ANCIENT AGRICULTURAL LITERATURE. 183 



Romans were extremely particular in the choice of seed. 

 They insisted on its being sound, plump, and well formed. 

 They selected by hand from the ripened crop the boldest 

 ears, rejecting all those which had any deaf husks. They 

 were aware of the advantage of introducing seed from land 

 which varied in soil or climate, and they represent that the 

 produce of seed, taken indiscriminately, always degenerated 

 in a few years. On the subject of quantity the writers are 

 nearly unanimous, and very precise. There is, perhaps, a 

 slight tendency in those who wrote last to increase the 

 quantity of seed. The smallest quantity of seed -wheat 

 named is rather less than two bushels to the statute acre 

 the largest exceeds two and a half by a small fraction. 

 Cato is silent on the subject of quantity ; but all the other 

 Roman authors are unanimous in fixing on five modii to the 

 jugerum, or less than two bushels and a quarter to the 

 statute acre, as the standard quantity of seed-wheat. Both 

 in the Scriptures, and in the old heathen authors, state- 

 ments occur of the returns of one hundred, and one hundred 

 and fifty, to one. These are, undoubtedly, meant to express 

 very large crops ; but how large, while the seed is an un- 

 known quantity, it is impossible to ascertain. If we take 

 two bushels of wheat as the seed for an acre, no practical 

 farmer will be very apt to believe that any one ever reaped 

 300 bushels, or 37 quarters, of wheat from a single acre. 

 By reducing seed, and by giving space and extra culture 

 to each individual plant, an almost unlimited return, to 

 one, may be obtained. That some such explanation must 

 be given of these large statements is confirmed by the 

 circumstance that, in the same passage in which Pliny 

 makes them, he states also that an agent of Augustus sent 

 him from Byzacium in Africa nearly 400 stalks (germina) 

 from a single corn of wheat ; and that Nero received from 

 the same place 360 " stipulas ex urio grano." In our 

 homely way, we saw last summer, a single bean producing 

 7 stems, 129 pods, and 519 beans, which any one so dis- 

 posed might call a return of 519 for one. The return of 



