Book I. AGRICULTURE OF THE ROMANS. 36 



operation of similar circumstances produces in him similar results, however distant in time 

 or place. 



124. There were threshing implements for manual labor, and for being drawn by horses ; 

 and some for striking off the ears of corn {Jig. 15. )> like what are called rippling combs, 

 for combing off the capsules of newly pulled flax. 



125. A variety of ot/ier instruments for cleaning corn, and for the wine and oil press, 

 are mentioned ; but too obscurely to admit of exact description. j^ 



SuBSECT. 5. Of the Agricultural Operations of the 

 Romans. 



126. Of sim-ple agricultural operations, the most im- 

 portant are ploughing, sowing, and reaping; and of such 

 as are compound, or involve various simple operations, are 

 fallowing, manuring, weeding, and field watering. 



127. Ploughing is universally allowed to be the most 

 important operation of agriculture. " What," says 

 Cato, " is the best culture of land ? Good ploughing. 

 What is the second? Ploughing in the ordinary way. 

 What is the third ? Laying on manure. " ( Cap. Ixi.) The | 

 season for ploughing was any time when land was not wet ; 

 in the performance, the furrow is directed to be kept equal in breadth throughout, one furrow 

 equal to another ; and straight furrows. The usual depth is not mentioned, but it was 

 probably considerable, as Cato says corn-land should be of good quality for two feet in 

 depth. No scamni or balks (hard unmoved soil) were to be left, and to ascertain that 

 this was properly attended to, the farmer is directed, when inspecting the work done, to 

 push a pole into the ploughed land in a variety of places. The plough was generally 

 drawn by one pair of oxen, which were guided by the ploughman without the aid of a 

 driver. In breaking up stiff land, he was expected to plough half an acre j and in free 

 lands, an acre ; and light lands, one and a half acre each day. Land, as already noticed ( 1 03. ), 

 was ploughed in square plots of 120 feet to the side, two of which made a jugerum or acre. 

 A similar practice seems to have existed among the eastern nations, and is probably alluded 

 to in the book of Samuel (chap. xiv. 5. 14.), where Jonathan and his armour-bearer are 

 said to have slain about twenty men within half an acre, or literally " half a furrow of an 

 acre of land. " 



1 28. Fallowing ivas a universal practice among the Romans. In most cases, a crop and 

 a year's fallow succeeded each other ; though, when manure could be got, two crops or 

 more were taken in succession ; and on certain rich soils, which Pliny describes as 

 favorable for barley, a crop was taken every year. In fallowing, the lands were first 

 ploughed after the crop was removed, generally in August ; they were again cross- 

 ploughed in spring, and at least a third time before sowing, whether spring corn or win- 

 ter corn was the crop. There was, however, no limit to the number of ploughings and 

 sarclings, and when occasion required manual operations ; the object being, as Theo- 

 phrastus observes, " toilet the earth feel the cold of winter, and the sun of summer, to 

 invert the soil, and render it free, light, and clear of weeds, so that it can most easily 

 afford nourishment. " (Theo. de Caus. Plant, lib. iii. cap. 25.) 



129. Manuring was held in such high esteem by the Romans, that immortality was 

 given to Stercutius for the invention. They collected it from every source which has 

 been thought of by the moderns, vegetable, animal, and mineral, territorial, aquatic, and 

 marine. Animal (Jung was divided into three kinds, that which is produced by birds, 

 by men, and by cattle. Pigeon-dung was preferred to all, and next human ordure and 

 urine. Pigeon-dung was used as a top-dressing ; and human dung, mixed with clean- 

 ings of the villa, and with urine, was applied to the roots of the vine and the olive. " M. 

 Varro," says Pliny, " extols the dung of thrushes from the avaries, as food for swine 

 and oxen, and asserts that there is no food that fattens them more quickly." Varro pre- 

 fers it also as a manure ; on which Pliny observes, " we may have a good opinion of the 

 manners of our times, if our ancestors had such large aviaries, as to procure from them 

 dung to their fields." (Nat. Hist. lib. xvii. cap. 9.) Dunghills were directed to be 

 placed near the villa, their bottoms hollowed out to retain the moisture, and their sides 

 and top defended from the sun by twigs and leaves. Dung usually remained in the 

 heap a year, and was laid on in autumn and spring, the two sowing seasons. No more 

 was to be spread than could be ploughed in the same day. Crops that were sickly were 

 revived by sowing over them tlie dust of dung, especially that of birds, that is, by what is 

 now called a top-dressing. Frequent and moderate dungings are recommended as pre- 

 ferable to occasional and very abundant supplies. Green crops, especially lupines, were 

 sown, and before they came into pod ploughed in as manures : they were also cut and 

 buried at the roots of fruit-trees for the same purpose. Trees, twigs, stubble, &c. were 

 burned for manure. Cato says, " If you cannot sell wood and twigs, and have no 



