26 



HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part I. 



stone that will burn into lime, make charcoal of the wood, and burn in the corn-fields the 

 twigs and small branches that remain." Palladius says, " that lands which have been 

 manured by ashes of trees will not require manure for five years." (Lib. i. 6.) Stubble 

 was very generally burned, as it was also among the Jews. Lime was used as a manure, 

 especially for vines and olives. Cato gives particular directions how to form the kiln 

 and burn it. He prefers a truncated cone, ten feet diameter at the bottom, twenty feet 

 high, and three feet diameter at the top. The grate covers the whole bottom ; there is a 

 pit below for the ashes, and two furnace-doors, one for drawing out the burnt stone, and 

 the other for admitting air to the fire. The fuel used was wood or charcoal. (Cap. 38.) 



130. Marlwas known to the earlier Roman authors, but not used in Italy. Itis mentioned 

 by Pliny as having been *< found out in Britain and Gaul." '< Itis a certain richness of 

 earth," he says, like the kernels in animal bodies that are increased by fatness." 

 Marl, he says, was known to the Greeks, " for is there any thing," he adds, < that has 

 not been tried by them ? They call the marl like white clay leucargillon, which they use 

 in the lands of Megara, but only where they are moist and cold." {Nat. Hist. lib. xvii. 

 cap. 5 8.) But though the Romans did not use marl, because they had not dis- 

 covered it in Italy, they were aware, as Varro and others inform us, of its use. " When 

 I marched an army," says Varro, " to the Rhine, in transalpine Gaul, I passed through 

 some countries where I saw the fields manured with white fossil clay." (Lib. i. 

 cap. 7.) This must have been either marl or chalk. 



131. Solving was performed by hand from a basket, as in modern times ; the hand, as 

 Pliny observes, moving with the step, and always with the right foot. The corns and 

 leguminous seeds were covered with the plough, and sometimes so as to rise in drills ; the 

 smaller seeds with the hoe and rake. 



132. In reaping corn, it was a maxim, that it is " better to reap two days too soon than 

 two days too late." Varro mentions three modes of performing the operation; cutting 

 close to the ground with hooks, a handful at a time ; cutting off their ears with a curved 

 stick, and a saw attached ; and cutting the stalks in the middle, leaving the lower part or 

 stubble to be cut afterwards. Columella says, *' Many cut the stalks by the middle, with 

 drag-hooks, and these either beaked or toothed : many gather the ears with mergas, and 

 others with combs. This method does very well where the crop is thin ; but it is very 

 troublesome where the corn is thick. If, in reaping with hooks, a part of the straw is cut 

 off with the ears, it is immediately gathered into a heap, or into the nubilarium, and after 

 being dried, by being exposed to the sun, is threshed. But if the ears only are cut off, they 

 are carried directly to the granary, and threshed during the winter." {Col. lib. ii. cap. 21 .) 

 To these modes, Pliny adds, that of pulling up by the roots, and remarks generally that 

 *' where they cover their houses with stubble, they cut high, to preserve this of as great a 

 length as possible ; when there is a scarcity of hay, they cut low, that straw may be added 

 to the chaff." (Nat. Hist. lib. xviii. cap. 30.) 



133. A reaping-machine is mentioned 

 both by Pliny and Palladius, used 

 in the plains of Gaul, which is 

 thus described by the latter. " In 

 the plains of Gaul, they use this 

 quick way of reaping, and, with- 

 out reapers, cut large fields with 

 an ox in one day. For this purpose 

 a machine is made, carried upon two 

 wheels ; the square surface has boards 

 erected at the sides, which, sloping 

 outwards, make a wider space above j 

 the board on the fore part is lower 

 than the others ; upon it there are a 

 great many small teeth, wide set in a 

 row, answering to the height of the 

 ears of the corn, and turned upwards 

 at the ends; on the back part of this 

 machine, two short shafts are fixed, 

 like the poles of a litter ; to these an 

 ox is yoked, with his head to the ma- 

 chine, and the yoke and traces like- 

 wise turned the contrary way : he is well trained, and does not go faster than he is driven. When this ma- 

 chine is pushed through the standmg corn, all the ears are comprehended by the teeth, and heaped up 

 m the hollow part of it, being cut off from the straw, which is left behind : the driver setting it liigher 

 ^h-^ 'hi . '* necessary; and thus, by a few goings and returnings, the whole field is reaped. 



I r.^ w^fh Jl "TpT rl" P^l". o^x** 'I"''"*h fields, and in places where there is no necessity for 

 SSt SozJS Ijli MaJfi^]. tc '""^"'""^ '^'"^^^^"" "'^'^^ "^^^'^^"^ ^^'- ''-^ '' ^^^^" ""' 

 134. The Romans did not hind their com into sheaves, as is customary in northern cli- 

 mates. When cut it was in general sent directly to the area to be threshed ; or if the 

 ears only were cropped, sent in" baskets to the barn. Among the Jews, Egyptians, 

 and Greeks, the corn was bound in sheaves ; or at least some kinds were so treated, as 

 appears from the story of Ruth " gleaning among the sheaves;" of Joseph's dream, in 

 which his sheaf arose ;" and from the harvest represented by Homer, on one of the 



