184 AGRICULTURE. 



the field from which this root was taken was 33 for one. 

 When the Romans measure and state their seed, their pre- 

 tensions are much more moderate. Varro, using a little 

 above two bushels of seed to the statute acre, claims a 

 general return of 1 for one ; and of 15 in land of extra- 

 ordinary fertility. That is, about 21 and 32 bushels per 

 acre respectively. He speaks of this rate of produce as a 

 great falling off from what had been obtained in the time 

 of his ancestors. Half a century later, Cicero (MI Verrem) 

 gives an account of the produce in the rich lands of Sicily. 

 He, claims 2 bushels of seed to the statute acre, and says, 

 that well-cultivated land gives eight for one, or, " ut omnes 

 Dii adjuvent .... quod perraro evenit," ten equal to 

 20 and 25 bushels respectively. In another half century, 

 Columella says that, over the larger part of Italy", the in- 

 stances are few in which the return is more than four 

 to one.* The increasing lamentations over diminished 

 produce, as we descend in the series of authors, are quite 

 consonant with these returns. They are confirmed also by 

 unequivocal declarations in the later writers that both the 

 selling price and rent of land had declined, though the 

 price of wheat had risen gradually from 3s. 6d. per quarter 

 before, and 10s. in the time of Cato, to 60s. in the time of 

 Pliny. The expense of agricultural labour had not, in the 

 meantime, increased materially. Palladius, the latest 

 author, states the price of an agricultural slave to be from 

 60Z. to 66. Cato is said to have paid for them 50Z. each ; 

 but this is mentioned as being considerably below the 

 market price, and is given as a specimen of his skill in 

 purchasing. 



We have thus brought to a close our long digest of 

 ancient agricultural practice and produce. In renewing 



* Some attempts have been made to explain away or to discredit this 

 passage in Columella, but apparently without any reason. His " cum 

 quarto responderirit " is exactly analogous to Cicero's " efficit cum octavo '' 

 "cum decumo extulisset," and to the "cum decimo redeat" of Varro. 

 In short, this is the only way in which the ancients express the amount 

 of produce. 



