THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



297 



viz., the landed proprietors ; for it seems lie ac- 

 quainted himself, most thorouf^hly, with what most 

 concerned him, tlie good management of his estate. 

 The Greeks, too, had a good knowledge of ma- 

 nures, as much or more than many farmers of the 

 present day. Xenophon recommends green plants 

 to he ploughed in, and even crops to he raised for 

 the purpose, for such enrich the soil as much as 

 dung. Another of their writers, Theophrastus, 

 shows still more knowledge, for he recommends a 

 course that has made the Norfolk farming so 

 eminently successful, viz., the mixture of soils, 

 particularly clay upon sand, stating it as his con- 

 viction that this system would produce crops as 

 luxuriant as could he effected hy the agency of 

 manures. They also hoed their crops, and 

 kept them free from weeds. One of their wri- 

 ters, referring to the latter, says : " Besides the 

 hindrance they are to corn or other profitahle 

 plants, they keep the ground from receiving the 

 benefit of a free exposure to the sun and air." 

 Their land was generally let upon lease, and I 

 will give you a specimen of one dated in the 

 108th Olympiad, 345 years before the Christian 

 era, and from its brevity and simplicity I 

 should suppose that no lawyer had anything 

 to do with it. It has been often quoted, but it 

 may be new to some present. It is a lease by the 

 iExonians — the townspeople or demos of iExone 

 — of a piece of land called the Philais, near 

 Mount Hymettus, to a father and his son for 

 forty years, for 152 drachmas a year. 



" The demos of ^Exone let on lease the Philais 

 to Autocles, the son of Anteas, and to Anteas the 

 father of Autocles, for forty years, for 152 drachmas 

 a year ; the said land to be farmed by them, or 

 planted with trees as they ijlease ; the rent to be 

 paid in the month of Hecatombceon. If they do 

 not pay it they forfeit their security and as much 

 of the produce as they stand in arrear. The 

 Oxonians not to sell nor to let the said land to 

 any one else until the forty years have elapsed. 

 In case of a loss on the part of the tenants by 

 hostile invasion, no rent to be paid, but the pro- 

 duce of the land to be divided between the iExo- 

 nians and the tenants. The tenants are to deliver 

 up half the land fallow, and all the trees upon the 

 land : for the last five years the ./Exonians may 

 appoint a vine dresser. The lease to begin, with 

 respect to the corn land, with Eubulus the Archon 

 entering into office; but with respect to the wood, 

 not before Eubulus goes out of office. The lease, 

 to be cut upon stone, to be set-up by the magis- 

 trates—one copy in the temple of Hebe, the other 

 in the Lesche ; and boundary stones to be set-up 

 upon the land, not less than two tripods on each 

 side. And if a tax should be paid for the land to 

 Government, the said tax to be paid by the iExo- 

 nians, or, if paid by the tenants, to be deducted 

 from the rent. No soil to be carried away by dig- 

 ging of the ground except from one part of the 

 land to another. If any person makes a motion 

 in contravention of this contract, or puts it to the 

 vote, he shall be answerable to the tenants for the 

 damage." 



" In this short lease," Mr. Caird observes 

 (from whose work we get it), "there is much of 



that plain common sense, which fairly recognises the 

 interest and duties of both i)arties, and which is so 

 often lost sight of, in tlic perjilexing labyrinth of 

 modern legal i)hraseology." From these extracts 

 from their writings, and from this lease, I think 

 you will agree with me in saying that the Greeks 

 had a very considerable knowledge of agriculture; 

 but as they became enriched by commerce and 

 manufactures, they neglected what was, and ap- 

 pears always is to l)e, the least f)rofitable, viz., the 

 cultivation of the soil, and it consequently declined. 

 The estimation in which agriculture was held hy 

 the Romans is pretty generally known ; the most 

 illustrious citizens deemed it their most honourable 

 employment. Generals, who put themselves at 

 the head of her armies, pushed her conquests, and 

 carried her eagles round the world, could handle 

 the plough as well as the sword ; they retired from 

 the conquest of kingdoms to the management of 

 their farms, and thought themselves fortunate if 

 they were relieved from the services of the State, 

 so as to enjoy the pleasures of rural life. 

 " In ancient times, the sacred plough employed 

 The kings and ancient fathers of mankind. 

 Who held the scale of empire, ruled the storm 

 Of mighty war; then with victorious hand. 

 Disdaining httle delicacies, seized 

 The plough, and greatly independent lived." 



The writers upon Roman agriculture are numerous, 

 and from them full information is obtained. The 

 illustrious Cato dedicated a volume to his son; 

 Varro composed an agricultural treatise ; Virgil 

 immortahzed himself in rural verse; Columella and 

 Pliny also wrote largely; and from these we gather 

 that agriculture was well understood, and it has 

 been thought by some writers to be nearly equal to 

 that pursued by the present farmers of England. 

 Cato is reported to have esteemed him the best hus- 

 bandman who annually procured the most food for 

 cattle. In those days, there were agriculturists very 

 far in advance of their fellows; for Pliny records a 

 story of an industrious and ingenious husbandman, 

 who being in advance of the knowledge of his time, 

 cultivated a small piece of ground upon an im- 

 proved method, by which he gathered much more 

 fruits, and reaped larger profits than the neighbours 

 about him, though their possessions were more 

 ample. His uncommon success excited their envy, 

 insomuch that they brought this accusation against 

 him — that by sorcery, charms, and witchcraft, he 

 had transported his neighbours' fruits, fertility, 

 and increase, to his own fields. For this, he was 

 ordered peremptorily, by Albinus, a Roman gene- 

 ral, skilled in agriculture, to answer the charge 

 before him. Cresinus, fearing the issue, resolved 

 upon his best defence : he brought his plough and 

 other rural implements, and displaying them openly, 

 he set there also his daughter, a lusty strong lass, 

 big of bone; then turning to the citizens, "My 

 masters," quoth he, "these are the sorceries, 

 charms, and all the enchantments that I use. I 

 might also allege my own travail and labour, my 

 early rising and late sitting up, and the painful 

 sweat that I daily endure; but I am not able to 

 present these to your view, nor to bring them with 

 me into this assembly ." This bold and open de- 

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