CHAPTER II.

AGRICULTURE AND ITS IMPLEMENTS.

The Egyptians the Earliest and Greatest Agriculturists.-- Rome and Farming.--Cato, Varro, Virgil.--Columella.--Pliny.-- Palladius.--The Decline of Agriculture.--Northern Barbarism.-- Lowest Ebb in the Middle Ages.--Revival in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries.--With Invention of Printing.--Publications then, Concerning.--Growth in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.--Jethro Tull.--Arthur Young.--Washington.-- Jefferson.--The Art Scientifically Commenced with Sir Humphry Davy’s Lectures on Soils and Plants, 1802-1812.--Societies.-- “Book Farming” and Prejudice of Farmers.--A Revisit of Ruth and Cincinnatus at Beginning of Nineteenth Century.--Their Implements still the Common Ones in Use.--The Plough and its History.--Its Essential Parts and their Evolution to Modern Forms.--Originated in Holland.--Growth in England and America.--Small, Jefferson, Newbold.--Lord Kames’ Complaint.-- The American Plough.--Cutting Disks.--Steam Ploughs: Implements for Preparing the Soil for Planting.--Various Forms of Harrows. 13