HISTORICAL NOTICES OF AGRICULTURE. 9 



wealth, the progres 5 of civUization, and the spread of 

 knowledge, are all, more or less, to be traced back 

 to such associations, and to the permanent occupan- 

 cy of the earth, to which societies like these gave a 

 tendency and security. To live, it was necessary 

 to sow ; to induce men to sow, security must be 

 given that what is sown shall be reaped for the ben- 

 efit of the sower; and an association of families, or, 

 in other words, society, could only do this ; and thus 

 to agriculture, to the tilling of the soil, we owe civ- 

 ilization and its multitudinous blessings. 



Only incidental notices of the principal articles of 

 cultivation in these primitive times are to be found 

 in the writers of those periods, or, indeed, much la- 

 ter. Rice was grown wherever it could be cultiva- 

 ted ; barley was early introduced ; according to He- 

 rodotus, wheat was not grown by the Egyptians, 

 and bread made from it was despised by them ; no 

 root except the onion and the garlic is mentioned ; 

 beans were held in abomination by most of the an- 

 cient nations ; and maize, or what we call corn, was 

 entirely unknown among them. It is evident that 

 the principal means of subsistence were found in 

 rice, barley, wheat, and in the flocks and herds, of 

 which they usually had great store. It is plain, 

 from Moses, Homer, and Herodotus, that flesh form- 

 ed a more important part of human food' among the 

 shepherd or migratory clans than among the inhab- 

 itants of the plains, and more Jmong all, unless we 

 except the Egyptians, than at the present time. 



One of the most ancient ploughs figured is made 

 of a branch of a tree, a projecting limb of which, 

 cut off and sharpened, forms the share or point for 

 moving the earth, while an ox is used for draught ; 

 and, at a much later period, the form had not alter- 

 ed materially, except that a piece of stone or metal 

 was secured by thongs of raw hide to the point, and 

 thus the implement was rendered more durable as 

 well as efllcaciuus. From paintings and sculptures 

 IT— B 



