ANCIENT AGRICULTURAL LITERATURE. 159 



agree that they were called by the ancients, " prata quasi 

 parata," as being always ready to produce without culture. 

 If you have water, says Cato, make water meadows rather 

 than anything. If you have no water, make dry meadows 

 to the utmost extent you can. Minute directions are given 

 for passing the water slowly and evenly over the land, 

 without allowing it to stagnate. Too much water is said 

 to be as objectionable as too little. "No doubt," says 

 Colurnella, " the natural grass which a rich upland pro- 

 duces will make finer hay than any which you get by 

 watering; but from thin land, whether it is stiff or light, 

 watering is the only way in which you can get a crop." 

 Pliny particularly recommends to turn over your meadows 

 any water which runs from a highway. Columella and 

 Palladius give precise instructions for renewing hassocky 

 and mossy meadows by the plough. You will get fine corn 

 crops from them after their long rest " post longam desi- 

 diam." They are to be ploughed and well summer- worked, 

 and sown in autumn with turnips or beans, and the next 

 year with corn. In the third year they are to be very 

 carefully worked till every weed and root is extirpated, and 

 then sown with vetches and hay-seeds (the hay-seeds, says 

 Pliny, may be collected in the haylofts and mangers), 

 and the vetches are not to be cut till they have shed a 

 part of the seed. The land must be worked quite fine 

 and even with hoes and clod-crushers, so as to break down 

 everything which might be an impediment to the scythe. 

 The water is then to be laid on, but very gently if the sur- 

 face is loose, because a force of water would wash the soil 

 from the roots of the grass, and hinder them from making 

 a strong turf. For the same reason you must not permit 

 -the new-sown grass to be trod by cattle. In the second 

 year, if the ground is dry enough, small cattle may be ad- 

 mitted after the hay is cut ; and if it has become very firm, 

 the larger cattle in the third. If you wish for a full crop 

 of hay, you must clear your early and weak meadows of 

 cattle in January. Lands less subject to burn may be 



