 

 many and the valley of the Po. 



Agricultural institutions were very generally 

 stablished, for the concentration and diffusion of 



