ENCYCLOPADIA

AGRICULTURE.

HE first want of man is food, and his first resource for it the ground. Whether

herbs or fruits were resorted to, must have depended on their relative abundance in the country where man found himself; but the latter would probably be preferred, till the use of fire was discovered in the preparation of the former.‘The first care and labor of man would thus be bestowed on fruit-trees, and hence gardening may be said to be the art of earliest invention. But man is also a carnivorous animal, and this pro- pensity of his nature would soon induce him to attempt domesticating such beasts of the earth as he found most useful in affording milk, clothing, or food; or in performing labor. Hence the origin of pasturage, and the management of live stock.‘The in- vention of tillage would be coeval with the discovery of the use of the cereal grasses, and may be considered as the last grand step in the invention of husbandry, and the most im- portant, as leading to the establishment of property in territorial surface.

In the earlier stages of civilisation, these branches of economy, in common with all the arts of life, would be practised by every family for itself; but the advantages of separating occupations would soon present themselves, and the result of this principle in regard to rural culture and management,— the res rustica of the Romans and hus- bandry of old English authors,—is, that all their operations are now classed under the two designations of agriculture and gardening.

Agriculture, the art to which we here confine ourselves, as compared to gardening, is the culture and management of certain plants and animals for the food and service of man; but relative to the present improved state of the art, it may be defined, the cultiva- tion and management of territorial surface on an extended scale, by manual and animal labor, for the production of objects and materials used for the food and service of man, and for various important purposes, in arts, manufactures, and civilised life.

The importance of agriculture is obvious, not only by its affording the direct supply of our greatest wants, but as the parent of manufactures and commerce. With- out agriculture there can be neither civilisation nor population. Hence it is not only the most universal of arts, but that which requires the greatest number of operators: the main body of the population in every country is employed in the pursuit of agriculture; and the most powerful individuals in almost all nations, derive their wealth and conse- quence from their property in land.>

In the earliest ages of mankind, before tillage was invented, the surface of the earth would be common to all the inhabitants, and every family would pasture their flock, and pitch their tent, or erect their hut, where they thought fit, But when tillage came in use, it became necessary to assign to each family a portion of territory, and of this portion that family became the proprietor, cultivator, and the consumer of the pro- ducts, Hence the invention of property in land, and progressively of purchased cultivators,