No. 4.] FARMIXG AS AN OCCUPATION. 329 



manuring as a means of fertilizing the soil. Pliny v.rites 

 of the practice of leaving the land fallow every second year, 

 and says : *' It is a good plan, providing the man has land 

 enough, to give the soil this repose. But how if he has not 

 enough ? Let him in that case help himself thus : let him 

 sow his next year's wheat crop on the field where he has 

 just gathered his beans, vetches, lupines or such other crop 

 as enriches the ground ; for indeed, it is well known that 

 some crops are sown for no other purpose but as food for 

 others, — a poor practice, in my opinion." 



Thus we see that in the early days of the world's history 

 the people adopted many of the methods of the intelligent 

 farmer of to-day. "VVe glean but little from the history of 

 ancient Greece, but that little points to the probability that 

 agriculture held a valuable place in the estimation of the 

 Grecians, and that the tiller of the soil was second to none in 

 political impoi-tance. These were the days when farming 

 held the foremost rank among other industries, — foremost, 

 because it was considered first as a means of acquiring w^ealth, 

 first in respectability and first in securing a peaceful society 

 and ensuring a strong government. The ancient belief, 

 that " no other labor is at once so good for mind and body, 

 and so worthy of freamen," may well be ours. 



From this high position farming as an occupation has 

 fallen ; and where were once productive fields and a happy 

 peasantry, we find ill-kept farms and a people but little if 

 any above a condition of slavery. Among the causes which 

 led to this state of things were the many wars in which they 

 engaged. It mattered little which nation conquered, — 

 success and defeat were alike disastrous to the farmer. 

 When a nation was defeated, its land was taken and its 

 people held in slavery, and land and people were farmed out 

 to wealthy citizens, thereby producing a competition ruinous 

 to the free farmers of the conquering nation. Many attempts 

 were made to remedy this evil by dividing the land among 

 the people, but always without success, as the power of con- 

 centrated Avcalth was too strong to be broken. Aa'ain, the 

 burden of taxation was heavy, the farmer, then, as now, 

 paying more than his share. These taxes were leased to the 

 gatherer, and the farmer's property Avas easily found. Farm- 



