Agriculture, as compared to Horticulture, is the culture and management of certain plants and animals for the food and service of man: it is, as Marshall observes, "a subject which, viewed in all its branches, and to their fullest extent, is not only the most important and the most difficult in rural economies, but in the circle of human arts and sciences." It is" the basis of all other arts, and in all countries coeval with the first dawn of civilization. Without agriculture, mankind would be savages, thinly scattered through interminable forests, with no other habitations than caverns, hollow trees or huts, more rude and inconvenient than the most ordinary hovel or cattle-shed of the modern cultivator. It is the most universal as well as the most ancient of the arts, and requires the greatest number of operators. It employs seven-eighths of the population of almost every civilized community. - Agriculture is not only indispensable to national prosperity, but is eminently conducive to the welfare of those who are engaged in it.

It gives health to the body, energy to the mind, is favourable to virtuous and temperate habits, and to knowledge and purity of moral character, which are the pillars of good government and the true support of national independence. - With regard to the history of agriculture, we must confine ourselves to slight sketches. The first mention of agriculture is found in the writings of Moses. From them we learn that Cain was a ' tiller of the ground,' that Abel sacrificed the 'firstlings of his flock,' and that Noah 'began to be a husbandman, and planted a vineyard.' The Chinese, Japanese, Chaldeans, Egyptians and Phaenicians appear to have held husbandry in high estimation. The Egyptians were so sensible of its blessings, that they ascribed its invention to superhuman agency, and even carried their gratitude to such an absurd excess as to worship the ox, for his services as a labourer. The Carthaginians carried the art of agriculture to a higher degree than other nations, their cotemporaries. Mago, one of their most famous generals, wrote no less than twenty-eight books on agricultural topics, which, according to Columella, were translated into Latin by an express decree of the Roman senate. - Hesiod, a Greek writer, supposed to be cotem-porary with Homer, wrote a poem on agriculture, entitled Weeks and Days, which was so denominated because husbandry requires an exact observance of times and seasons.

Other Greek writers wrote on rural economy, and Xeno-phon among the number, but their works have been lost in the lapse of ages. - The implements of Grecian agriculture were very few and simple. He-siod mentions a plough, consisting of three parts - the share-beam, the draught-pole and the plough-tail; but antiquarians are not agreed as to its exact form; also a cart with low wheels, and ten spans (seven feet six inches) in width; likewise the rake, sickle and ox-goad; but no description is given of the mode in which they were constructed. The operations of Grecian culture, according to Hesiod, were neither numerous nor complicated. The ground received three ploughings - one in autumn, another in spring, and a third immediately before sowing the seed. Manures were applied, and Pliny ascribes their invention to the Grecian king Augeas. Theophrastus mentions six different species of manures, and adds, that a mixture of soils produces the same effect as manures. Clay, he observes, should be mixed with sand, and sand with clay. Seed was sown by hand, and covered with a rake.

Grain was reaped with a sickle, bound in sheaves, threshed, then winnowed by wind, laid in chests, bins or granaries, and taken out as wanted by the family, to be pounded in mortars or quern mills into meal. - The ancient Romans venerated the plough, and, in the earliest and purest times of the republic, the greatest praise which could be given to an illustrious character was to say that he was an industrious and judicious husbandman. M. Cato, the censor, who was celebrated as a statesman, orator and general, having conquered nations and governed provinces, derived his highest and most durable honours from having written a voluminous work on agriculture. In the Georgics of Virgil, the majesty of verse and the harmony of numbers add dignity and grace to the most useful of all topics. The celebrated Columella flourished in the reign of the F.mperor Claudius, and he wrote twelve books on husbandry, which constituted a complete treatise on rural affairs. Varro, Pliny and Pal-ladius were likewise among the distinguished Romans who wrote on agricultural subjects. - With regard to the Roman implements of agriculture, we learn that they used a great many, but their particular forms and uses are very imperfectly described.

From what we can ascertain respecting them, they appear more worthy of the notice of the curious antiquarian, than of the practical cultivator. The plough is represented by Cato as of two kinds - one for strong, the other for light soils. Varro mentions one with two mould-board, with which, he says, 'when they plough, after sowing the seed, they are said to ridge.' Pliny mentions a plough with one mould-board, and others with a coulter, of which he says there were many kinds. - Fallowing was a practice rarely deviated from by the Romans. In most cases, a fallow and a year's crop succeeded each other. Manure was collected from nearly or quite as manv sources as have been resorted to by the moderns. Pigeon's dung was esteemed of the greatest value, and, next to that, a mixture of night soil, scrapings of the streets and urine, which were applied to the roots of the vine and olive. - The Romans did not bind their corn into sheaves. When cut, it was sent directly to the area to be threshed, and was separated from the chaff by throwing it from one part of the floor to the other. Feeding down grain, when too luxuriant, was practised.

Virgil says, 'What commendation shall I give to him, who, lest his corn should lodge, pastures it, while young, as soon as the blade equals the furrow!' (Geor., lib. i., 1. 111.) Watering on a large scale was applied both to arable and grass lands. Virgil advises to 'bring down the waters of a river upon the sown corn, and, when the field is parched and the plants drying, convey it from the brow of a hill in channels.' (Geor., lib. i., 1. 106.) - The farm management most approved of by the scientific husbandmen of Rome was, in general, such as would meet the approbation of modern cultivators. The importance of thorough tillage is illustrated by the following apologue: A vinedresser had two daughters and a vineyard; when his oldest daughter was married, he gave her a third of his vineyard for a portion, notwithstanding which he had the same quantity of fruit as formerly. When his youngest daughter was married, he gave her half of what remained; still the produce of his vineyard was undiminished. This result was the consequence of his bestowing as much labour on the third part left after his daughters had received their portions, as he had been accustomed to give to the whole vineyard. - The Romans, unlike many conquerors, instead of desolating, improved the countries which they subdued.

They seldom or never burned or laid waste conquered countries, but laboured to civilize the inhabitants, and introduce the arts necessary for promoting their comfort and happiness. To facilitate communications from one district or town to another, seems to have been a primary object with them, and their works of this kind are still discernible in numerous places. By employing their troops in this way, when not engaged in active service, their commanders seem to have had greatly the advantage over our modern generals. The Roman soldiers, instead of loitering in camps, or rioting in towns, enervating their strength, and corrupting their morals, were kept regularly at work, on objects highly beneficial to the interests of those whom they subjugated. - In the ages of anarchy and barbarism which succeeded the fall of the Roman empire, agriculture was almost wholly abandoned. Pasturage was preferred to tillage, because of the facility with which sheep, oxen, etc., can be driven away or concealed on the approach of an enemy. - The conquest of England by the Normans contributed to the improvement of agriculture in Great Britain. Owing to that event, many thousands of husbandmen, from the fertile and well-cultivated plains of Flanders and Normandy, settled in Great Britain, obtained farms, and employed the same methods in cultivating them, which they had been accustomed to use in their native countries.

Some of the Norman barons were great improvers of their lands, and were celebrated in history for their skill in agriculture. The Norman clergy, and especially the monks, did still more in this way than the nobility. The monks of every monastery retained such of their lands as they could most conveniently take charge of, and these they cultivated with great care under their own inspection, and frequently with their own hands. The famous Thomas a Becket, after he was Archbishop of Canterbury, used to go out into the field with the monks of the monastery where he happened to reside, and join with them in reaping their corn and making their hay. The implements of agriculture, at this period, were similar to those in most common use in modern times. The various operations of husbandry, such as manuring, ploughing, sowing, harrowing, reaping, threshing, winnowing, etc, are incidentally mentioned by the writers of those days, but it is impossible to collect from them a definite account of the manner in which those operations were performed. - The first English treatise on husbandry was published in the reign of Henry VIII., by Sir A. Fitzherbert, Judge of the Common Pleas. It is entitled the Book of Husbandry, and contains directions for draining, clearing and enclosing a farm, for enriching the soil, and rendering it fit for tillage.

Lime, marl and fallowing are strongly recommended. 'The author of the Book of Husbandry,' says Mr. Loudon, ' writes from his own experience of more than forty years, and, if we except his biblical allusions, and some vestiges of the superstition of the Roman writers about the influence of the moon, there is very little of his work which should be omitted, and not a great deal that need be added, in so far as respects the culture of corn, in a manual of husbandry adapted to the present time.' - Agriculture attained some eminence during the reign of Elizabeth. The principal writers of that period were Tusser, Googe and Sir Hugh Platt. Tusser's Five Hundred Points of Husbandry was published in 1562, and conveys much useful instruction in metre. The treatise of Barnaby Googe, entitled Whole Art of Husbandry, was printed in 1558. Sir Hugh Piatt's work was entitled Jewel Houses of Art and Nature, and was printed in 1594. In the former work, says Loudon, are many valuable hints on the progress of husbandry in the early part of the reign of Elizabeth. Among other curious things, he asserts that the Spanish or Merino sheep was originally derived from England. - Several writers on agriculture appeared in England during the commonwealth, whose names, with notices of their works, may be seen in Loudon's Encyclopaedia of Agriculture. From the Restoration down to the middle of the eighteenth century, agriculture remained almost stationary.

Immediately after that period, considerable improvement in the process of culture was introduced by Jethro Tull, a gentleman of Berkshire, who began to drill wheat and other crops about the year 1701, and whose Horse-hoeing Husbandry was published in 1731. Though this writer's theories were in some respects erroneous, yet even his errors were of service, by exciting inquiry, and calling the attention of husbandmen to important objects. His hostility to manures, and attempting, in all cases, to substitute additional tillage in their place, were prominent defects in his system. - After the time of Tull's publication, no great alteration in British agriculture took place, till Robert Bakewell and others effected some important improvements in the breed of cattle, sheep and swine. By skilful selection at first, and constant care afterwards to breed from the best animals, Bakewell at last obtained a variety of sheep, which, for early maturity and the property of returning a great quantity of mutton for the food which they consume, as well as for the small proportion which the weight of the offal bears to the four quarters, were without precedent.

Culley, Cline, Lord Somerville, Sir J. S. Sebright, Darwin, Hunt, Hunter, Young, etc. etc., have all contributed to the improvement of domestic animals, and have left little to be desired in that branch of rural economy. - Among other works on agriculture, of distinguished merit, may be mentioned the Farmer's Letters, Tour in France, Annals of Agriculture, etc. etc., by the celebrated Arthur Young; Marshall's numerous and excellent works, commencing with Minutes of Agriculture, published in 17S7, and ending with his Review of the Agricultural Reports in 1816; Practical Agriculture, by Dr. R. W. Dickson, etc. etc. The writings of Kaimes, Anderson and Sinclair exhibit a union of philosophical sagacity and patient experiment, which have produced results of great importance to the British nation and to the world. To these we shall only add the name of John Loudon, F. L. S. H. S., whose elaborate Encyclopaedia of Gardening and Encyclopaedia of Agriculture have probably never been surpassed by any similar works in any language. - The establishment of a national Board of Agriculture was of very great service to British husbandry.

Hartlib, a century before, and Lord Kaimes, in his Gentleman Farmer, had pointed out the utility of such an institution, but it was left to Sir John Sinclair to carry their ideas into execution. To the indefatigable exertions of that worthy and eminent man the British public are indebted for an institution, whose services cannot be too highly appreciated. ' It made farmers, residing in different parts of the kingdom, acquainted with one another, and caused a rapid dissemination of knowledge amongst the whole profession. The art of agriculture was brought into fashion, old practices were amended, new ones introduced, and a degree of exertion called forth heretofore unexampled among agriculturists la this island.'" - Encyc. Am.