8 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. Part I. 



ters of God into bondage." Boaz came into three estates by inheritance, and also a 

 wife, after much curious ceremony. (Ruth, iv. 8 12.) Large estates, however, were 

 not approved of. Isaiah pronounces a curse on those " that join house to house, that 

 lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst." 

 While some portions of land near the towns were enclosed, the greater part was in 

 common, or in alternate proprietorship and occupation, as in our common fields. This 

 appears both from the laws and regulations laid down by Moses as to herds and flocks ; 

 and from the beautiful rural story of Ruth, who, to procure sustenance for herself and 

 her widowed mother-in-law Naomi, " came and gleaned in the field after tlie reapers, 

 and her hap was to light on a part of the Jield [that is, of the common field] belonging 

 unto Boaz." (Ruth, ii. 3.) 



1 9. It would appear that every jrroprietor cultivated his oum lands, however extensive ; 

 and that agriculture was held in high esteem even by their princes. The crown-lands 

 in King David's time, were managed by seven officers ; one was over the storehouses, 

 one over the work of the field and tillage of the ground, one over the vineyards and wine- 

 cellars, one over the olive and oil-stores and sycamore (jpicus Sycomorusimw.) plant- 

 ations, one over the herds, one over the camels and asses, and one over the flocks. 

 (1 Chron., xxvii. 25. ) King Uzziah " built towers in the desert, and digged many wells ; 

 for he had much cattle both in the low country and in the plains ; husbandmen also and 

 vine-dressers in the mountains, and in Carmel, for he loved husbandry." (2 Chron., xxvi. 

 10.) Even private individuals cultivated to a great extent, and attended to the practical 

 part of the business themselves. Elijah found Elisha in the field, with twelve yoke of 

 oxen before liim, and liimself with the twelfth. Job had five hundred yoke of oxen, and 

 five hundred she-asses, seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels. Both asses 

 and oxen were used in ploughing ; for Moses forbade the Jews to yoke an ass with an 

 ox, their step or progress being different, and of course their labours imequal. 



20. Among the operations of agriculture are mentioned watering by machinery, plough- 

 ing, digging, reaping, threshing, &c. " Doth the ploughman ploughe all day to sow ? 

 doth he open and break the clods of bis ground ? When he hath made plain the face 

 thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter tlie cummin [Cuminum Cyminum 

 Linn.'\, and cast in the principal wheat, and the appointed barley, and the rye, in their 

 place?" (/saiaA, xxviii. 24,25.) The plough was probably a clumsy instrument, re- 

 quiring the most vigilant attention from the ploughman ; for Luke (ch. ix. 62.) uses the 

 figure of a man at the plough looking back, as one of utter worthlessness. Covered thresh- 

 ing-floors were in use ; and, as appears from the case of Boaz and Ruth, it was no 

 uncommon thing to sleep in them during the harvest. Corn was threshed in different ways. 

 " The fitches," says Isaiah, " are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a 

 cart-wheel turned about upon the cummin ; but the filches al-e beaten out with a staff, 

 and the cummin with a rod [flail] . Bread corn is bi-uised, because he will not ever be 

 threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horse- 

 men." (Ch. xxviii. 27,28.) The bread corn here mentioned was probably the /ar of 

 the Romans (maize, Zea Mays L.), which was commonly separated by hand-mills, or 

 hand-picking, or beating, as is still the case in Italy and other countries where this 

 corn is grown. Corn was " winnowed with the shovel and with the fan." (Id., xxx. 24.) 

 Sieves were also in use, for Amos says, " I will sift the house of Israel, as corn is sifted 

 in a sieve" (Ch. ix. 9.); and Christ is re- ^ 

 presented by St. Luke as saying, " Simon, 

 Simon, Satan hath desired to have you, that 

 he may sift you as wheat." Isaiah men- 

 tions (vii. 25.) the " digging of- hills with the 

 mattock ." to wliich implement the original ^' 

 pick (fg. 2.) would gradually arrive, first, 

 by having the head put on at right angles, 

 and pointed (fig. 7. a) ; next, by having it 



flattened, sharpened, and shod with iron (b c) ; tFJi=^ ^^ 



and lastly, by forming the head entirely of ^ 



metal, and forked (d), such probably as we see it in use in Judea, and the land of Canaan, 



at the present day. 



21. Vineyards w^cre planted on rising grounds, fenced round, the soil well prepared, and 

 a vintage-house and watch-tower built in a central situation (Isaiah, v. 2.), as is still 

 done in European Turkey and Italy. Moses gives directions to the Jews for culti- 

 vating the vine and other fruit trees ; the three first years after planting, the fruit is not 

 to be eaten ; the fourth it is to be given to the Lord ; and it is not till the fifth year 

 that they are " to eat of the fruit thereof." (Levit., xix. 25.) The intention of these 

 precepts was, to prevent the trees from being exhausted by bearing, before they had 

 acquired sufficient strength and establishment in the soil. 



22. Of other agricultural operations and customs, it may be observed with Dr. Brown, 



