a 
TREATISE 
 AORIOVLTURE. 
SECTION I. 
or the Rise and Progress of Ag griculture. 
Tue origin of this art is lost among the fables of 
antiquity, and we shave ‘td regret, that in the present 
state of knowledge; we are even ignorant of the time 
when the plough was invented, and ofthe. name and 
condition of the inventor..(1) When therefore . we 
speak of the beginning of the art, we but, allude to 
certain! appearances which indicate its, existence, and 
the employment given by it to the minds, as well as to 
the hands, of mankind.. Such were the artificial ca- 
nals and lakes of Egypt. Menaced at one time by 
w redundancy of water, and-at-another by its scarcity 
or want, the genius of that very extraordinary people 
could not but employ, itself, promptly and strenuous- 
ly, imvemedying these evils, and eventually, in con- 
verting them into benefits; and hence. it. was, that 
when other parts of the world exhibited little more of 
agricultural knowledge than appertains to the state 
of nature, imagined by philosophers, the Egyptians 
thoroughly understood and skilfully practised arriga- 
tion, that most scientific and profitable branch of the 
the eee Oe 
(1) This iavention has been attributed to Osirie.—See Millot’s Gen, Hist 
