Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 209 
whose civilization has only and ever been obtained at the expense 
and destruction of those more civilized and enlightened than them¬ 
selves. 
Now, while bearing these facts in mind, let ns look back at the 
past, and take a brief glance at the agriculture of the more favored 
of the ancient nations. Before proceeding, let me say further, that 
in nearly all the ancient nations the manual labor was principally 
performed by slaves, and, too, with very few or none of our modern 
improvements. Hence, whenever the lords of the soil became em¬ 
barrassed, during their almost continuous wars, the agriculture of 
the country was almost the first interest to suffer, or would, perhaps, 
be entirely destroyed for the time being. Hence the origin of the 
saying, “war, pestilence and famine.” And the famines of those 
days were sometimes tilings fearful even to contemplate. 
Amid the earliest records of profane history, Egypt bursts forth 
upon our astonished gaze in all the glory of a high civilization. 
Some of her monuments, as well as some of her temples, were even 
then crumbling with age; but there they stand to-day, silently 
pointing back to the glor}' of their ancient days. And, what is still 
more remarkable, all around them, and in fact all of the then known 
world was enveloped in darkness and barbarism. The restless sons 
of Ishmael wandered then, as now, from place to place, without a 
settled home or habitation. What, then, was the secret of this 
high state of civilization? It was merely this: Ancient Egypt 
was simply the valley of the Nile, one of the most fertile spots up¬ 
on the surface of the earth; and, in addition to that, the regular 
annual over-flow of the river enriched the soil to such an extent 
that artificial fertilizing seemed entirely unnecessary. The agri¬ 
culture of Egypt was mainly under the direction of the government. 
In fact there are some reasons for believing that during at least a 
large portion of her history the whole title to the land was centered 
in the reigning monarch; but, be this as it may, the government 
spent almost incredible sums of money in digging canals and 
making artificial reservoirs for the purpose of irrigation. Indeed, 
so extensive were their works, that Herodotus, the ancient histo¬ 
rian, considers one of them, Lake Moeris, the noblest and most 
wonderful of all the works even in that land of wonders. 
Let us bear in mind that rain was almost unknown in Egypt; 
hence, the absolute necessity of irrigation. The land usually pro- 
14 A 
