Excerpt from The Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, Vol. 2 of 3: Including Their Private Life, Government, Laws, Arts, Manufactures, Religion, and Early History; Derived From a Comparison of the Paintings, Sculptures, and Monuments Still Existing, With the Accounts of Ancient Authors If the farmer had no right in the soil, it is still reasonable to suppose, that the choice of the crop depended chiefly on his decision, care being taken, as is still the custom in Egypt, as well as in other countries, that the land should not be injured by an imprudent repetition of Similar cropsf: and, indeed, from what Diodorus says, it is evident the farmers were not only permitted to choose the grain they intended to cultivate, but were justly deemed the only persons of sufficient experience to form a judicious Opinion on the subject; and so skilful were they, says the historian, about these matters, in the study of which they were brought up from their youth, that they far excelled the agriculturists of every other nation. They care fully considered the nature of the soil, the proper succession of crops, and the mode of tilling and irrigating the fields; and by a constant habit of observation, and by the lessons received from their parents, they were acquainted with the exact season for sowing and reaping, and with all the peculiarities of each species of produce. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.