Book I. AGRICULTURE OF THE ROMANS. 23 



monly of a brighter color ; his ears, main, and tail like those of the horse. The mule is 

 larger than the ass, but has more of the character of that animal in its parts than the 

 hinnus. To breed mules, a young jack ass is put under a mare when he is foaled, and 

 being reared with her is admitted to her the third year ; nor does he despise the mare on ac- 

 count of former habits. If you admit him younger he soon gets old, and his offspring is 

 less valuable. Persons who have not an ass which they have brought up under a mare, 

 and who wish to have an ass for admission, choose the largest and the handsomest they 

 can find, from a good breed." {Varroy lib. ii. cap. 8.) Mules are fed like the ass, on 

 spray, leaves, herbage, hay, chaff, and corn. 



107. The horse was scarcely, if at all, used in Roman agriculture, but was reared for the 

 saddle, and the array, by some farmers. Varro and Columella are particular in their direc- 

 tions as to the choice of mares, and breeding and rearing their young ; but as these contain 

 nothing very remarkable, we shall pass over most of them. " When a horse," says 

 Varro, '* is admitted to a mare and is fastidious, they pound a squill with water to the 

 consistence of honey, tliey rub the mare with it ; they then apply it to the nostrils of the 

 horse." (Lib. ii. cap. 7.) The same author relates a case after Aristotle, and which is 

 also noticed by Pliny, of ** a horse which could not be induced to cover his dam, and 

 when the groom had brought him with his hejed covered, and compelled him to do it, 

 when he uncovered the horse's eyes, he attacked and killed him." {Id.) He recom- 

 mends large horses for admission, which is contrary to modern practice. The signs of 

 future merit in a colt are a small head, well formed limbs, and contending with other 

 colts or horses for superiority in running, or any other thing. 



108. The dog is a valuable animal in every unenclosed country, and was kept by the 

 Roman farmers for its use in assisting the shepherd, and also for watching. Varro men- 

 tions two kinds ; one for hunting, which belongs to fierce and savage beasts ; and one for 

 the shepherd, and the watch box. The latter are not to be bought from hunters or 

 butchers, because these are either lazy, or will follow a stag rather than a sheep. The 

 best color is white, because it is most discernible in the dark. They must be fed in the 

 kitchen with bread and milk ; or broth with bruised bones, but never with animal food, 

 and never allowed to suflfer from hunger, lest they attack the flock. That they may not 

 be wounded by other beasts, they wear a collar made of strong leather set with nails, the 

 inward extremity of which is covered with soft leather, and that the hardness of the iron 

 may not hurt their necks. If a wolf or any other beast is wounded by these, it makes 

 other dogs that have not the collar remain secure. ( Var. lib. ii. cap. 9. ) 



SuBSECT. 4. Of the Agricultural Implements of the Romans. 



1 09. The Romans used a great many instruments in their culture and farm management ; 

 but their particular forms and uses are so imperfectly described, that very little is known 

 concerning tkem. 



110. The plough, the most important instrument in agriculture, is mentioned by Cato as 

 of two kinds, one for strong, and the other for light soils. Varro mentions one with two 

 mould boards, with which, he says, " when they plough after sowing the seed, they are said 

 to ridge." Pliny mentions a plough with one mould board for the same purpose, and 

 others with a coulter, of which, he says, there are many kinds. It is probable indeed, as 

 the Rev. A. Dickson has remarked, that the ancients had many different kinds of ploughs, 

 though, perhaps, not so scientifically constructed as those of modern times. " They had 

 ploughs," he says, '* with mould boards, and without mould boards ; with and without coul- 

 ters ; with and without wheels; with broad and narrow pointed shares ; and with shares not 

 only with sharp sides and points, but also with high raised cutting tops." {Husb. of the 

 An. ii. 388.) But amidst all this variety of ploughs, no one has been able to depict the 

 simplest form of that implement in use among the Romans. Professor John Martyn, in 

 his notes to Virgil's Georgics, gives a figure of a modern Italian plough to illustrate 

 Virgil's description. Rosier says, the Roman plough was the same as is still used in the 

 south of France (Jig. ll.j. Some authors have made fanciful representations of it of the 



rudest construction ; others have exhibited more refined pieces of mechanism, but most 

 improbable as portraits. 



111. From the different parts of the plough mentioned by the Roman authors, a 

 figure has been imagined and described by the author of the Hmbandry of the 



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