AftCIENT AGRICULTURAL LITERATURE. ]7l 



food, the lower as litter; but when the former failed, the 

 latter was bruised on stones a rude anticipation of our 

 chaff-cutting and sprinkled with salt to induce the cattle 

 to eat it. Coluinella sets very little value even on the 

 palea. He says that in many places cattle are fed on it 

 from necessity, but " minus commode." Varro directs that 

 where the ears only of the corn have been reaped, the straw 

 should be cut and gathered immediately after harvest; 

 but that if the crop were thin and labour is scarce, it will 

 not pay for this, and it should then be pastured with cattle 

 as it stands. Thatching houses with straw is spoken of as 

 a practice confined to particular localities. Cato is precise, 

 that every spike of straw or stubble should be gathered for 

 litter, and even that it should be eked out with leaves of 

 ilex. Virgil says, that to burn the stubble on barren land 

 is good practice. PHny, noting that this is done " magno 

 Virgilii praeconio," adds, that the principal benefit arises 

 from the destruction of the seed of weeds. Both Isaiah 

 and Obadiah allude to the practice of burning stubble. In 

 classing straw as fodder, the writers all agree in the order 

 of merit millet, barley, wheat. The straw of pulse only 

 was given to sheep. 



As to manure, the directions of the prose men are rather 

 precise than cleanly, and we shall not enter into the sub- 

 ject very largely. It is only Virgil, as Dryden says, who 

 can " toss his dung about him with the air of a gentleman." 

 The value of every living creature on the farm as a manure- 

 making machine is most minutely weighed up ; and the 

 separate sorts of manure are classed according to their re- 

 spective values. The schedule presents some variations 

 from modern opinion. The manure from water-fowl is said 

 to be of no value, which contrasts strangely with our ap- 

 preciation of guano. Columella puts manure from pigs at 

 the bottom of the list, for which Pliny sneers at him. We 

 stumbled somewhere on a passage interesting to modern 

 farmers, which we cannot now refer to. The purport was, 

 that part of the value of corn given to cattle is replaced in 



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