common to all shepherds alike. During the summer they frequented
the mountainous districts, and retired to the valleys to
winter. Vast flocks of sheep and of goat constituted their
wealth, although they also possessed oxen. When the last
were abundant, it seems to be an indication that tillage was
practised. Job, besides immense possessions in flocks
and herds, had 500 yoke of oxen, which he employed in
ploughing, and a ``very great husbandry.'' Isaac, too,
conjoined tillage with pastoral husbandry, and that with
success, for ``he sowed in the land Gerar, and reaped an
hundred-fold''--a return which, it would appear, in some
favoured regions, occasionally rewarded the labour of the
husbandman. In the parable of the sower, Jesus Christ
mentions an increase of thirty, sixty and an hundred fold.
Along with the Babylonians, Egyptians and Romans, the Israelites
are classed as one of the great agricultural nations of
antiquity. The Mosaic Institute contained an agrarian law,
based upon an equal division of the soil amongst the adult
males, a census of whom was taken just before their entrance
into Canaan. Provision was thus made for 600,000 yeomen,
assigning (according to different calculations) from sixteen
to twenty-five acres of land to each. This land, held in
direct tenure from Jehovah, their sovereign, was in theory
inalienable. The accumulation of debt upon it was prevented
by the prohibition of interest, the release of debts every
seventh year, and the reversion of the land to the proprietor,
or his heirs, at each return of the year of jubilee. The
owners of these small farms cultivated them with much care,
and rendered them highly productive. They were favoured
with a soil extremely fertile, and one which their skill and
diligence kept in good condition. The stones were carefully
cleared from the fields, which were also watered from canals
and conduits, communicating with the brooks and streams
with which the country ``was well watered everywhere,'' and
enriched by the application of manures. The seventh year's
fallow prevented the exhaustion of the soil, which was further
enriched by the burning of the weeds and spontaneous growth
of the Sabbatical year. The crops chiefly cultivated were
wheat, millet, barley, beans and lentils; to which it is
supposed, on grounds not improbable, may be added rice and
cotton. The chief implements were a wooden plough of
simple and light construction, a hoe or mattock, and a light
harrow. The ox and the ass were used for labour. The word
``oxen,'' which occurs in our version of the Scriptures, as
well as in the Septuagint and Vulgate, denotes the species,
rather than the sex. As the Hebrews did not mutilate any of
their animals, bulls were in common use. The quantity of land
ploughed by a yoke of oxen in one day was called a yoke or
acre. Towards the end of October, with which month the rainy
season begins, seedtime commenced, and of course does so
still. The seedtime, begun in October, extends, for wheat
and some other white crops, through November and December;
and barley continues to be sown until about the middle of
February. The seed appears to have been sometimes ploughed
in, and at other times to have been covered by harrowing.
The cold winds which prevail in January and February
frequently injured the crops in the more exposed and higher
districts. The rainy season extends from October to April,
during which time refreshing showers fall, chiefly during the
night, and generally at intervals of a few days. The harvest
was earlier or later as the rains towards the end of the season
were more or less copious. It, however, generally began in
April, and continued through May for the different crops in
succession. In the south, and in the plains, the harvest, as
might be expected, commenced some weeks earlier than in the
northern and mountainous districts. The slopes of the hills
were carefully terraced and irrigated wherever practicable,
and on these slopes the vine and olive were cultivated with
great success. At the same time the hill districts and
neighbouring deserts afforded pasturage for numerous flocks
and herds, and thus admitted of the benefits of a mixed
husbandry. Not by a figure of speech but literally,
every Israelite sat under the shadow of his own vine and
fig-tree; whilst the country as a whole is described (2
Kings xviii. 32) as ``a land of corn and wine, a land of
bread and vineyards, a land Of oil olive and of honey.''
The earliest known forms of intensive husbandry were based
chiefly upon the proximity of rivers and irrigation. The
Greece.
agriculture of classical ages was slightly more developed in
so far as the husbandman of Greece and Rome was less likely to
leave to nature the fertilization of the soil. Greece being
a mountainous land was favourable to the culture of the vine
rather than to that of cereals. Scanty information on its
agriculture is to be derived from the Works and Days of Hesiod
(about the 8th century B.C.), the Oeconomicus of Xenophon
(4th century B.C.), the History o/ Plants and the Origin
o/. Plants of Theophrastus (4th century B.C..)The latter is
the first writer on botany, and his works also contain interesting
remarks on manures, the mixing of soils and other agricultural
topics (see also GEOPONICI.) Greek husbandry had no salient
characteristics. The summer fallow with repeated ploughing
was its basis. The young crop was hoed, reaping was performed
with a sickle, and a high stubble left on the ground as
manure. The methods of threshing and winnowing were the same
as those in use in ancient Egypt. Wheat, barley and spelt
were the leading crops. Meadows were pastured rather than
mown. Attica was famous for its olives and figs, but general
agriculture excelled in Peloponnesus, where, by means of
irrigation and drainage, all the available land was utilized.
In the early days of the Roman republic land in Italy was held
largely by small proprietors, and agriculture was highly esteemed
Rome.
and classed with war as an occupation becoming a free
man. The story of Cincinnatus, twice summoned from the
plough to the highest offices in the state, illustrates
the status of the Roman husbandman. The later tendency
was towards the absorption of smaller holdings into large
estates. As wealth increased the peasant-farmer gave way
before the large landowner, who cultivated his property by
means of slave-labour, superintended by slave-bailiffs. The
low price of grain, which was imported in huge quantities
from Sicily and other Roman provinces, operated to crush
the small holder, at the same time as it made arable farming
unremunerative. Sheep-raising, involving larger holdings,
less supervision and less labour, was preferred by the
capitalist land-holder to the cultivation of the wheat,
spelt, vines or olives which were the chief crops of the
country. Lupine, beans, peas and vetches were grown for
fodder, and meadows, often artificially watered, supplied
hay. Swine and poultry were used for food to a greater
extent than oxen, which were bred chiefly for ploughing.
The following epitome of Virgil's advice to the husbandman
in the first book of the Georgics suggests the outline
of Roman husbandry: ``First learn the peculiarities of your
soil and climate. Plough the fallow in early spring, and
plough frequently--twice in winter, twice in summer unless
your land is poor, when a light ploughing in September will
do. Either let the land lie fallow every other year or else
let spelt follow pulse, vetches or lupine. Repetition of one
crop exhausts the ground; rotation will lighten the strain,
only the exhausted soil must be copiously dressed with manure
or ashes. It often does good to burn the stubble on the
ground. Harrow down the clods, level the ridges by cross
ploughing, work the land thoroughly. Irrigation benefits a
sandy soil, draining a marshy soil. It is well to feed down
a luxuriant crop when the plants are level with the ridge
tops. Geese and cranes, chicory, mildew, thistles, cleavers,
caltrops, darnel and shade are farmer's enemies. Scare off
the birds, harrow up the weeds, cut down all that shades the
crop. Ploughs, waggons, threshing-sledges, harrows, baskets,
hurdles, winnowing-fans are the farmer's implements.
The plough consists of several parts made of seasoned
wood. The threshing-floor must be smooth and rammed hard
to leave no crevices for weeds and small animals to get
through. Some steep seed in soda and oil lees to get a larger
produce. Careful annual selection by hand of the best
seed is the only way to prevent degeneration. It is best
to mow stubble and hay at night when they are moist.''
In addition to the use of several kinds of animal and other
manures, green crops were sometimes ploughed in by the
Romans. The shrewdness which, more than inventiveness,
characterized their husbandry comes out well in the following
quotation from the 18th book of the Natural History
of Pliny:--``Cato would have this point especially to be
considered, that the soil of a farm be good and fertile; also,
that near it there be plenty of labourers and that it be not
far from a large town; moreover, that it have sufficient means
for transporting its produce, either by water or land. Also
that the house be well built, and the land about it as well
managed. They are in error who hold the opinion that the
negligence and bad husbandry of the former owner is good for his
successor. Now, I say there is nothing more dangerous and
disadvantageous to the buyer than land so left waste and out
of heart; and therefore Cato counsels well to purchase land
of one who has managed it well, and not rashly to despise
and make light of the skill and knowledge of another.''
Roman writers on agriculture (see GEOPONICI) are more
numerous than those of Greece. The earliest important
treatises are the De re Rustica of Cato (234-149 B.C.)
and the Rerum Rusticarum Libri of Varro. More famous
than either are the Georgics of Virgil, published
about 30 B.C., and treating of tillage, horticulture,
cattle-breeding and bee-keeping. The works of Columella (1st
century A.D.) and of Palladius (4th century A.D.) are
exhaustive treatises, and the Natural History of the elder
Pliny (A.D. 23-70) contains considerable information on
husbandry. Under the later empire agriculture sank into a
condition of neglect, in which it remained throughout the Dark
Ages. In Spain its revival was due to the Saracens, and by
them, and their successors the Moors, agriculture was carried
to a high pitch of excellence. The work on agriculture1 of
Ibn-al-Awame, who lived in the 12th century A.D., treats
of the varieties of soils, manuring, irrigation, ploughing,
sowing, harvesting, stock, horticulture, arboriculture and plant
diseases, and is a lasting record of their skill and industry.
The subsequent history of agriculture is treated in the
following pages primarily from the British standpoint. Doubtless
Flanders may claim to be the pioneer of ``high farming'' in
medieval times, other countries following her lead in many
respects. It is not, however, necessary to deal with the
agricultural evolution of continental Europe, the gradual
progress of agriculture as a whole being well enough typified
in the story of its development in England, which indeed has
led the way in modern times. After sections on the history
and chief modern features of British agriculture, a separate
account is given of the general features of American agriculture.
