1 72 AGRICULTURE. 



the increased strength of the manure. A diligent collection 

 of everything which can beneficially swell the bulk of the 

 heap is prescribed leaves, weeds, scrapings of highways, 

 &c. He is a very idle farmer, says Columella, who does 

 not get together some manure, even if he does not keep 

 cattle. The only allusion to extraneous manure, purchased 

 for the farm, is confined to that made in aviaries, which 

 seems to have been sown by hand both on meadows and on 

 corn. Cassius is quoted as a great authority on the re- 

 spective values of manures. Cicero and Pliny enter into 

 the early history of manuring. The former says that it is 

 singular that the learned Hesiod, writing about agriculture, 

 should not have said a single word about manuring, whereas 

 Homer, who lived so many ages before him (ut mihi videtur), 

 represents Laertes to have soothed the regret which he 

 felt on account of his son, by cultivating and manuring his 

 land. In the descriptions of Laertes's gardening, as it 

 has come to us, there is not a syllable about manuring ; 

 whereas in the seventeenth book of the Odyssey there 

 is a distinct notice of a manure heap, and of the agricul- 

 tural purpose to which it was to be applied. Pliny 

 asserts the antiquity of the practice, follows Cicero in 

 the story about Laertes, and adds that King Augeas first 

 discovered the advantage of manuring in Greece, and that 

 Hercules published it in Italy : a statement which appears 

 to negative the claim of King Stercutio to the invention 

 for which he was immortalized and worshipped. Far be it 

 from us " tantas componere lites." The marvel would ap- 

 pear to be, not that a cultivator should make the discovery, 

 but that any one should miss it. 



Close on the heels of the directions for collecting 

 and multiplying manure, follow those for its manipulation 

 and management. Dickson revels in the middens. Skilful 

 husbandmen, say Colunuella and Pliny, cover up their 

 heaps, and suffer them neither to dry by the wind, nor to 

 be parched by the rays of the sun. Hollow water-tight 

 receptacles which retain the moisture are recommended. 



