* In Mesopotamia and Chaldaea there may still be seen “everywhere ruins of ancient canals; and there are also to be met with, in many places, ridges of earth, which stretch for considerable distances in a straight line, and surround lands perfectly level.” (Olivier).

The plough was nothing more than an obliquely placed mattock, whose handle was lengthened in order to harness oxen to it.  Whilst the ploughman pressed heavily on the handle, two attendants kept incessantly goading the beasts, or urging them forward with voice and whip, and a third scattered the seed in the furrow.  A considerable capital was needed to ensure success in agricultural undertakings:  contracts were made for three years, and stipulated that payments should be made partly in metal and partly in the products of the soil.

[Illustration:  325.jpg CHALDAEAN FARMING OPERATIONS.]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a Chaldaean intaglio reproduced
     in Layard.  The original is in the cabinet of medals in the
     Bibliotheque Nationale.

The farmer paid a small sum when entering into possession, and the remainder of the debt was gradually liquidated at the end of each twelve months, the payment being in silver one year, and in corn the two following.  The rent varied according to the quality of the soil and the facilities which it afforded for cultivation:  a field, for instance, of three bushels was made to pay nine hundred measures, while another of ten bushels had only eighteen hundred to pay.  In many instances the peasant preferred to take the proprietor into partnership, the latter in such case providing all the expenses of cultivation, on the understanding that he should receive two-thirds of the gross product.  The tenant was obliged to administer the estate as a careful householder during the term of his lease:  he was to maintain the buildings and implements in good repair, to see that the hedges were kept up, to keep the shadufs in working order, and to secure the good condition of the watercourses.  He had rarely enough slaves to manage the business with profit:  those he had purchased were sufficient, with the aid of his wives and children, to carry on ordinary operations, but when any pressure arose, especially at harvest-time, he had to seek elsewhere the additional labourers he required.  The temples were the chief sources for the supply of these.  The majority of the supplementary labourers were free men, who were hired out by their family, or engaged themselves for a fixed term, during which they were subject to a sort of slavery, the conditions of which were determined by law.  The workman renounced his liberty for fifteen days, or a month, or for a whole year; he disposed, so to speak, of a portion of his life to the provisional master of his choice, and if he did not enter upon his work at the day agreed upon, or if he showed himself inactive in the duties assigned to him, he was liable to severe punishment.  He received in exchange for his labour his food, lodging, and clothing; and if an accident should occur to him during the term of his service, the law granted him an indemnity in proportion to the injury he had sustained.