CHAPTER XXXIX 



TWO PERIODS IN AGRICULTURAL HISTORY 



THE following quotations, separated by a lapse of twenty cen- 

 turies, cannot fail to interest the student of American agriculture : 



"The land must rest every second year, or be sown with lighter kinds of 

 seeds, which prove less exhausting to the soil." VARRO (B.C. 116 to 28). 



"A field is not sown entirely for the crop which is to be obtained the same 

 year, but partly for the effect to be produced in the following; because there 

 are many plants which, when cut down and left on the land, improve the soil. 

 Thus lupines, for instance, are plowed into a poor soil in lieu of manure." 



VARRO. 



"Horse dung is about the best suited for meadow land, and so in general is 

 that of beasts of burden fed on barley ; for manure produced from this cereal 

 makes the grass grow luxuriantly." - VARRO. 



"Plowing the land simply means rendering the earth porous and friable, 

 which must tend to increase its productiveness." CATO (B.C. 95 to 46). 



"Wherein does a good system of agriculture consist? In the first place, in 

 thorough plowing; in the second place, in thorough plowing; and, in the 

 third place, in manuring." CATO. 



"Take care to have your wheat weeded twice with the hoe, and also by 

 hand." CATO. 



"A soil to be fertile must, above all things, be light and friable, and this con- 

 dition we seek to bring about by the operation of plowing." 



VIRGIL (B.C. 70 to 19). 

 "Linseed, poppy, and oats exhaust the soil." VIRGIL. 



"Still will the seeds, tho chosen with toilsome pains 

 Degenerate, if man's industrious hand 

 Cull not each year the largest and the best. 

 'Tis thus by destiny, all things decay 

 And retrograde, with motion unperceived." 



VIRGIL'S Georgics. 



"On the other side of the Po, the use of ash is viewed so favorably by farmers, 

 that they actually prefer it to the manure furnished by their cattle." 



PLINY (A.D. 23 to 79). 



"On large estates fields are alternately allowed to lie fallow in order to save 

 manure." PLINY. 



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