24 



HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part I. 



Ancients, which from liis practical knowledge of agriculture, and considerable 

 classical learning, it is to be regretted he did not live to see delineated. A plough in 

 use from time immemorial in Valentia, (Jig, 12.) is supposed to come the nearest to 

 the common Roman imple- 

 ment. In it we have the bu- 

 rls or head (a) ; the temo, 

 or beam (6) ; the stiva, or 

 handle (c) ; the dentales, or 

 share head {d) ; and the ro- 

 mer or share [e). The other 

 parts, the aura or mould 

 board, and the culler or 

 coulter, composed no part 

 of the simplest form of Ro- 

 man plough ; the plough- 

 staflT, or paddle, was a detached part ; and the manicula, or part which the ploughman 

 took hold of, was a short bar fixed across, or into the handle, and the draught pole (/) 

 was that part to which the pxen were attached. 



112. The plough described by Virgil, had a mould board, and was used for 

 covering seed and ridging ; but that which we have depicted, was the common form 

 used in stirring the soil. To supply the place of our mould boards, this plough required 

 either a sort of diverging stick {g), inserted in the share head, or to be held obliquely and 

 sloping towards the side to which the earth was to be turned. The Romans did not 

 plough their fields in beds, by circumvolving furrows, as we do ; but the cattle re- 

 turned always in the same 



furrow. ^^ ^ J 3 



113. JFheel ploughs, Las- 

 teyrie thinks, were invented 

 in or not long before the 

 time of Pliny, who attri- 

 butes the invention to the 

 inhabitants of Cisalpine 

 Gaul. Virgil seems to 

 have known such ploughs 

 and refers to them in his 

 Georgics. In the Greek 

 monuments of antiquity are 

 only four or five examples 

 of these. Lasteyrie has 

 given figures of three wheel 

 ploughs from Caylus's Col- 

 lection of Antiquities fjig- 

 13. a and b), and from a Si- 

 cilian medal (c). 



114. The urpex or irpex, seems to have been a plank with several teeth used as our brake 

 or cultivator, to break rough ground, and tear out roots and weeds. 



14 115. The crates seems to have been a kind of harrow. 



116. The rastrum, a rake used in manual labour : and 



117. The sarculum, a hand hoe, similar to our draw hoe. 



118. The marra, a hand hoe of smaller size. 



119. The bidens(hl dens) seems to have been a two-pronged hoe of large size, 

 and with a hammer at the other end used to break clods. These were used chiefly 

 in cultivating vineyards. 



120. The ligo seems to have been aspade (fig. 14.), and thcjmla a shovel or sort 

 of spade, or probably a synonyne. The ligo and pala were made of wood only, 

 of oak shod with iron, or with the blade entirely of iron. 



121. The securis seems to hare been an axe, and the same term was applied to 

 the blade of the pruning knife, which was formed like a crescent. 



122. I'he dolabre was a kind of adze for cutting roots in tree culture. 



1 23 . The reaping hook seems to have been the same as that in modern use : some w^ere 

 used for cutting oif the ears of far or maize, and these, it may be presumed, were not 

 serrated like our sickles; others for cutting wheat and barley near the ground, like our 

 reaping hook. In the south of Gaul, Pliny informs us, they had invented a reaping ma- 

 chine : from his description this machine must have borne a considerable resemblance to 

 that used in Suffolk, for cropping the heads off clover left for seed, and not un- 

 like other modern attempts at an engine of this description. {See Jig. 16.) This may seem 

 truly remarkable : but man is every where, and at all times, the same animal ; and the 



