A reader sent in this comment
recently and since the answer takes up more spaced than a typical comment, it
is included here as a complete post.
Comment: “Your Book of Mormon says that after Nephi’s ship landed that the
Lehites “did
begin to till the earth, and we began to plant seeds.” Since they brought no
cattle with them, at least none are mentioned in the text, and what they found
would have been wild, how could they have ploughed the ground and planted seeds
sufficient for the size of group you claim?” Ricolby
Z.
Response: First of all, in addition to
“beasts in the forest” and “all manner of wild animals,” there were “both the
cow and the ox, and the ass and the horse, and the goat and the wild goat” (1
Nephi 18:25). Now horses, cows, oxen and the ass (the latter being the same
genus as the horse, and is widely known as the donkey), which they found on the
land when they landed, were available to the Nephites for tilling the ground.
These animals were brought from the area of Mesopotamia by
the Jaredites, many of which fled into the Land Southward from the Jaredite
lands to the north because of the epidemic of the poisonous serpents mentioned
in Ether. By the time the Nephites landed, they had evidently filled up much of
the Land Southward. Keep in mind that “wild animals” are those that
have never been domesticated, consequently, the cow, ox, horse, goat and ass
had been domesticated by the Jaredites and would have been easily
re-domesticated, though the horse would have been more difficult.
All agrarian cultures of the past, and present, are quite familiar with animal husbandry, plowing, planting and harvesting. This was no different in Israel during the time of Lehi.
Also, keep in mind that the ancient Israelites were
closely tied to the land and the yearly cycle. An agricultural people, they
celebrated annual festivals at times of planting and harvest and made offerings
of animals and other agricultural products to God. In fact, agriculture became the basis
of the entire Mosaic commonwealth after the Israelites returned from their
captivity in Egypt. The six months from the middle of Tisri
to the middle of Nisan were occupied with the work of cultivation, and the rest
of the year mainly with the gathering in of the fruits. The extensive and
easily-arranged system of irrigation from the rills and streams from the
mountains made the soil in every part of Palestine richly productive (Psalms
1:3; 65:10; Proverbs 21:1; Isaiah 30:25; 32:2,20; Hosea 12:11). In fact, the
careful cultivation and application of manure increased its fertility to such
an extent that in the days of Solomon, when there was an abundant population,
“20,000 measures of wheat year by year” were sent to Hiram in exchange for
timber (1 Kings 5:11). Wheat was also sent in large quantities to the Tyrians
for the merchandise in which they traded (Ezekiel 27:17). The wheat sometimes
produced hundredfold (Genesis 26:12; Matthew 13:23). Figs and pomegranates were
plentiful (Numbers 13:23), and grapes and olives grew luxuriantly and produced
abundant fruit (Deuteronomy 33:24).
Left: Ancient plowing in Israel; Right:
Depiction of ancient plowing in Egypt
Thus it should be
understood that by 600 B.C., during the time of Lehi and his raising his four
sons, they would have been knowledgeable of tilling, planting and harvesting,
not to mention managing the cattle needed for such work.
After all, simple
plows were known in the time of Moses (Deuteronomy 22:10), which were drawn by
oxen (Job 1:14), cows (1 Samuel 6:7), and asses (Isaiah 30:24), with the manual
tilling of men following the plow with hoes to break up the clods (Isaiah
38:24). In highly irrigated places, the seed was trampled in by cattle (Isaiah
32:20). The threshing of the harvested sheaves was done by oxen and cattle
walking repeatedly over them (Deuteronomy 25:4; Isaiah 28:28).
As a result of this,
it should be understood that the Lehi Colony had a history and background of
agriculture dating back a thousand years or more. In addition, Lehi did not
live in Jerusalem, but at Jerusalem all his life (1 Nephi 1:4),
which meant he had a home in a rural area outside the city walls where
agriculture was their way of life. It is the reason they had “seeds of every
kind, both of grain of every kind, and also of the seeds of fruit of every
kind” (1 Nephi 8:1) when they were called upon to flee secretly into the
wilderness (1 Nephi 4:35).
All of this tells us
that when the Lehi Colony landed, they were quite knowledgeable about cattle,
plowing and planting. So much so, that Nephi merely wrote “we did begin to till
the earth, and we began to plant seeds; yea, we did put all our seeds into the
earth, which we had brought from the land of Jerusalem” (1 Nephi 18:24).
Having said all that,
it should also be understood that tilling the ground does not mean only by animal. Human
tillage is a method that has a long history. In fact, “human plowing” is still
done by poor farmers today in the Andean
area of Puno as is shown in the picture below.
We do not know what kind of tilling took place
for Nephi does not say. However, hand tilling has been accomplished since
prehistoric times. And in reality, hand tilling is far better than doing so
with a horse and plow, for when you double dig a garden, it is actually better
for the soil than machine tilling. While hand tilling soil is labor intensive,
it is less likely to compact the soil and less likely to severely disrupt the
natural structure of the soil. Certainly, the entire colony would have been
involved in planting the “seed they brought
from Jerusalem,” and the labor side would not have been an issue.
How the Nephites tilled their ground is not
known, but accomplishing the task would not have been impossible for them to do
so, either by animal and plow, or by hand with a wooden instrument. It would
not have been silly, but necessary—something modern man often has little
understanding toward.
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