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rainless region, which, from a desert, was converted into a 

 garden and made to blossom as the rose. 



How Agriculture was honored will be seen by one of Xen- 

 ophan's stories that will be remembered by every school boy. 

 He tells how the Grecian envoy, Lysander, was received by 

 Cyrus the Younger, at Sardis, who pointed out to him the 

 beauty of his plantations, the avenues of trees, the fragrant 

 shrubbery, and the delightful walks of the royal grounds ; and 

 when the Spartan warrior, with his native Greek love for art, 

 said — " I admire the beautiful scene, but much more the ar- 

 tist by whose skill it was created." Cyrus, king of all the 

 East replied : " It was laid out and measured by myself, and a 

 portion of the trees planted by my own hands ; nor do I ever 

 go to my dinner," he continued, *^ till I have earned my appe- 

 tite by some military or agricultural exercise." There was the 

 basis of the Persian empire in agriculture — the employment of 

 kings, and nobles and peasants ; and not till great wars oc- 

 curred, when agriculture was neglected, the husbandman was 

 turned to the soldier, and in oppressive taxation their great 

 works for watering the soil were neglected and went to decay, 

 did the power of the nation cease. Then the drifting sands 

 came to hide the monuments of departed wealth and power 

 and glory, and the places where the olive and the vine grew, 

 and rich luxuriant verdure gladdened the eye, changed to the 

 wild and dreary desert. 



Agriculture did the same for Egypt as for Persia. By it 

 she attained the highest civilization and succeeded to the 

 greatest power, long before Grecian art or Roman heroism 

 were known. One of the Egyptian monarchs even changed 

 the bed of the Nile from along the Lybian chain of mountains 

 to the center of the valley, that agriculture might receive its 

 benefits ; and it was into Egypt that the roving tribes went for 

 bread, and became tributary therefor, even before the founda- 

 tions of the Pyramids were laid. "With agricultural prosperity 

 came science, arts and industry. " All the learning of the 



