HOSKYNS ON THE HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. * THIS volume is the
result of mach reading, a wide range of thoughtful inquiry, and no mean agricultural observation of an extended and liberal kind. The author also possesses what Mr. Thomson in his Laws of Thought terms "anticipation,"—the power of seizing the probable prin- ciple 'from a few examples ; while his mind, as we should infer from his book, has been trained to investigate evidence, to grasp ita direct as well as to reach its general results. History is examined not only in relation to agriculture, but to the influence that agriculture and arts in general have upon the condition of society ; which (coupled with what we call na- tional character) really constitutes history. The more direct object of the volume, agriculture itself; is also looked at with a philosophical eye, to dis- cover its essential characteristics. Mr. Hoskyns takes a review of the principles of cultivation in Egypt and Syria ; in Greece and Rome; in Europe during the middle ages ; in Peru before the arrival of the Spaniards; and in England at the present time. He considers the effect which natural circumstances have upon the mode in which man raises his food from the ground ; as the spontaneous inundation of the Nile en- forced cultivation in Egypt, while it prevented pasturage. He endea- vours to trace the origin of implements and national modes by a refer- ence to natural causes and existing practices. He also indulges himself in philosophical digressions into cognate topics. Sometimes these are appropriate ; as the question whether race is not necessary as well as circumstance to human improvement,—whether, for example, other blood would have carried cultivation to so high a pitch in Egypt, or have le' vented geometry. His disquisition is not always 60.sPii as is the in A Short Inquiry into the History of Agriculture, in Ancient, nrollth'vel.aiiimarg Times. By Chandos Wren Hosi.yns, Esq. Published by Wafter! and ironing*
g
due-cligressien-o-n-the-origin--of -the alphabet,-the-flrstIetter-of-whi is traced' to the form of the primitive Egyptian plough. The connexion of artibie, through various Tangtiages, with gioEgyptian sound ar, is more apprepriate. " There was an Egyptic word beginning withibe phonetic syllable 'Ar,' which siguifiOrl,a, land-division, measure, or boundary, a term of very frequent and ne- cessary use in Elypt, for reasons before alluded to in speaking of the annual overflow of the Nde. This word, ,whatever its complete character and sound miglit have been, exhibits its radical form in the derivatiie Greek word ti onp a, a divisibn of ]and, or field '; or to render it by-the more cognate English term, a Tie May also,recognize it in the words /noire, or dedsie, 'to plough'; a ploughman'; roc, ',cultivation '; Aooals, ploughing-time or seed-tips': it appears again in the Lathi words.cearei to plough'; ager, ' a field '; aratrum, ' a plough-share '; and-hes descended into our own language in the words arable' and ' acre.'
Strictly speaking, the book is not so much a history as an essay on the history of agriculture. The materials, indeed, are scanty to enable an.author to WI the story of cultivation, to trace the invention of its itoplementri, the improvement of it .practices, the first introduction of a new kind of orop, and to describe the farm economy of various peoples. Still,. perhaps enough remains to warrant the attempt ; but Mr. Hoskyns has not directly made it. The subjects just enumerated have not been altogether overloOked, but they are not handled completely or in regular succession, and are -treated rather in their . principles than their story. The book is what it announces itself to be, a short inquiry into the history of agriculture—not an actual history. The author ad- dresses himself to a consideration of the manner in which such a theme should be conducted ; the principles on which agriculture is founded, and by a knowledge of which it must be improved, together with the influence that agriculture and the other arts exercise upon the character of so- ciety. In; carrying out these purposes, Mr. Hoskyns not only calls at- tention to some of the most striking'-facts connected with the production of food, but throws out .hints which the agricultural improver will do well to bear steadily in mind as going to the very root of his subject. There is a very valuable discussion of this kind in reference to the appli- cation of steam to agriculture; which we should quote, but the subject is handled so largely, so fully, and AO philosophically, that it would not be doing it justice to present it by piecemeal, and we cannot spare room for the whole. A topic of more general interest, and which equally illus- trates the writer's observation, knowledge, and style, is the following passage, on the origin of the plough. "To understand its form and origin, it is necessary to bear in mind that the plough was undoubtedly a substituted, instrument, intended to accomplish more expitionsly, and:n a larger scale, by means of animal draught, that which would is the,firstanstance be the work of a simple tool used by the band. In this country we should at once pronounce that tool to be the spade; but, if we go no further off than the shores of Spain and Portugal,. we shall be induced to pause before we award the palm of antiquity to that implement. The city of Cadiz was co- lonized at a very remote period, front the Eastern shore of the Mediterranean, by the Phcenielans. No district of Western Europe claims so high a pedigree in re- gard to the useful arts as the odd- of the. Peninsula reaching from Vigo to the Btraits of GibtOtrie; mod there we End tliatthe implement of eingle-handed cul- tivation is ndethrspade, but what we should describe as a sort of hoe, with a very long Made. With this- the workman cleaves the ground, using it as we do thepickaxe; dragging towards him the broken soil ; as he stands on which, the treading of his feet helps, in a dry climate, to break the clods as they are torn away from the land side,' as the farmer would call it. It is obvious that this modeof cultivation would not snit a moist climate like our own, as the treading would injure instead of assisting the work of comminution. The Portuguese, who got it through the. Phoenicians from the East, have in turn carried it to their own colonies; where it may be seen in Madeira, the Brazils, the West Indies, and even at the settlement of Macao in China, as the common instrument of tillage, just as the spade is withais. I have often been-surprised, when watching its use both in Portugal and Madeira, at the efficiency with which it performs its task, tearing up the soil to the depth of two and even. three feet. It is an instrument with one long blade, but bent to a more acute angle with the handle than either of the 'blades 'of the pickaxe, and sometimes connected with it by a cross-barof wood or iron, reminding one of the capital letterA, with one leg shorter than the other: a comparison worth bearing in mind, for reasons that will presently appear. "in the Egyptian paintings and hieroglypbics in the hlusenm, this object con- stantly occurs both by itself and in the hand of the workman. Now let us imagine him, tired of the slow process of tearing up the soil by hand with this implement, to conceive the idea of yoking a pair of oxen (for horses were never used iii ancient agriculture) to the end of the handle, and making them drag it along the field, tearing up a sort of furrow as it goes; he himself following, and holding it at the point where the blade and the handle join. The oxen would in this only be doing more quickly and on a larger scale what the workman had been doing more slowly, though with more care and finish. The instrument would tear up the soil as it went, and throw it in irregular lumps on both sides: the workman, however, would desire that it should throw the soil on one side only, in order to leave a clear trench to receive the next furrow-slice in coming bae-lr; he would soon find it convenient, therefore, to give a twist to the blade of the instrument, so as to make it cast out the furrow-slice on one side, obliquely; which won d haVe the further advantage of presenting an edge instead of its fiat side to the soil as it went along. Now picture the yoke of oxenpulling at the end of the long handle, the man holding the instrument by the apex, (extended out a little to give him more leverage and' command for steadying it,) the blade twisted obliquely, sous to cut forwards and press out the soil sideways, and the little cross-bar sharpened so as to cut the soil in advance, instead of being an impediment; and we have at once the rude elementary form of the Egyptian plough—the same instrument used by the Lycian peasant to this very time, and eontaining 'the skeleton of the machine, frOm the first that ever was invented, down to the last' new and improved'IlCotela or English plough of the present day."
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