The Cultivation of the Fruit-Farm 167 



to blow. *' This strongly reminds us of advice we 

 still hear about sowing beans in the new moon, till 

 we learn that the shifting of the wind from out the 

 west, on the Roman Campagna, and of course at 

 Tusculum, marked with remarkable precision the 

 shifting of the season. The wind makes, as it 

 were, a "spray*' or ''fertilizer" calendar for the 

 region. Cato dealt wholly with slaves, totally 

 ignorant of letters, — creatures who, however cap- 

 able as laborers, were guided by sight and sounds 

 in Nature. A slave, were he the trusted overseer, 

 would know ''when the west wind begins to blow," 

 just as by the color of the olive he would know 

 when to pick the fruit for the oil-press. Our 

 science of farming, worked out by retort and cru- 

 cible and chemical test, agrees with the large 

 conclusions of simple experience, — ^as "when the 

 west wind blows" it is time to do a particu- 

 lar work. Nature herself is a great clock, and 

 her hands point to the hours when things must 

 be done opportimely. But Cato also prescribes 

 for a sick ox: he should be given a raw hen's egg 

 immediately; next day, a measure of wine from 

 a wooden bowl in which the head of an onion has 

 been scraped, and "both the ox and his atten- 

 dant should do these things fasting and standing 

 upright. " 



If a bone is dislocated [continues Cato] it can be made 

 sound by this incantation : Take a green reed four or five 

 feet long, cut it in the middle and let two men hold the 

 pieces against your hips. Begin then to chant as follows: 



