INTRODUCTION. ^ 



diterranean, to furnlfh poflerky witli the pleafing picture of 

 a perfe6l Hufbandiy. 



Italy, and the northern coafls of Africa, were, forages, the 

 favourite feats of cultivation, and the granary of the Roman 

 empire ; and, while that people were extending their dominion 

 ahnoft to the limits of the then known world, the bread-corn, 

 and almofl every other article of lubtilleace, necefl'ary to the 

 fupport of their numerous legions, were drawn from thefe 

 parts. The perufal of Virgil's Georgics affords an undenia- 

 ble teftimony of the perfection of the Italian hufbandry. In 

 that interefting work, the wheel-plough, the harrow, the flail, 

 the fcythe, the reaping-hook, together with every other in- 

 flrument now in ufe, are accurately defcribed, as alfo tlie 

 fyftem of cultivation purfued. Conlidering the period at 

 which Virgil penned his Georgics, and the great difference of 

 cHmate between Italy and Britaui, the fimilarity between the 

 fyilem he lays down, and our modern hufbandry, is aftonifli- 

 ing. Fallowing and irrigation, wltli their benefits, are parti- 

 cularly defcribed, as are alfo the advantages arifing from al- 

 ternate green and white crops : His account of the manage- 

 ment of the different kinds of domcllic animals, is equally 

 beautiful and correcl. 



To thofe who are capable of tracing effects to their proper 

 caufes, the advantages produced by the Roman conqueils will 

 be flirikjngly obvious ; and though, at that time, their legions 

 muft have been confidered as the fccurges of the human race, 

 by the people amongft whom they came, the lapfe of ages, 

 and the amelioration of the human condition, enables us to 

 view them in a different liglit. The ploughman of Italy, 

 when he became a foldier, and was fent into Gaul or Britain, 

 would neither forget his original employment, nor the com- 

 fort he would derive from praclifmg it in the country where 

 he was ftationed. The troops kept by Rome in the diftant 

 provinces, were feldom relieved by others from Italy, and as 

 feldom fhifted from the ftations where they were firft placed ; 

 in that way, their refidencc became in a great meafure per- 

 manent ; a circumRance extremely favourable, not only to the 

 introdudlion, but to tlie perfecting of Agriculture. — ^The firfl 



attempts 



