The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1908-12-16
AGRICULTURE
by T. J. Bigstaf.

man. The story of Creation as
related in the Old Testament says
land the Lord God took the man
(Adam) and put him into the gar
den of Eden to dress it and to keep
it," This was before he had Gre
ated woman (Eve), and it was Eve
that caused the Creator to curse
the ground'' and make it bring
forth thOrns and thistles. etc.
Cain was the next cultivator of
the soil, but his fruits of the soil or
his offerings were not acceptable in
the sight of the Lord. However,
even before the Bible was written
land the story of the creation is
substantially the same in all the
older religions) we have the beau
tiful story from the Greeks and
Romans of Ceres" the goddess Of
agriculture land from her name is
derived our word cereal. and her
onl" daughter "Proserpine," "of
wonderful loveliness and the Joy of
her mothers heart When the
world was new they dwelt together
upon the earth" One day she
strayed off gathering flowers. when
Pluto" the god of the under
world, stole her, and her mother
mourned her loss until told where
she was by poor family who had
a sick son named "Triptolemus.'
Ceres" rewarded these poor peo-
pie by healing '"Triptolemus" and
promising to some day teach him
what would make him honored by
all mankind. Ceres found her
daughter in Pluto's regions. and
she consented to spend only half
her time above earth and the other
half of the year with Pluto under
the ground. SO that is why Ceres.
the goddess of grain, and Proscr-
pine, her daughter. like the grain.
fruit and flowers, comes forth i'm
the spring, grow from the face of
the earth with the warm sunshine
and then disappear in winter.
Ceres did not forget her promise
to "Triptolemus," the poor boy.
but taught him the use of the pillow.
the sowing and harvesting of grain,
so that according to Grecian my
thOlogy, Triptolemus was the first
farmer. The Greeks celebrated
the harvesting of grain with great
magnificence, known as the "Eleu-
sian Mysteries" and was the
great religious event of the wear,
and the growing grain is as great
mystery today.
The Romans also had similar
celebration called 'CeraIia'' or
Ceres gifts.
The Hebrews also celebrated by
bringing the first shcaf of the
harvest as an Offering to Jehovah"
and also in their Festival of PEN
tecost or Harvest Feast"
Also the Assyrians and Babylo-
mans honored the harvest with re-
ligious rites, and recently an an
cient monument discovered shows
Assyrian working in priestIy robes
Offering in sacrifice an ear of wheat.
China paid the same honor to
rice 200 Is. &. And the most
ancient Egyptians not only had
religious and State ceremonies in
honor of wheat, but buried the
seed with their most honored dead.
Indian corn or maize" was sim
ilarly harvested by the American
Indian and the Peruvians had
God of corn called "Perua."
And our day of THANKSGIVING
originated in the historical feast
that the early colonists of North
America owed their lives and
would have starved but for the
Indian corn native only to America.
So it may be seen from these
extracts from history that in ev-
cry great and growing country
from the earliest times, agricult
ure has been particularly honored,
and that cereals and civilization
have ever gone hand in hand, and