PREFACE. 



xm 



tries, Roman. Among them arable land was excellently 

 cared for, much on the same method as we observe on 

 the downs of Kent, the garden of England. By throw- 

 ing a thousand small allotments into one great field, 

 they were well rid of the encumbrance, the weeds, the 

 birds, the boys going a birdnesting, and the repair of 

 hedges or other fences. But the pasture land was not 

 so well managed. The Romans, who had an elaborate 

 machinery of aqueducts and irrigation, grew hay in their 

 prata, or meadows, which were artificially supplied with 

 water, and to get two crops a year, or three or four,' 

 gave a large flow of that element to the soil. This, 

 of course, had its inconveniences, herbs that thrive in 

 wet came up stronger than the grass, especially horse- 

 tail, and a " nummulus " with pods. They had an awk- 

 ward inefiicient way of cutting the grass with a hook, 

 held in the right hand only, and this was followed 

 by a second operation, called sickling,^ to cut what the 

 hooks had left. They tedded the hay, as is done now, 

 by hand, with forks, ^ took care it should be dry enough 

 not to ferment, leaving it in cocks,* and when ready 

 carried it off to the farm,^ and stored it in a loft.^ 



Our forefathers here were able, from the frequent Hay. 

 rains, to dispense for the most part with irrigation. 

 They cut the hay with sithes,' the pattern of which 

 was probably borrowed from the continental Kelts, '^ and, 

 most naturally, by the subdued British before the settle- 

 ment of the English, since they were relatives, spoke 



' Interamnse in Umbria quater 

 anno secantur etiam non rigua, 

 Plin. xviii. 67=2S. 



2 Sicilire ; Plin. as above, Varro, 

 E.R. i. 19. 



8 Furcillis. 



* Meta;. 



* Villa. 



" In tabulate. Sub tecto, Colu- 

 mella, II. xix. 



VOL. II. 



' Horn. II. p. 162. Also a Saxon 

 drawing in MS. Cott. Tiber. B. v., 

 where the painter has given straight 

 handles to the sithes ; and has cer- 

 tainly committed an error in draw- 

 ing haymaking for August, and 

 reaping for June. 



** Galliarum latifundia maioris 

 compendii, Plin. as above. 



