Ceapin^s ^Address. 
371 
baking powder. The farmer and farmer’s wife were then indeed 
objects of pity. Their great Creator held them in contempt. Their 
son Abel, the keeper of sheep, was slain in the field, and “ Cain the 
tiller of the ground ” became a hardened tramp. Agriculture had 
a bad beginning. It had the worst kind of send off. Everything 
seems to have been done by hand. Agriculturists were not bet¬ 
tered by the deluge, although wicked sons of wicked sires and 
giants were washed from the face of the earth. No sooner had 
Noah landed upon the mountains of Ararat than he became a hus¬ 
bandman, and planted a vineyard; and from the first crop he 
became drunken wdth wine; and out of his debauch came the well 
known curse on Canaan: “A servant of servants shall he be unto 
his brethren.” The deluge and ark may have been a benefit to 
commerce and navigation, but not to farmers or farming. For 
centuries long, agriculture, the art of cultivating the ground and 
obtaining from it the products necessary for the support of animal 
life, was the main support of man. In vain you turn the pages of 
holy writ under the old dispensation to find prophet, sage, judge, 
leader, prince, or king, who was not possessed of land, sheep, cattle, 
and other stock. Abraham and Lot owned flocks and herds and 
were rich in silver and gold. Jacob, the father of Israel, who in his 
youth, had his wages changed ten times by the farmer Laban, had 
many cattle and sheep. In fact he was a breeder of ring-streaked, 
spotted, speckled and grizzled cattle and smut nosed sheep. Short 
Horns and Southdowns. Gideon, the mighty in battle, was thresh¬ 
ing wheat by the wine press when called by the angel of the Lord 
to save Israel from the hands of the Midianites. Elisha had the 
mantle of the prophet’s office cast upon him while he was plowing 
with twelve yoke of oxen, while he was running a breaking team 
in the valley of Jordan. The honest old farmer Boaz owned the 
wheat field where the beautiful Jewish maiden gleaned and made 
the reapers and Boaz happy. David the slinger and the singer, 
watched and fed his sheep, his ewe lambs. Job had flocks and herds, 
boils and patience; yet he left for anxious heirs 14,000 sheep, 
1,000 yoke of oxen, and great numbers of other live stock. The 
birth of Christ was first announced to shepherds abiding in the 
field watching their flocks by night. Shepherds first heard the 
heavenly host sing that mighty chorus, “ Glory to God in the 
highest, and on earth, peace, good will toward men.” Other Bible 
