42 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY 



one hundred peacocks, by selling the eggs and the young. 

 Those old Roman women weren't so slow. 



Ferrero calls Varro's work one of the most important 

 for the history of ancient Italy and says historians have made 

 a mistake in not reading it. 



At the time of the migration of the barbarians (350 to 

 750 A.D.), the lot of each able-bodied man was about thirty 

 morgen (equal to twenty acres) on average lands, on very 

 good ground only ten to fifteen morgen (equal to seven or 

 ten acres), four morgen being equal to one hectare. Of this 

 land, at least a third, and sometimes a half, was left uncul- 

 tivated each year. The remainder of the fifteen to twenty 

 morgen sufficed to feed and fatten into giants the immense 

 families of these child-producing Germans, and this in spite 

 of the primitive technique, whereby at least half the produc- 

 tive capacity of a day was lost. (From " The State," by 

 Franz Oppenheimer, p. 11.) 



In the Orange Judd prize contest, merely for the clearest 

 account of a garden, not for results at all, a number of the 

 contestants raised produce at the rate of $150 to $400 per 

 acre and over, even in semi-arid regions ; for instance, L. E. 

 Burnham says that he raised on his first garden of about 

 one third of an acre in eastern Massachusetts, garden stuff 

 which he sold to summer cottagers for $61.69. 



This took about eight days' work, nearly all with a wheel 

 hoe. 



Remember about the present increased and changing prices 

 and costs ? At the present writing, 1917, the advances in costs 

 and prices would probably average about three quarters, and 

 those of common labor perhaps one third over those given in 

 the text. In other respects, the instances and authorities, 

 still pertinent, have been retained in this revision. 



