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Cato the Cenfor, that illuftrious Roman ge- 

 neral, politician and lawyer, after having go- 

 verned extenfive provinces, and fubdued many- 

 warlike nations, did not think it below his dig- 

 nity to write a Treatife on Agriculture. This 

 work (as we are told by Servius) he dedicated 

 to his own fon; it being the firit Latin treatife 

 written on this important fubjeft. This book has 

 been handed down to us in all its purity, in the 

 manner that Cato wrote it. 



Varro compofed a treatife on the fame fubjecT:, 

 and on a more regular plan. This work is em- 

 bellifhed will all the Greek and Latin erudition 

 of that learned author, who died 28 years before 

 the commencement of the Chriftian aera 



Virgil, who lived about the fame time, has 

 adorned this fubjecl with the language of the 

 Mufes, and given it inexpreflible grace, beauty, 

 majefty, and dignity, by his verfe. In his Geor- 

 gicks, he has finely embellifhed he precepts and 

 rules of Huibandry left by Hesiod, Varro 1 and 

 Mago. 



Columella, who flourifhed in the reign of 

 the Emperor Claudius, wrote twelve books on 

 huibandry, replete with important inftruction. — 



He 



