Chap. 6.] manure. 457 



Columella 95 gives the second rank to pigeon manure, 96 and 

 the next to that of the poultry-yard ; but he condemns that 

 of the aquatic birds. Some authors, again, are agreed in re- 

 garding the residue of the human food 97 as the very best of 

 all manures ; while others would only employ the superfluous 

 portion of our drink, 98 mixing with it the hair that is to be 

 found in the curriers' workshops. Some, however, are for 

 employing this liquid by itself, though they would mix water 

 with it once more, and in larger quantities even than when 

 originally mixed with the wine at our repasts ; there being a 

 double share of noxious qualities to correct, not only those 

 originally belonging to the wine, 99 but those imparted to it 

 by the human body as well. Such are the various methods 

 by which we vie with each other in imparting nutriment to 

 the earth even. 



Next to the manures above mentioned, the dung of swine is 

 highly esteemed, Columella being the only writer that con- 

 demns it. Some, again, speak highly of the dung of all 

 quadrupeds that have been fed on cytisus, while there are 

 others who prefer that of pigeons. Next to these is the 

 dung of goats, and then of sheep ; after which comes that of 

 oxen, and, last of all, of the beasts of burden. Such were 

 the distinctions that were established between the various ma- 

 nures among the ancients, such the precepts that they have left 

 us, and these I have here set forth as being not the mere subtle 

 inventions of genius, but because their utility has been proved 

 in the course of a long series of years. In some of the pro- 

 vinces, too, which abound more particularly in cattle, by rea- 



95 De Re Rust. ii. 15. 



9fi Mixed with other manures, it is employed at the present day in Nor- 

 mandy. 



97 This manure is still extensively employed in Flanders, Switzerland, 

 and the vicinity of Paris. In the north of England it is mixed with ashes, 

 and laid on the fields. There was an old prejudice, that vegetation grown 

 with it has a fetid odour, but it has for some time been looked upon as 

 exploded. 



98 Or urine. In the vicinity of Paris, a manure is employed ealled 

 urate, of which urine forms the basis. 



99 Fee seems to think that this passage means that the bad smell of urine 

 is imparted to it by the wine that is drunk. It is difficult to say what 

 could have been the noxious qualities imparted by wine to urine as a ma- 

 nure, and Pliny probably would have been somewhat at a loss to explain 

 his meaning. 



