382 THE HOME, FARM AND BUSINESS CYCLOPEDIA. 



cheese, in honey. Nothing can be more profitable, nothing more beautiful, 

 than a well-cultivated farm." 



In ancient Rome, each citizen received, at first, an allotment of about 

 t\vo English acres. After the expulsion of the kings this allotment was 

 increased to about six acres. These small inheritances must, of coin 

 have been cultivated by hand labour. On the increase of the Roman ter- 

 ritory, the allotment was increased to fifty, and afterwards even to 

 five hundred acres. Many glimpses into their methods of cultivation 

 are found in those works of Roman authors which have survived the 

 ravages of time. Cato speaks of irrigation, frequent tillage, and ma- 

 nuring, as means of fertilizing the soil. Mr. Hoskyn, from whose 

 valuable contribution to the History of Agriculture we have drawn 

 freely in this historic summary, quotes the following interesting pas- 

 sage from Pliny, commenting on Virgil : " Our poet is of opinion 

 that alternate fallows should be made, and that the land should rest 

 entirely every second year. And this is, indeed, both true and profit- 

 able, provided a man have land enough to give the soil this repose. But 

 how, if his extent be not sufficient ? Let him, in that case help him- 

 self thus. Let him sow next year's wheat-crop on the field where he has 

 just gathered his beans, vetches, or lupines, or such other crop as enriches 

 the ground. For, indeed, it is worth notice that some crops are sown for 

 no other purpose but as food for others, a poor practice, in my estima- 

 tion." 



The same Cato being asked what was the most assured profit rising out 

 of land, made this answer : " To feed stock well." Being asked again, 

 " what was the best," he answered, " To feed with moderation." By which 

 answer he would seem to conclude that the most certain and sure revenue 

 was a low cost* of production. 



It is curious, says Mr. Hoskyn, to read such passages as these, and to 

 find the very same subjects still handled, week after week, in fresh and 

 eager controversy in the agricultural writings and periodicals of the pre- 

 sent day eighteen centuries after these opinions were written. 



Under the Goths, Vandals, and other barbarian conquerors, arigculture 

 in Europe, during the middle ages, seems to have sunk into the lowest 

 condition of neglect and contempt. We owe its revival, like that of other 

 arts and sciences, to the Saracens of Spain, who devoted themselves to the 

 cultivation of that conquered territory, with hereditary love for the occu- 

 pation, and with the skilful application of the experience which they had 

 gathered in other lands in which they had established their power. By 

 them, and their successors, the Moors, agriculture was carried in Spain to 



