28 



HISTORY OK AGRICULTURE. 



Part I. 



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 tor preserving 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 



describes 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 "alls of Stone or brick, or rammed earth and gravel. (Lib. i. cap. 14.) 



11". Treei were primed and felled at different times, according to the object in view. 

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

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

 sheep, «ere cut at the end of summer ; copse wood for fuel, in winter; and timber trees 

 generally in that season. Cato, however, directs that trees which are to be felled for 

 timber should be cut down at different rimes, according to their natures: such as ripen 

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

 produce 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. 



14G. Fruits were gathered by hand. The ripest grapes were cut first; such as were 

 selected for eating 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 ; the rest were 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. 



1-17. Such <>re the chief agricultural operations of the Ro?nans, of which it cannot fail to 

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

 operations of the Jews and Greeks on the one hand, and from the practices of modern 

 times on the other. 



Subsf.ct. 6. Of the Crops cultivated, and Animals reared by the Romans. 



148. The cereal grasses cultivated by the Romans were chiefly the triticum or wheat, the 

 far, or Indian corn (Zea), and the hordeum or barley : but they sowed also the siligo or 

 rye, the holcus or millet, the panic grass (Panicum wiiliaceum), and the avena or oat. 



149. Of legumes they cultivated the faba or bean, the jihum or pea, the lujtinvs or 

 lupine, the ervum or tare, the lens or flat tare (P&thyrus tlcera), the chickling vetch (Pa- 

 thyrus sativus), the chick or mouse pea (Cicer arietinum), and the kidneybean (Phaseolus). 

 The bean was used as food for the servants or slaves, the others were grown principally 

 lor food to the labouring cattle. 



150. The sesamum, or oily grain (Sesamum orientale P.) 

 (J'a- 18 0» was cultivated for the seeds, from which an oil was 

 expressed, and used as a substitute for that of olives, as it 

 slill is in India and China, and as the oil of the poppy is 

 in Holland, that of the walnut in Savoy, and that of the 

 hemp in Russia. 



151. The herbage plants were chiefly the trifolium or clover, 

 the medic or lucern, and the cytisus. What the latter plant 

 is, has not been distinctly ascertained. They cultivated also 

 the ocymum an&famum greecum, with several others, which 

 from the descriptions left of them cannot now be identified. 

 The napus or turnip, and rapa or rape, were much esteemed 

 and carefully cultivated. Pliny says "they require a dry V | 

 soil; that the rapa will grow almost any where; that it is 

 nourished by mists, hoar-frosts, and cold; and that he has seen 

 some of them upwards of forty pounds' weight. The napus," 

 he says, " delights equally in colds, which make it both 

 sweeter and larger, while by heat they grow to leaves." He 

 adds, " the more diligent husbandmen plough five times for the napus, four times for the 

 rapa, and apply dung to both." (Nat. Hist., lib. xviii. cap. 13.) Palladius recommends 

 soot and od as a remedy against flies and snails, in the culture of the napus and rapa. 

 \\ bile the turnips « ere growing, it appears, persons were not much restricted from pulling 

 them. Columella observes that, in his time, the more religious husbandmen still ob- 

 served an ancient custom, mentioned by Varro as being recorded by Demetrius, a Greek. 

 Tins was, that while sowing them they prayed they might grow both for themselves and 

 neighbours. Pliny says the sower was naked. 



152. Of crops used iii Ike arts may be mentioned the flax, the sesamum already men- 

 tioned, and the poppy ; the two latter were grown for their seeds, which wcrebruised'for oil. 



