Agriculture was little cared for by the patriarchs ; more so, however, by Isaac and Jacob than by Abra- ham (Gen. xxvi, 12 ; xxxvii, 7), in whose time prob- ably, if we except the lower Jordan valley (xiii, 10), there was little regular culture in Canaan. Thus Gerar and Shechem seem to have been cities where pastoral wealth predominated. The herdmen strove with Isaac about his wells ; about his crop there was no contention (xx, 14 ; xxxiv, 28). In Joshua's time, as shown by the story of the " Eshcol" (Num. xiii, 23-24), Canaan was found in a much more advanced agricultural state than when Jacob had left it (Deut. viii, 8), resulting probably from the severe experience of famines, and the example of Egypt, to which its peo- ple were thus led. The pastoral" life was the means of keeping the sacred race, while yet a family, distinct from mixture and locally unattached, especially while in Egypt. When, grown into a nation, they conquer- ed their future seats, agriculture supplied a similar check on the foreign intercourse and speedy demoral- ization, especially as regards idolatry, which com- merce would have caused. Thus agriculture became the basis of the Mosaic commonwealth (Michaelis, xxxvii-xli). It tended to check also the freebooting and nomad life, and made a numerous offspring prof- itable, as it was already honorable by natural senti- ment and by law. Thus, too, it indirectly discouraged slavery, or, where it existed, made the slave some- what like a son, though it made the son also some- what of a slave. Taken in connection with the in- alienable character of inheritances, it gave each man and each family a stake in the soil, and nurtured a hardy patriotism. "The land is Mine" (Lev. xxv, 23) was a dictum which made agriculture likewise the basis of the theocratic relation. Thus every family felt its own life with intense keenness, and had its di- vine tenure which it was to guard from alienation. The prohibition of culture in the sabbatical vear form- ed, under this aspect, a kind of rent reserved by the Divine Owner. Landmarks were deemed sacred (Dent. xix. 14), and the inalienability of ttie heritage was in- sured by its reversion to the owner in the year of ju-
bilee ; so that only so man}7 years of occupancy could be sold (Lev. xxv, 8-16, 23-35). The prophet Isaiah (v, 8) denounces the contempt of such restrictions by wealthy grandees who sought to "add held to field," erasing families and depopulating districts. See Land.
In giving to the Israelites possession of a country already under cultivation, it was the Divine intention that they should keep up that cultivation, and become themselves an agricultural people ; and in doing this thej' doubtless adopted the practices of agriculture which they found already established in the country. This may have been the more necessary, as agriculture is a practical art ; and those of the Hebrews who were acquainted with the practices of Egyptian husbandry had died in the wilderness ; and even had they lived, the processes proper to a hot climate and alluvial soil, watered by river inundation, like that of Egypt, al- though the same in essential forms, could not have been altogether applicable to so different a country as Pal- estine. See Egypt.
II. Weather, etc. — As the nature of the seasons lies at the root of all agricultural operations, it should be noticed that the variations of sunshine and rain, which with us extend throughout the year, are in Palestine confined chiefly to the latter part of autumn and the winter. During all the rest of the year the sky is al- most uninterruptedly cloudless, and rain very rarely falls. The autumnal rains usually commence at the latter end of October or beginning of November, not suddenly, but by degrees, which gives opportunity to the husbandman to sow his wheat and barley. The rains continue during November and December, but afterward they occur at longer intervals, and rain is rare after March, and almost never occurs as late as May. The cold of winter is not severe ; and as the ground is never frozen, the labors of the husbandman are not entirely interrupted. Snow falls in different parts of the country, but never lies long on the ground. In the plains and valleys the heat of summer is op- pressive, but not in the more elevated tracts. In these high grounds the nights are cool, often with heavy dew. The total absence of rain in summer soon destroys the verdure of the fields, and gives to the general landscape, even in the high country, an aspect of drought and barrenness. No green thing remains but the foliage of the scattered fruit-trees, and occasion- al vineyards and fields of millet. In autumn the whole land becomes dry and parched, the cisterns are nearly empty, and all nature, animate and inanimate, looks forward with longing for the return of the rainy season. In the hill-country the time of harvest is later than in the plains of the Jordan and of the sea- coast. The barley harvest is about a fortnight earlier than that of wheat. In the plain of the Jordan the wheat harvest is early in May ; in the plains of the ccast and of Esdraelon, it is toward the latter end of that month, and in the hills not until June. The gen- eral vintage is in September, but the first grapes ripen in July ; and from that time the towns are well sup- plied with this fruit. — Robinson, Biblical Researches, ii, 96-100. See Palestine.