180 AGRICULTURE. 



Quid tertium? Stercorare." Pliny declares the pas- 

 sage to be oracular, but muddles it in quoting. Theo- 

 phrastus, who long preceded them both, says that no crop 

 ought to be grown on the fallow-break unless it can be 

 cleared off so soon as not to prevent the land from receiving 

 all its summer ploughings. Cato forbids his bailiff to 

 plough when it is wet, or to cart over it, or even to allow 

 cattle to go upon it. He says that it will not recover itself 

 for three years. Coluniella, Pliny, and Palladius say that 

 if you meddle with land while it is wet, you will lose the 

 whole season. Dickson is very elaborate in investigating 

 the construction of ancient ploughs, and appears to be 

 borne out in the following conclusions : 



" The ancients had all the different kinds of ploughs 

 that we have at present in Europe, though perhaps not so 

 exactly constructed. They had ploughs without mould- 

 boards, and ploughs with mould-boards ; they had ploughs 

 without coulters, and ploughs with coulters ; they had 

 ploughs without wheels, and ploughs with wheels ; they 

 had broad-pointed shares and narrow-pointed shares ; they 

 even had, what I have not as yet met with amongst the 

 moderns, shares not only with sharp sides and points, but 

 also with high-raised cutting-tops. Were we well acquainted 

 with the construction of all these, perhaps it would be 

 found that the improvements made by the moderns in 

 this article are not so great as many persons are apt to 

 imagine." 



The Egyptian ploughs, as represented in the drawings, 

 are mere mud-scratchers, drawn sometimes by oxen, some- 

 times by cows with their calves skipping by their sides ; 

 and Pliny says that, on flooded lands, he has seen a plough 

 drawn by a donkey on one side, and an old woman on the 

 other " vili asello, et a parte altera jugi ami vomerem 

 trahente." Among the drawings from the Egyptian tombs, 

 engraved for Sir G. Wilkinson, are several which repre- 

 sent ploughing, sowing, and other operations, and in one 

 of these a roller drawn by two horses driven with reins is 



