ANCIENT AGRICULTUEAL LITEBATURE. 157 



Dickson supposes it to have been equal to small beer. For 

 the rest of the year they had real wine, and, by a very ela- 

 borate calculation, Dickson makes out the daily ration to 

 have amounted to rather more than a pint and a half 

 English. We take all our quantities on trust from Dickson. 

 Any person who is curious on the subject will find the data 

 given at length in his work. 



Cato, having fed his household, proceeds to clothe them. 

 The passage is not very clear, but we take it to mean that 

 each individual received a tunic (a jacket without sleeves) 

 annually, and a saga, three and a half feet long (probably a 

 smock frock) biennially ; also a pair of good wooden clogs 

 every second year. Cato prescribes, that before you serve 

 out a new tunic or saga, you should receive the old one, to 

 be used in the manufacture of eentones that is, rough 

 cloaks of patchwork, serviceable also as bed-quilts. Auso- 

 nius, in the preface to his Cento from Virgil, has many 

 quaint allusions to the origin of the literary term. 



We have said that the general tendency of these old 

 writers is against high farming, by which we mean a large 

 outlay with a view to increased produce. At the same time 

 they are unanimous in their condemnation of slovenly and 

 indolent farming. They prescribe a degree of accuracy 

 and care which is certainly unknown in our general hus- 

 bandry. This we shall see more fully when we come to 

 speak of their course of culture. They insist on a most 

 careful application of all the internal resources of the farm, 

 and guard most anxiously against any neglect or waste of 

 an article which may be used in reproduction ; but there 

 are very few indications of their having looked beyond the 

 boundary fence for any means of augmenting the fertility 

 of their lands. Cato's maxims all tend to repress outlay ; 

 and Pliny discusses the whole question in a passage which 

 is too long to quote, but which is remarkable both for its 

 sentiments and expressions. He brings forward, appa- 

 rently with some hesitation, the unanimous opinion of the 

 ancients, that (in plain English) nothing pays worse than 



