THE FARMING INDUSTRY.

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 713, 8 January 1903, Page 4

THE FARMING INDUSTRY.

(By John L. Macdonald.) NO. I.

The following paper was recently read at a meeting of the Halcombe branch of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union

This paper is designed merely as an ntroduction to what it is hoped will e a series of papers by different wriers on the various branches included aider the term “ farming.’: As such, t will not undertake to deal with my particular phase of the fanning ndustry, but will rather review the armei, and the industry itself with regard to communities and nations. The profession of the farmer is, ] tnay say, the very oldest known to man. The geological records of the indent Stone Age show prehistoric nan in his lowest stage, when he lived on fruits, fish, birds, and such beasts as he could kill with his weapons of roughly worked flints and stones, when his clothing was the skins of animals, and his dwellings were caves, rocks, and trees. After a vast lapse of time, and under unlike conditions, man app'Sars again in the testimony of the rocks, gradually working out his own destiny : evidenced by greater skill in the shape and finish or his tools and weapons, and by his forming into small communities, and engaging partly as shepherd and partly as tiller of the soil. Then for the last time is lound with his own remains the bones of domestic animals, of which the dog appears to be earliest of all. All this properly belongs to man in prehistoric times, and belongs to a very remote antiquity, before even the common metals were requisitioned into his service. Henceforth, we will treat of times within the scope of historical research. The EARLIEST DEFINITE KNOWLEDGE we have of agricultural and pastoral pursuits is derived from that cradle of civilisation, Egypt. When first the telescopic eye of history was directed across the dim centuries that lay between the present and that distant past, there was revealed to its astonished gaze a state of civilisation. not only high in its time, but with every appearance of antiquity even then. There we find the husbandman and the shepherd were held in high esteem. Their professions, too, were recognised as the true sources of the nation’s richness and plenty. As in every country since, so there, too, the cultivation of land and the breeding of stock were an inexhaustible fund of wealth, and the legislators wisely encouraged and supported these industries by State policy wherever practicable. This, remember, was upwards of 5000 years ago. Nowadays, when men’s different stations in life are being compared, it is usual to place the farmer pretty low down in the scale, forgetting that it was he who, bearing in a very liberal sense the heat and burden of

the day, wins from Mother Earth that which sustains and nourishes all —from subject to King. Forgetting, too, though he in a sense creates the very life of manufacture and trade, he yet pays as well a great proportion, or rather disproportion, of the national taxes. That this has been

.the especial privilege of the farmer for a very long time now is evident from the narration of the following : One of the collectors of the Roman Emperor, Tiberius—doubtless with a view to ingratiating himself with his Imperial master, who had just then commenced to reign—remitted to him (as the annual tribute of his province) a much larger sum of money than was customary. All extracted from the farming community, of course ! The Emperor justly reprimanded him, saying : “ I desire only to shear my sheep, not to flay them.” Alas, that it has never occurred to our ruler to say the same. But let us not be altogether despondent, since we know that his “ heart bleeds for the settlers in the backblocks,” at any rate. But, to return to Egypt ! It is rather mortifying, doubtless, for some of us to learn that THE SWINE-HERD,

or pig-farmer, was held to be “ no class.” He was not allowed to enter the Temple, and, worse still, it is reported that no parent would! give a daughter in marriage to him. Considering the fact that pigs were held in such ill-repute, it has alwavs been a mystery why so many were kept. From monumental hieroglyphics, it would appear one of their main uses was to tramp the seed wheat into tlie soft mud after the inundation of the Nile, corresponding with the operation of harrowing at the present time. Another thing that undoubtedly sounds strange to us now, is that it was thought' disgraceful for a woman to milk a cow. Consequently the men had the delightful occupation all to themselves. Many a woman aow-a-days I am sure, would be-glad . - oninioh yet prevailed, and not n m ■*: •• but here. I may in in Egypt either, : / passing mention that a„. K . „ tribes of Arabs the same prejudice still exists.

One industry that assumed large proportions in ancient Egypt was the artificial hatching of eggs. Many of us no doubt have thought of incubators as only very recent inventions. Once more must occur the venerable saying, “ There is nothing new under the sun.” Ancient writers state that during 'the months corresponding to November, December, January and February there were upwards of 300,000 eggs placed fn brick or clay ovens and heated to such a temperature as would accord with the natural warmth of a hen. About ten days were bestowed in heating the ovens, and very near the same time in hatching the eggs. The chickens brought fourth by these means were as strong as any hatched in the natural manner Thus vast numbers' were produced annually, and with comparative ease. (To be continued.)