326 [Assembly 



times when this was announced to him, he was found in a husband- 

 man's garb, handling the plough and regulating his fields for peeds, 

 and was requested to leave these for a while, that he might handle 

 the sword and regulate armies ! Or when gathering and saving his 

 crops, he was suddenly called upon to come and save his country ! 

 This actually happened, as history testifies, and more than once was 

 the Republic saved by such men, because they handled the sword, 

 regulated and disciplined armies, with the same skill and success 

 that they handled the plough, and regulated their farms. In those 

 days, far back as they are, men were educated, not only for physi- 

 cians, lawyers, warriors and statesmen, but for ploughmen, scientifi- 

 cally and practically. Science it was then considered not only made 

 them better farmers but strengthened their claim to the highest honors 

 of the State. It qualified them either for the farm or camp, they pos- 

 sessed the highly cultivatedminds, and the hardy vigorous bodies which 

 insured success in either or both. Such men, too, history tells us 

 were among the most eminent Senators, they were considered the 

 purest patriots and most enlightened statesmen, and took the lead in 

 the Senate Chamber and Councils of the nation, and led these as 

 ■well as armies, distinguished alike in peace and war. Such exam- 

 ples ought to be followed in modern times, especially by republics, 

 and certainly by one, four fifths of whose population are engaged in 

 the culture of the soil. 



The Romans were the best farmers of all the ancient nations, they 

 not only knew how to till the earth best, but they made and possess- 

 ed the best implements of husbandry of their time. The Roman 

 plough in its chief parts has been the model of the modern plough. 

 Their best writers, several of them, on husbandry, and especially 

 Virgil, describe the plough minutely in its principal parts. The 

 head or sole, beam, handle, share or sock, coulter, and ear, or mould- 

 board. These when put together show they had a philosophical 

 knowledge of its use, a moveable wedge, to pierce, split, and cut the 

 earth into furrow slices, and turn them over in an inverted position. 

 After the fall of the Roman Republic, every thing went back in the 

 world; retrograded for many centuries, including the plough, and 

 there was no progress, no improvement of moment in this until about 

 the seventeenth century, when favorable changes began to be made 

 in agriculture, and of course the plough, in Europe. England then, 

 as now took the lead, especially in the more important branches of 

 the art; we shall therefore only notice the leading improvements in 

 this valuable implement after the 17th century in Great Britain. 

 The instrument which consists of many detached pieces may admit of 



