(which in those times was an honour scarcely inferior) a priest of Midian. (Exod. ii. 16.)

The fixing of every one's inheritance in the family to which it had been appropriated in the first division of Canaan, was doubtless one great reason, which made the Jews chiefly follow husbandry and improve their estates: for though an inheritance might have been alienated for a time, it returned always in the year of jubilee. Their being prohibited also to take any interest from their brethren for the use of money, and the strict injunctions laid upon them by Jehovah, with respect to their dealings and commerce with foreigners, deprived them so much of the ordinary advantages thence arising, that they were in a manner obliged to procure their living from the fruits and produce of the earth, the improvement of which constituted their chief care.

II. Although the Scriptures do not furnish us with any details respecting the state of agriculture in Judæa, yet we may collect from various passages many interesting hints that will enable us to form a tolerably correct idea of the high state of its cultivation. From the parable of the vineyard let forth to husbandmen (Matt. xxi. 33, 34.) we learn that rents of land were paid by a part of the produce; mode of payment formerly practised by the Romans,' which antiently obtained in this country, and which is still practised by the Italians.3

;.a

The soil of Palestine is very fruitful, if the dews, and vernal and autumnal rains are not withheld: but the Hebrews notwithstanding the richness of the soil, endeavoured to increase its fertility in various ways. With the use of manures, the Jews were unquestionably acquainted. Dove's dung (2 Kings vi. 25.) appears to have been very highly valued by the Jews, as to this day it is by the Persians.4 Salt, either by itself, or mixed in the dunghill in order to promote putrefaction, is specially mentioned as one article of manure (Matt. v. 13. Luke xiv. 34, 35.): and as the river Jordan annually overflowed its banks, the mud deposited when its waters subsided, must have served as a valuable irrigation and top-dressing, particularly to the pasture lands. It is probable that, after the waters had thus subsided, seed was sown on the wet soft ground; in allusion to which Solomon says, Cast thy bread (corn or seed)

1 See Plin. Epist. lib. ix. Ep. 37. Horat. Epist. lib. i. Ep. 14. 42.

2 The Boldon Book, a survey of the state of the bishopric of Durham made in 1183, shows what proportion of the rent was paid in cows, sheep, pigs, fowls, eggs, &c., the remainder being made up chiefly by manual labour.

3 See Blunt's Vestiges of Antient Manners and Customs, in Modern Italy, p. 220. London, 1823, 8vo.

4" The dung of pigeons is the dearest manure that the Persians use and as they apply it almost entirely for the rearing of melons, it is probable, on that account, that the melons of Ispahan are so much finer than those of other cities. The revenue of a pigeon-house is about an hundred tomauns per annum; and the great value of this dung, which rears a fruit that is indispensable to the existence of the natives, during the great heats of summer, will probably throw some light upon that passage in Scripture, where, in the famine of Samaria, the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung was sold for five pieces of silver. 2 Kings vi. 25." "Morier's Second Journey through Persia, p. 141. See also Sir R. K. Porter's Travels in Persia, vol. i. p. 451.

upon the waters: for thou shalt find it again, with increase, after many days. (Eccles. xi. 1.) And Isaiah, promising a time of peace and plenty, says-Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, and send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass. (Isa. xxxii. 20.)

In Egypt, such vegetable productions, as require more moisture than that which is produced by the inundation of the Nile, are refreshed by water drawn out of the river, and afterwards deposited in capacious cisterns. When, therefore, their various sorts of pulse, melons, sugar-canes, &c. all of which are commonly ploughed in rills, require to be refreshed, they strike out the plugs which are fixed in the bottom of the cisterns; whence the water, gushing out, is conducted from one rill to another by the gardener, who is always ready, as occasion requires, to stop and divert the torrent, by turning the earth against it by his foot, and at the same time opening, with his mattock, a new trench to receive it. This mode of imparting moisture and nourishment to a land, rarely, if ever, refreshed with rain, is often alluded to in the Scriptures, where it is made the distinguishing quality between Egypt and the land of Canaan. For the land, says Moses, whither thou goest in to posssess it, is not as the land of Egypt from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot as a garden of herbs: but the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven. (Deut. xi. 10, 11.)1 This method of irrigation is alluded to in Psal. i. 3., where the good man is, compared to a fruitful tree, planted by the rivers of water 155 (PALGEY-Maxim), that is, the streams or divisions of the waters, meaning those which are turned on and off, as above mentioned, by the cultivator.2

III. In the first ages of the world, men were chiefly employed in digging and throwing up the earth with their own hands, but Noah advanced the art of husbandry (Gen. ix. 20.), and contrived fitter instruments for ploughing than were known before. This patriarch is called a man of the ground, but in our translation, a husbandman, on account of his improvements in agriculture, and his inventions for making the earth more tractable and fruitful. It was a curse upon the earth after the fall, that it should bring forth thorns and thistles: these obstructions were to be removed, which required much labour, and the ground was to be corrected by ploughing.

The earliest mention, made in the Old Testament of a plough, is in Deut. xxii. 10. where the Israelites are prohibited from ploughing with an ox and an ass together; a plain intimation, that it had been customary with the idolatrous nations of the East to do so. The plough appears to have been furnished with a share and coulter, probably not very unlike those which are now in use. (1 Sam. xiii. 20, 21. Isa. iv. 4. Joel iii. 10. Mich. iv. 3.) The intelligent traveller, Maundrell, in his Journey from Jerusalem 1 Dr. Shaw's Travels in Barbary, &c. vol. ii. pp. 266, 267.

2 Dr. A. Clarke on Psal. i. 3. See also Burder's Oriental Literature, vol. ii. p. 1.

to Aleppo, relates, that when he was near Jerusalem, he came to a certain place, where (says he) "the country people were every where at plough in the fields, in order to sow cotton: it was observable, that in ploughing, they used goads of an extraordinary size; upon measuring of several, I found them to be about eight feet long, and, at the bigger end, six inches in circumference. They were armed at the lesser end with a sharp prickle, for driving of the oxen, and at the other end, with a small spade, or paddle of iron, strong and massy, for cleansing the plough from the clay that incumbers it in working. May we not from hence conjecture, that it was with such a goad as one of these, that Shamgar made that prodigious slaughter related of him? I am confident that whoever should see one of these instruments, would judge it to be a weapon, not less fit, perhaps fitter, than a sword for such an execution: goads of this sort I saw always used hereabouts, and also in Syria; and the reason is, because the same single person both drives the oxen, and also holds and manages the plough; which makes it necessary to use such a goad as is above described, to avoid the incumbrance of two instruments."1

The method of managing the ground, and preparing it for the seed, was much the same with the practice of the present times; for Jeremiah speaks of ploughing up the fallow ground (Jerem. iv. 3.), and Isaiah of harrowing or breaking up the clods (Isa. xxviii. 24.); but Moses, for wise reasons doubtless, gave a positive injunction, that they should not sow their fields with mingled seed.

The kinds of grain sowed by the Jews were fitches, cummin, wheat, barley, and rice (Isa. xxviii. 25.); there were three months between their sowing, and their first reaping, and four months to their full harvest; their barley harvest was at the passover, and their wheat harvest at the Pentecost. The reapers made use of sickles, and according to the present custom they filled their hands with the corn, and those that bound up the sheaves their bosom : there was a person set over the reapers (Ruth ii. 5.) to see that they did their work, that they had provision proper for them, and to pay them their wages: the Chaldees call him Rab, the master, the ruler, or governor of the reapers. Women were employed in reaping as well as the men, and such was the piety of antient times, that those who came into the field, saluted their labourers at work in this form, the Lord be with you! to which they answered, the Lord bless thee! (Ruth ii. 4.) The reapers were usually entertained above the rank of common servants, though in the time of Boaz we find nothing provided for them but bread and parched corn; and their sauce was vinegar (a kind of weak wine), which doubtless was very cooling in those hot countries. (Ruth ii. 14.) The poor were allowed the liberty of gleaning, though the land-owners were not bound to admit them immediately into the field as soon as the reapers had cut down

1 Maundrell's Travels, p. 110. In January, 1816, Mr. Buckingham observed similar goads in use, at Ras-el-Hin, in the vicinity of the modern town of Sour, which stands on the site of antient Tyre. Travels in Palestine, p. 57.

the corn and bound it up in sheaves, but when it was carried off: they might choose also among the poor, whom they thought most worthy, or most necessitous. The conclusion of the harvest, or carrying home the last load, was with the Jews a season of joyous festivity, and was celebrated with a harvest feast. (Psal. cxxvi. 6. Isa. ix. 3. xvi. 9, 10.) The corn, being cut and carried in waggons or carts (Numb. vii. 3-8. Isa. v. 8. xxviii. 27, 28. Amos ii. 13.), was either laid up in stacks (Exod. xxii. 6.) or barns (Matt. vi. 26. xiii. 30. Luke xiii. 18. 24.); and, when threshed out, was stored in granaries or garners. (Psal. xliv. 13. Matt. iii. 12.) David had storehouses in the fields, in the cities, and in the villages, and in the castles. (1 Chron. xxvii. 25.)

IV. After the grain was carried into the barn, the next concern was to thresh or beat the corn out of the ear, which process was performed in various ways. Sometimes it was done by horses (Isa. xxviii. 28.), and by oxen, that trod out the corn with their hoofs shod with brass. (Mich. iv. 12, 13.) This mode of threshing is expressly referred to by Hosea (x. 11.), and in the prohibition of Moses against muzzling the ox that treadeth out the corn (Deut. xxv. 4.), and it obtains in Persia1 and India to this day, where oxen are employed; as buffaloes are in Ceylon, asses in North Africa, and horses in Crim Tartary.3 Another mode of threshing was, by drawing a loaded cart with wheels, over the corn, backwards and forwards; so that the wheels running over it, forcibly shook out the grain (Isa. xxviii. 28.): but the most common mode appears to have been that which is in use in this country, viz. by flails. Thus the fitches are said to be beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod. In this manner Gideon and Araunah or Ornan threshed out their wheat (Judg. vi. 11. 1 Chron. xxi. 20.); for it is represented as their own personal action.

The threshing floors were places of great note among the antient Hebrews, particularly that of Araunah the Jebusite, which was the spot of ground chosen by king David on which to build the altar of God (2 Sam. xxiv. 25.), and this was the very place where the temple of Solomon was afterwards erected. (2 Chron. iii. 1.) These floors were covered at the top, to keep off the rain, but lay open on all sides, that the wind might come in freely, for the winnowing of the corn; which being done, they were shut up at night, with doors fitted to them, that if any body lay there, he might be kept warm, and the corn be secured from the danger of robbers (Ruth iii. 6.); the time of winnowing, or separating the corn from the chaff, was in the evening, when the heat of the day was over, and cool breezes began to rise; for this purpose, they had the same implements which are

1 Sir R. K. Porter's Travels in Georgia, Persia, &c. vol. ii. p. 90. 2 See Turner's Embassy to Thibet, p. 184.

3 Ward's History, &c. of the Hindoos, vol. ii. p. 320.; Dr. Davy's Travels in the Interior of Ceylon, p. 275. (London 1821.), where a threshing floor is delineated; Capt. Lyon's Tour in Mourzouk and Fezzan, p. 169.; Mrs. Holderness's Notes on the Crim Tartars, p. 97. (London, 1821.) See also Mr. Dodwell's Classical Tour in Greece, vol. ii. p. 10.

in common use; for Isaiah speaks of winnowing with the shovel, and with the fan (Isa. xxx. 24.), and God pronounces by his prophet Amos, that he will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve; yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth. (Amos ix. 9.)

After the corn was thus threshed, it was dried either in the sun, or by a fire, or in a furnace. This is called parched corn (Levit. xxiii. 14. 1 Sam. xvii. 17. and xxv. 18.), and was sometimes used in this manner for food without any farther preparation, but generally the parching or drying it, was in order to make it more fit for grinding. This process was performed either in mortars or mills, both of which are mentioned in Numb. xi. 8. And Solomon speaks of the former, when he compares the braying of a fool in a mortar to the like practice used with wheat. (Prov. xxvii. 22.) But mills were chiefly employed for this purpose; and they were deemed of such use and necessity, that the Israelites were strictly forbidden to take the nether or upper mill-stone in pledge; the reason of which is added, because this was taking a man's life in pledge (Deut. xxiv. 6.), intimating that while the mill ceases to grind, people are in danger of being starved.

The grinding at mills was accounted an inferior sort of work, and therefore prisoners and captives were generally put to it. To this work Samson was set, while he was in the prison-house. (Judg. xvi. 21.) There hand-mills were usually kept, by which prisoners earned their living. (Lam. v. 13.) The expression in Isa. xlvii. 2.-Take the mill-stones and grind meal,-is part of the description of a slave. In Barbary, most families grind their wheat and barley at home, having two portable mill-stones for that purpose; the uppermost of which is turned round by a small handle of wood or iron, that is placed in the rim. When this stone is large, or expedition is required, a second person is called in to assist: and it is in that country usual for the women alone to be thus employed, who seat themselves over against each other with the mill-stones between them. This practice illustrates the propriety of the expression of sitting behind the mill (Exod. xi. 5.), and also the declaration of our Lord, that two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken and the other left. (Matt. xxiv. 41.) From Jer. xxv. 10. and Rev. xviii. 22., it appears that those who were occupied in grinding beguiled their laborious task by singing, as the Barbary women continue to do to this day.

The sacred poets derive many beautiful images from the rural and domestic economy of the Jews; and as the same pursuits were cherished and followed by the Jews during the manifestation of our Redeemer, it is natural to imagine that in the writings of Jews there must occur frequent allusions to the implements and arts of agriculture, and to those rustic occupations which in general formed the study and exercise of this nation. Hence the beautiful images

1 Dr. Shaw's Travels in Barbary, vol. i. p. 416.