io cae a a A IIT aca, Se ett ie gee” aia ae j eT,; aa g OE STS ESN Sie Ye ; sot 6 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. Parr I. iit age i The 5 A°. eay)al: gress tillit became a plough has been recognised in acameo, published by Menestrier, on pv i

which a pick-like plough is drawn by two serpents(fig. 3. a): it may be also seen on a medal from the village of

Enna, in Sicily, published by+ Combe(}); ina figure given by Spon, as found on an an- tique tomb(c); in an Etrus- can plough, copied from a fragment in the Roman col- lege at Rome, by Lasteyrie (a); and as we still see in the instrument depicted by Niebuhr, as used for plough- ingin Egyptand Arabia at the present day.(e) Whatseems to confirm these conjectures is, that the image of Osiris is sculptured with a similar plough in each hand( fig. 4. abcd), and with a harrow(e) suspended by a cord(/f) over the left shoulder. This plough there can be little doubt was used in war as well as in agriculture, and seems to have been of that kind with which the Israelites fought against their enemies the Philistines(1 Sam xiii. 19. 23.); it is thought by some to be the archetype of the letter alpha(the hieralpha of

Kircher): and by others the sounds necessary to

conduct the processes of culture are thought to have

founded the origin of language. Thus it is that agri-

culture is considered by some antiquarians, as not only ¢

digovered In e operation 0!

ial present,{

the parent of all other arts, but also of language and|. st Ks literature. d/\ bat in his t

11. Whether the culture of corn was invented in Sila Egypt or not, all testimonies concur that cultivation Beans were a was carried to a higher degree of perfection there but its high

than in any other country of antiquity. The canals ete and banks which still remain in Lower Egypt, and especially in the Delta, are evidences of the ex- tent to which embanking, irrigation, and drainage have been carried. These works are said to have been greatly increased by Sesostris, in the 17th or 18th century B.C. Many of the canals and drains have been long obliterated; but there are still reckoned eighty canals, like rivers, all excavated by

these and other

manual labor, several of which are twenty, thirty, and forty leagues in length. These 1 answer ti receive the inundations of the Nile, and circulate the waters through the country, which are of live st before was wholly overflown by them.‘The large lakes of Mceris, Behire, and Mareotis,

formed yast reservoirs for containing the superfluous waters, from which they were con- adnong them, t ducted by the canals over the adjacent plains. Upon the elevated ridges, and even on

the sides of the hills which form the boundary to the flat alluvial grounds, the water was

raised by wheels turned by oxen; and by a succession of wheels, and gradations of h aqueducts, it is said ome hills, and even moun- tains, were watered to their summits. All the towns at some distance from the Nile were sur- rounded with reservoirs for the supply of the inhabitants, and for watering the gardens. For p= this last purpose the water was raised in a very simple manner by a man walking on a plank with

raised edges, or on a bamboo or other tube. mh iH ilk fox ae (4p). Se s|=~.| Ny Oe repr [his is the machine alluded to by Moses, when<=—=>: mointine

¢= PUNE With

he speaks of sowing the seed and watering it=3 6 with: the foot.’(Deut. xi. 10.) They also“<= raised it by Swinging it up in baskets( fig. i))S a mode which, like the others, remains in use in a basket lined with leather. mm each end fastened to the ed

at the present day. The water is lifted =: j

«‘Two men, holding the basket between them, by a cord ge of it, lower itinto the Nile, and then swing it between

“