AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 439 



tillage of the ground seems to have been well understood by them, 

 as they plowed three times, with mules and oxen, and sometimes 

 subsoiled, and often mixed different soils, as sand and clay. They 

 cultivated to perfection the apple, peach, pear, cherry, plum, quince, 

 nectarine, and other varieties, together with figs and lemons, and 

 many other fruits suited to the climate. The names of several of 

 their agricultural writers have come down to us, and from these we 

 gain what little knowledge of them as agriculturists we possess. 



Agriculture was not a source of pride with the Greeks as it after- 

 ward became with the Romans. The cliief cause of this was the fact 

 that the land was tilled mainly by a subdued and menial race, as we 

 all know tliat the dominant Greeks were given more to other arts 

 than farming, and cared more for building up their cities than for 

 cultivating the soil. On the contrary, it seems to have been one of 

 the fundamental ideas of the early Romans to practice the art of 

 agriculture. With them, by custom and law, a lot of land was alloted 

 by the government to every citizen; and here I may remark that the 

 question as to whether land should be Jield in large or small quanti- 

 ties, by individuals, and which has assumed and is yet assuming such 

 importance in our State, was considered by them, and by them decided 

 that the welfare of the people required that it be held in small bodies. 

 Each citizen was carefully restricted to the quantity granted to him. 

 It was said by one of her many orators, for which she was so famous, 

 that "he was not to be counted a good citizen, but rather a dangerous 

 man of the State, who could not content himself with seven acres of 

 land." The Roman acre being about one-third less than ours, the 

 law actually limited each man's possession to about five acres. This, 

 however, was only in the early days of Rome; for afterwards, as the 

 nation advanced and became more powerful, and extended its limits, 

 the citizen was allowed to hold 50 acres, and still later he could be 

 the holder of 500. Tliat was, however, the extreme limit that they 

 were ever allowed to hold, showing that with their boasted wisdom, 

 the Romans saw the impropriety of allowing land to be held in large 

 bodies. One result of this custom among them was that it lead to a 

 careful and exact mode of working ground and growing crops; and 

 hence we learn from history that the old Romans always had abundant 

 crops. And thereby the propriety of holding land in small tracts is 

 illustrated. 



It is also a well known fact that in England, Spain, France, Ger- 

 many, and Italy, as a rule, more is produced to the acre at the pres- 

 ent time than in America. This for the reason that in those countries, 

 owing to the density of the population and the large class of agricult- 

 urists in comparison with the inhabitants, they are from the force of 

 circumstances compelled to occupy and use small tracts of land; and 

 for the same reason, and for the additional one that land is in great 

 demand, they reduce to a high state of cultivation land of an inferior 

 quality, and what would appear to us barren hills and mountains are 

 made \o blossom as the rose. As proof that agriculture was greatly- 

 respected and fostered by the Romans, the greatest and most intelli- 

 gent of nations of olden times, I may mention that no greater praise 

 could be bestowed on an ancient Roman than to give him the name 

 of a good husbandman. The great Cincinnatus was called from his 

 plow to fight the battles of his country, and Cato, distinguished as ai> 

 orator, a general, and a statesman, is most loudly commended by the 

 Roman historian for having written a book on farming. 



