ulation were virtually husbandmen, and personally engaged in its pursuits. Gideon was thrashing wheat by the wine-press, to hide it from the Midianites. At the building of the Temple, Hiram, king of Tyre, permitted Solomon to cut cedar and fir-trees upon Mount Lebanon, to aid in its construction, for which Solomon repaid him with wheat and oil. The Chinese, as a nation, have undoubtedly existed for more than three thousand years, and their preservation can alone be accounted for by their great love of agriculture. Every year, from time immemorial, at the opening of spring, a solemn festival is celebrated, in which the ruler of this vast empire, surrounded by princes of the blood, the nobles of the court, and the most distinguished cultivators of the soil, with all the pomp of a great sovereign, takes the plow in his own imperial hands, and, turning up a furrow in a field consecrated to this sacred use, plants therein the five kinds considered most necessary to the support of man, viz., two kinds of millet, beans, rice, and lastly, as most important of all, wheat. This ceremony is considered so memorable, that the Emperor, although looked upon as a divine being, prepares himself for its performance by a three days' fast, and the offering up of solemn sacrifices. In all the provinces of the empire this festival is solemnized by the viceroys and governors, accompanied by the chief mandarins of their departments. As in the palmy days of Rome, the pursuit of agriculture in China is more esteemed than that of commerce; and among the precepts which every governor of a province is obliged to teach to the assembled people is, "that if the plowman's estate enjoys public esteem, there never will be want in the land." Homer relates that of the vast host that assembled to besiege Troy, only one-tenth could be spared for the active purposes of war, the remaining nine-tenths being employed in cultivating the surrounding country. Taking the story as a fair representation of the usual commissariat in Homer's time, it is evident that cities must have fallen or held out according as the harvest favored the slow operations of the besiegers. The unrivaled literature of Greece, however, affords but little information regarding the practical details of husbandry. The Romans, on the contrary, were a great agricultural people. They held the cereal grains in such honor, that glory was called by them Adorea, from Ador, a kind of wheat. The law of the Twelve Tables condemned to death any adult who let cattle in to graze at night in a field of grain, or who cut grain in an unripe state. One of the very first institutions of Romulus was that of the priests of the fields, whose number he fixed at twelve, and of whom he was one. Their dress of honor was a crown of wheat-ears attached by a white band, and this dignity lasted through life, The CERES. itation a hut, and his food esculent plants. Reg-| "But chief, with fragrant prayer the gods implore ulus was found plowing when he was informed Under the Goths and Vandals, and other barbarian conquerors of Europe, agriculture during the Middle Ages seems to have been almost forgotten. Its revival, together with other arts and sciences, very strangely commenced among the Saracens of Spain, who devoted themselves to the cultivation of that subjected country with an hereditary love for the occupation. By them and their successors, the Moors, agriculture in Spain was carried to a height which, perhaps, has not since been surpassed. It is said that as early as the tenth century the revenue of Saracenic Spain alone amounted to as much as that of all the rest of Europe at that time. The ruins of their noble works for irrigating the soil still attest their skill and industry, and put to shame the ignorance and indolence of their suc Of all the festivals indulged in by the Romans, that dedicated to the honor of Ceres, who, as the Greeks held, invented agriculture, was one of the most innocent and joyous. It was really a salutation to the promise of the opening spring. It took those engaged in it into the green fields, and surrounded them with rural associations. The time set apart was eight days in the beginning of the month of April, and the matrons who more particularly officiated in the ceremonies were not only distinguished for their virtues, but they prepared themselves by several days' abstinence from wine and every car-cessors. nal enjoyment. In commemoration of Ceres, these matrons bore before them lighted torches, and whoever attended upon them without invitation was looked upon as profane, and was punished with death: VOL. XV.-No. 87.-U In the ancient empire of Peru agriculture seems to have reached a high degree of perfection. The ruins of basins and canals, frequently carried through immense tunnels, prove the skill and industry of its people in irrigation. A single aqueduct has been traced by its ruins five hundred miles. They cultivated the sides of the mountains by means of terraces, which retained forced soil, and were skilled in the use of manure. That on which they chiefly depended was guano, and their Incas protected the deposits by strict laws, and made it penal to go upon the islands except at stated times. From this picture of the triumphs of peaceful pursuits we naturally turn to the contemporaneous empire of Mexico, which was renowned for bloody laws and a sanguinary religion, its rulers knowing nothing of value of the cereal grains. When wheat is planted at a proper depth and in a favorable soil, it vegetates slowly, pushing to the surface one cylindrical filament, while numerous fibres strike downward into the earth. These supply the plant with nourishment, and in due time a knot is formed at the surface of the soil from which several roots and stems branch out-this is called the tillering of the wheat. As the plant advances toward perfection new roots near the surface become the chief source of nourishment, and in a rich compost soil, where there is room, numerous stems arise forming a tuft, from each of which springs a stalk, sustaining an ear well filled with seeds; hence the power of this plant for the tremendous increase above all other useful grains. The phenomena of the extension of roots are of the most curious interest, for in search of nutriment they seem to display something more than mechanical growth. That all vegetables absorb their food in a fluid state seems beyond contradiction, but how this is accomplished is not clearly understood. How the phosphate of lime and other insoluble substances are absorbed by the delicate roots is a profound mystery. Plants in health, however, possess the power of intelligent selection, and the roots of each will feed only upon such substances as are best calculated to promote their growth, and if they can find nothing genial, they will either starve or, driven by hunger, they will partake of the poison around them and die. A French naturalist, in his endeavors to comprehend the beautiful laws of nature, dissolved together in water various salts, and then placed in these solutions growing plants, some perfect and others with their roots cut off. The mutilated plants absorbed indiscriminately all the salts dissolved in the water, while the perfect ones separated from the water only those required for their healthy existence, and rejected the remainder, absolutely acting as delicate chemists, and performing functions with their simple vessels such as can not be imitated by the most complicated laboratory of sci ence. Botanists claim to know two or three hundred kinds of wheat. M. Phillippari, in the year 1842, professed to be cultivating, near Versailles, no less than three hundred and twentytwo varieties. There are, however, only three principal kinds so different in their appearance that they need to be particularly noticed. These are the hard wheats, the soft wheats, and the 1. Egyptian Wheat.-2. Spelter Wheat.-3. Polish Wheat.-4. Single-grained Wheat.-5, Common Bearded Wheat. Polish wheats. The hard varieties are the products of warm climates, such as belong to Italy, Sicily, and Barbary. The soft varieties are the products of the United States and of the northern countries of Europe, as Belgium, Britain, Denmark, and Sweden. The Polish wheats are from the country from whence they derive their name, and are similar to those of temperate regions; it is only in their external form that they are distinguished from other wheats. The hard wheats have a compact seed, nearly transparent, which when shattered break short and display a very white flour within. The soft wheats peculiar to our own fields have an opaque coat, and when first reaped give way readily to the pressure of the finger and thumb; they must be well dried before they can be manufactured into flour. The Polish wheats have a long chaff, and are cylin drical in appearance. They are delicate spring wheats, but not very productive in our country, and hence are only cultivated by American farmers by way of experiment. The hard wheats produce the greatest amount of gluten, a tough substance containing much nutriment and readily promoting that fermentation which makes light bread; hence it is that in Italy we meet with so many rich pastes which form so large a part of the food of the people of that country. The soft wheats contain, on the other hand, the greatest quantity of starch, which fits them for vinous fermentation, encouraging brewing and distilling, and the consequent evil of the abuse of intoxicating liquors. No one who has the least fondness for nature can witness unimpassioned the gradual development of the young wheat. In early Now the ardent beams of the sun pour down, and where, but a few weeks since, was the dull clod, we find a vast golden shield, reflecting back those brilliant rays, and yet absorbing with gluttonous appetite their ripening effects. It is now that the woods are redolent of music. Every bush has its carol of songsters. The little birds have established their young in neighboring branches, and relieved of family cares, they join with their offspring in pouring out songs of praise at the never-ending prospect of abundThe solicitude of the husbandman is spring the ground spreads away, as far as the eye can reach, in dark masses slightly tinged with green; a few days pass away and the sunkissing slopes grow more luxuriant, and hour by hour we note the changes, until a vernal carpet of more delicate hues than ever greet the eye of the most favorite sultana completely hides the mother earth; now it is that the delicate blades begin to multiply and strengthen under the genial influences of the ripening sun. The quiet days wear away, and the long sweeps of brilliant verdure begin to palpitate under the soft whis-ance. perings of the breeze, and the hopeful plant passed. With a bright eye and a hopeful step springs upward with visible rapidity, suggesting rich stores of golden fruit as the reward of the husbandman's toil. The season of fruition approaches; the brilliant tints of rapidly-circulating juices begin to yield to the graver ones of golden hues. The long nights of the harvestmoon tempt us into the open air, and we find the precious life-preserving cereal waving its matured heads in joy, and fairly laughing in its abundance. he summons his laborers to gather in the harvest. Strong arms and merry hearts unite to revel among the nodding stalks, now top-heavy with their fruitage, and, with the modest bearing of true worth, leaning upon each other for support. The flashing sickle glances in the sunlight, and every sweep of the powerful arm that wields it brings down the bearded grain, while others follow in the reaper's wake, and bind it into sheaves. |