38 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. Part I. 



the corn, and serves in place of sarcling. Watering grass lands was practised wherever 

 an opportunity offered. " As much as in your power," says Cato, " make watered 

 meadows." Land that is naturally rich and in good heart, says Columella, " does not 

 need to have water set over it, because the hay produced in a juicy soil is better than 

 tliat excited by water ; when the poverty of the soil requires it, however, water may be 

 set over it. The same author likewise describes very particularly the position of the 

 land most proper for water meadows. *' Neither a low field," says he, " with hollows, 

 nor a field broken with steep rising grounds, are proper. The first because it contains 

 too long the water collected in the hollows ; the last, because it makes the water to run 

 too quickly over it. A field, however, that has a moderate descent, may be made a 

 meadow, whether it is rich or poor, if so situated as to be watered. But the best situation 

 is, where the surface is smooth, and the descent so gentle, as to prevent either showers, or 

 the rivers that overflow it, from remaining long ; and, on the other hand, to allow the 

 water that comes over it gently to glide off. Therefore, if in any part of a field intended 

 for a meadow, a pool of water should stand, it must be let off by drains ; for the loss is 

 qual, either from too much water or too little grass." [Col. lib. ii. cap. 17.) 



142. Old water meadows were renewed by breaking up and sowing them, with com for 

 three years ; the third year they were laid down with vetches and grass seeds, and then 

 watered again, but " not with a great force of water, till the ground had become firm and 

 bound together with turf." {Col. lib. ii. cap. 18.) Watering, Pliny informs us, was 

 commenced immediately after the equinox, and restrained when the grass sent up flower 

 stalks ; it was recommenced in mowing grounds, after the hay season, and in pasture 

 lands at intervals. 



143. Braining, though an operation of an opposite nature to watering, is yet essential 

 to its success. It was particularly attended to by the Romans, both to remove surface 

 water, and to intercept and carry off under the surface the water of springs. 

 Cato gives directions for opening the furrows of sown fields, and clearing them so as the 

 water might find its way readily to the ditches ; and for wet-bottomed lands he directs 

 to make drains three feet broad at top, four feet deep, and one and a quarter feet wide 

 at the bottom ; to lay them with stones ; or if these cannot be got, with willow rods, placed 

 contrary ways, or twigs tied together. (Cap. 43.) Columella directs both open and 

 covered drains to be made sloping at the sides, and in addition to what Cato says respecting 

 the water way of covered drains, directs to make the bottom narrow, and fit a rope made 

 of twigs to it, pressing the rope firmly down, and putting some leaves or pine branches 

 over it before throwing in the earth. Pliny says, the ropes may be made of straw, and 

 that flint or gravel may be used to form the water-way, filling the excavation half full, 

 or to within eighteen inches of the top. 



144. Fencing was performed by the Romans, but only to a limited extent. Varro 

 says, ** the limits of a farm should be fenced (rendered obvious) by planting trees, that 

 families may not quarrel with their neighbours, and that the limits may not want the 

 decision of a judge. " (Lib, i. 15.) Palladius directs to enclose meadows, and gardens, 

 and orchards. Columella mentions folds for enclosing the cattle in the night-time ; but 

 the chief fences of his time were the enclosures called parks for reserving wild beasts, and 

 forming agreeable prospects from the villas of the wealthy. Pliny mentions these, and 

 says they were the invention of Fulvius Lupinus. {Nat. Hist. lib. viii.) Varro de- 

 scribes fences raised by planting briars or thorns, and training them into a hedge, and 

 these, he says, have the advantage of not being in danger from the burning torch of the 

 wanton passenger ; fences of stalks interwoven with twigs, ditches with earthen dykes and 

 walls of stone or brick, or rammed earth and gravel. (Lib. i. cap. 14.) 



145. Trees were pruned and felled at different times according to the object in view. 

 The olive was little cut ; the vine had a winter dressing and one or two summer 

 dressings. Green branches or spray, of which the leaves were used as food for oxen and 

 sheep, were cut at the end of summer. Copse wood for fuel in winter, and timber trees 

 generally jn that season. Cato, however, directs that trees which are to be felled for tim- 

 ber should be cut down at different times according to their natures; such as ripen seeds, 

 when the seed is ripe ; such as do not produce seeds, when the leaves drop ; such as pro- 

 duce both flowers and seeds at the same time, also when the leaves drop, but if they are 

 evergreens, such as the cypress and pine, they may be felled at any time. 



146. Fruits were gathered by hand. The ripest grapes were cut first ; such as were se- 

 lected for eatmg were carried home and hung up ; and those for the press were put in 

 baskets and carried to the wine-press to be picked and then pressed. Olives were plucked 

 by hand, and some selected for eating ; and the rest laid up in lofts for future bruising, or 

 they were immediately pressed. Such as could not be reached by ladders, Varro directs 

 to be struck with a reed rather than with a rod, for a deep wound requires a physician." 

 It does not appear that green olives were pickled and used as food as in modern times. 



147. Such are the dmf agricultural operations of the Romans, of which it cannot fail to 

 be observed as most remarkable, that they differ little from what we know of the rural 



