Chap. 6.] ON BITTING LAND. ] 1 



CHAP. 6. POINTS TO BE OBSERVED IN BUYING LAND. 



First of all, then, I shall proceed in a great measure accord- 

 ing to the dicta of the oracles of agriculture ; for there is no 

 branch of practical life in which we find them more numerous 

 or more unerring. And why should we not view in the light 

 of oracles those precepts which have been tested by the infal- 

 libility of time and the truthfulness of experience ? 



(5.) To make a beginning, then, with Cato 45 "The agricul- 

 tural population," says he, " produces the bravest men, the 

 most valiant soldiers, 46 and a class of citizens the least given of 

 all to evil designs. Do not be too eager in buying a farm. 

 In rural operations never be sparing of your trouble, and, above 

 all, when you are purchasing land. A bad bargain is always 

 a ground for repentance. Those who are about to purchase 

 land, should always have an eye more particularly to the water 

 there, the roads, and the neighbourhood." Each of these 

 points is susceptible of a very extended explanation, and 

 replete with undoubted truths. Cato 47 recommends, too, that 

 an eye should be given to the people in the neighbourhood, to 

 see how they look : "For where the land is good," says he, 

 " the people will look well-conditioned and healthy." 



Atilius Regulus, the same who was twice consul in the 

 Punic War, used to say 48 that a person should neither buy an 

 unhealthy piece of land in the most fertile locality, nor yet the 

 very healthiest spot if in a barren country. The salubrity of 

 land, however, is not always to be judged of from the looks of 

 the inhabitants, for those who are well-seasoned are able to 

 withstand the effects of living in pestilent localities even. And 

 then, besides, there are some localities that are healthy during 

 certain periods of the year only; though, in reality, there is 

 no soil that can be looked upon as really valuable that is not 

 healthy all the year through. " That 49 is sure to be bad land 

 against which its owner has a continual struggle." Cato 

 recommends us before everything, to see that the land which 



45 De Re Rust. Preface. 



46 Fee remarks, that we still recruit our armies mostly from the agricul- 

 tural class. 



47 De Re Rust. c. 1. 



48 Quoted by Columella, De Re Rust. B. i. 4. The sad fate of Regulus 

 is known to all readers of Roman history. 



* 9 From Columella, B. i. c. 3. 



