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Book I. AGRICULTURE OF THE ROMANS. 15 



at no age will he be so much impaired with years as to be despised by his servants." 

 {Col. lib. i. cap. 9.) 



60. The earliest farmers among the Romans seem not to have been upon the same 

 footing as in Britain. The stock on the farm belonged to the landlord, and the farmer 

 received a certain proportion of the produce for his labor. The farmer, who possessed 

 a farm upon these terms, was called politor or polintor, from his business, being the 

 dresser of the land; and ;}arfwanMs, from his being in a kind of co-partnership with his 

 landlord, and his receiving a part of the produce of the farm for his labor. Cato takes 

 notice of this kind of farmers only, and it is probable that there were no others in his time. 

 *< The terms," says he, " upon which land ought to be let to a. politor ^ in the good land 

 of Casinum and Venafrum, he receives the eighth basket ; in the second kind of land he 

 receives the seventh ; in the third kind he receives the sixth. In this last kind, when the 

 grain is divided by the modius, he receives the fifth part ; in the very best kind of land 

 about Venafrum, when divided by the basket, he receives only the ninth. If the land- 

 lord and politor husk the far in common, the politor receives the same proportion after 

 as before ; of barley and beans divided by the modius, he receives a fifth." (Ch. xl. 

 xli.) The small proportion of the produce that the politor received, makes it evident 

 that he was at no expence in cultivating the land, and that he received his proportion 

 clear of all deductions. 



61. The coloni, or farmers mentioned by Columella, seem to have paid rent for their 

 farms in the same manner as is done by the farmers in Britain. The directions given by 

 this author to landlords concerning the mode of treating them, are curious as well as im- 

 portant. A landlord, he says, ought to treat his tenants with gentleness, should show 

 himself not difficult to please, and be more vigorous in exacting culture than rent, because 

 this is less severe, and upon the whole more advantageous. For, where a field is care- 

 fully cultivated, it for the most part brings profit, never loss, except when assaulted by a 

 storm or pillagers ; and therefore the farmer cannot have the assurance to ask any ease of 

 his rent. Neither should the landlord be very tenacious of his right in every thing to 

 which the farmer is bound, particularly as to days of payment, and demanding the wood 

 and other small things which he is obliged to, besides paying his rent, the care of which 

 is a greater trouble than expense to the rustics. Nor is every penalty in our power to 

 be exacted, for our ancestors were of opinion, that the rigor of the law is the greatest op- 

 pression. On the other, the landlord ought not to be entirely negligent in this matter; 

 because it is certainly true, what Alpheus the usurer used to say, that good debts become 

 bad ones, by being not called for. I remember to have heard it asserted by L. Volusius, 

 an old rich man, who had been consul, that an estate was most advantageous to the land- 

 lord, which was cultivated by farmers, natives of the country, and born upon the lands, 

 for these are attached to it by a strong habit from their cradles. So, indeed, it is my 

 opinion, that the frequent letting of a farm is a bad thing ; however, it is still worse to 

 let one to a farmer who lives in town, and chooses rather to cultivate it by servants 

 than by himself. Saserna used to say, that from such a farm a lawsuit was got in place 

 of rent. For which reason, we ought to be careful to retain in our farms the same in- 

 dustrious farmers that, have been bred in the country, when it is not in our power to 

 cultivate them ourselves, or convenient to do it by domestics ; which, however, cannot 

 happen except in those countries that are laid waste by the severity of the climate, or 

 barrenness of the soil. For wherever the climate is moderately healthful, and the soil 

 moderately good, lands never produce so much under the care of a farmer, as under the 

 care of a landlord, or even of a bailiff, unless his very great negligence or rapaciousness 

 prevent it, both of which are, for the most part, owing to the fault of the landlord ; 

 for it is in his power to prevent such a person from having the management of his affairs, 

 or to remove him if placed in that office. However, in farms that lie at a distance, to 

 which the landlord has not easy access, as all kinds of them are better under the manage- 

 ment of free farmers than under bailiffs, so particularly corn farms, which a farmer cannot 

 destroy, as he can a vineyard and other plantations ; for when such farms are cultivated 

 by distant landlords, the oxen are greatly harassed, these and the other cattle ill fed, the 

 land ill ploughed, and much more seed charged than sown. Besides these things, the 

 produce of the land is not managed in such a manner as to turn out to any account ; 

 for, when the corn is brought to the threshing-floor, during the threshing it is daily 

 lessened by fraud or negligence ; the servants themselves carry it off, and they allow it 

 to be carried off by thieves ; nor even after it is laid up, is it faithfully accounted for ; 

 so that, when the manager and servants are in the fault, the land is rendered infamous. 

 Wherefore a farm of this kind, if, as I have said, the landlord cannot be on the spot, in 

 my opinion ought to be let. (Co/, lib. i. cap. 7.) 



62. These directions are valuable even with reference to the present times; and they 

 instruct us respecting the general management of landed property among the Romans. 

 It appears that the landlord was considered as understanding every thing respecting the 



usbandry of his estate himself; and that there was no agent, or intermediate person, 



