166 AGRICULTURE. 



Cicero Ervura, often coupled with Cicer Farrago, pro- 

 bably mixed corn to be mown green Ocimum, of which 

 all we know is, that Pliny says it was supposed to flourish 

 most when sown with cursing and railing Vicia, vetch 

 Cytisum (remembering the word in Virgil's first Eclogue, 

 we turned to the commentary and found this explanation) : 

 " Genus fruticis sive herbae cujus species multiplex, et 

 descriptio apud diversos diversissima : " Lentils, lupines, 

 fenu-greek, pisum, peas, faba. The Romans cultivated 

 more than one sort of bean, and probably this faba, which 

 was mown green for fodder, was the kidney bean. Cato 

 leads the way with most minute directions for sowing these 

 green meats, and is followed by the other authors. The 

 first crop to be put in as soon as the corn is off the land : 

 this will be ready for autumnal mowing ; and two or three 

 succession crops to last for the remainder of the year. 



To the Medica probably lucerne Dickson devotes a 

 chapter, and we must devote a sentence. Though Pliny 

 says that it was brought into Greece " a Medis per bella 

 Persarum, quse Darius intulit," it appears to have been un- 

 known to Cato and to Varro as an object of Roman culture. 

 Virgil mentions it once as being sown at the vernal 

 equinox, and as requiring very rich land. Columella, 

 Pliny, and Palladius are full of its merits. The sum of 

 their praises is that one sowing lasts ten (Pliny says 

 thirty) years ; that it may be mown from four to six times 

 annually ; that it fattens lean, and cures sick cattle ; that 

 it enriches land ; and that the produce of three-fifths of a 

 statute acre will abundantly maintain three horses for a 

 whole year. These statements appear to some modern 

 agricultural writers marvellous or miraculous. We believe, 

 however, that, bating the thirty years and the enriching 

 land, they are constantly equalled now a-days in the fertile 

 island of Jersey. Beans were considered a very valuable 

 crop, and were subjected to very careful cultivation. 



Hemp, flax, poppy, panic, and millet, were Roman crops ; 

 but we fancy only incidentally and in by-corners, and not 



