PLOUGHS AND PLOUGHING. 61 



most at a glance, by surveying the iniplemonts by 

 which its husbandry is carried on. If the ploughs 

 are ill formed, clumsy, and oldfashioned ; if the pro- 

 cesses of farming are conducted on the same prin- 

 ciples, and by the same means and methods which 

 have characterized them for centuries, the fact may 

 speak well for the stability of the habits of a peo- 

 ple, but very little for their intelligence, spirit of in- 

 quiry, or public spirit. It may indeed be asserted, 

 that the history of the plough is the history of ag- 

 riculture, and, as the necessary consequence, of civ- 

 ilization ; in which view this implement of the fann- 

 er assumes an importance in the eyes of many that 

 it would not otherwise possess. 



Nothing can be more simple than the most an- 

 cient specimens of the plough ; and as, in some parts 

 of the East, a thousand years passes with as little 

 impression on the manners, customs, and imple- 

 ments of the inhabitants as on their temples or their 

 pyramids, or, rather, with much less show of change, 

 we may reasonably suppose that the primitive 

 plough, such as was first used for tilling the ground, 

 may still be found in the East. The earliest figure 

 of the plough may be seen on the images of Osiris, 

 the god of the Egyptians, and it was formed of 'a 

 part of a tree, the principal stem constituting the 

 beam by which it was drawn, while a main branch, 

 cut to the proper length and point, formed the part 

 that moved the ground. To this point was some- 

 times secured a sharp stone or a small plate of iron; 

 and this, drawn by a team of heifers, or an ass and 

 a heifer, and not unfrequently by men, constituted 

 the plough of the ancients. The following is a rep- 

 resentation of one of these ploughs, long before the 

 Exodus, the point shod with stone or iron, and a 

 branch erect for a handle. 



