The occupation of the husbandman depended much on the produce he had
determined on rearing. Those who solely cultivated corn had little
more to do than to await the time of harvest, but many crops required
constant attention, and some stood in need of frequent artificial
irrigation.

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[Page Decoration]

BAKING, DYEING AND PAINTING.

The fame of an actor has been justly said to be of all fame the most
perishable, because he leaves no memorial of his powers, except in the
fading memories of the generation which has beheld him. An analogous
proposition might be made with respect to the mechanical arts: of all
sorts of knowledge they are the most perishable, because the knowledge
of them can not be transmitted by mere description. Let any great
convulsion of nature put an end to their practice for a generation or
two, and though the scientific part of them may be preserved in books,
the skill in manipulation, acquired by a long series of improvements,
is lost. If the United States be destined to relapse into such a state
of barbarism as Italy passed through in the period which divides
ancient and modern history, its inhabitants a thousand years hence
will know little more of the manual process of printing, dyeing, and
the other arts which minister to our daily comfort, in spite of all
the books which have been and shall be written, than we know of the
manual processes of ancient Italy. We reckon, therefore, among the
most interesting discoveries of Pompeii, those which relate to the
manner of conducting handicrafts, of which it is not too much to say
that we know nothing except through this medium. It is to be
regretted, that as far as our information goes, there are but two
trades on which any light has yet been thrown, those, namely, of the
baker and the dyer. We shall devote this chapter to collecting what is
known upon these subjects, and probably also speak some on painting.

Several bakers' shops have been found, all in a tolerable state of
preservation. The mills, the oven, the kneading-troughs, the vessels
for containing flour, water, leaven, have all been discovered, and
seem to leave nothing wanting to our knowledge; in some of the vessels
the very flour remained, still capable of being identified, though
reduced almost to a cinder. But in the centre some lumps of whitish
matter resembling chalk remained, which, when wetted and placed on a
red-hot iron, gave out the pecu