VI 



GENERAL INTEODUCTIOX. 



to us, and proves liim to have been a practical farmer ; although he chiefly relies upon 

 the maxims of Mago, and some Greek writers, for the mode he pursued in cultivating 

 the soil. He lived nearly throughout the century which immediately preceded the 

 Christian era ; and was, for some time, librarian both to Julius and Augustus Caesar. 

 Virgil comes next ; for Cicero can hardly be included in the list. The Georgics are 

 poems of great originality, embracing much smoothness of versification, and elegance 

 of diction, with precise, ample, and sound directions for the husbandman. To him 

 succeeds Columella, who was a native of Spain, and apparently born about the time 

 of the Christian era. His work has come down to us almost entire, and is divided into 

 twelve books. Two of these are on farming and farming premises ; but also contain 

 some directions on the selection and management of agricultural slaves : three on the 

 vine, olive, and orchard fruits ; two on farming and domestic animals, from which he 

 excludes the sporting-d g ; one on poultry ; and one on bees. In the ninth book he 

 breaks into verse on th' subject of gardening; and in three more books treats of the 

 bailiff, his wife, wine, nnegar, jam-pots, and the kitchen garden. Pliny comes next. 

 He died in A.D. 79, and was succeeded by Palladius, who wrote fourteen books of 

 a farmer's calendar, and a poem on the art of grafting. He was a landed proprietor 

 in Sardinia, and also near Naples. As an agricultural writer he is not very highly 

 spoken of ; although, in the middle ages, his work was held in considerable estimation. 



The names we have thus given of the ancient writers on rural affairs, are spread 

 over a period of eight centuries ; and yet, throughout that long lapse of time, we look 

 in vain for any sign of the science of Agriculture being considered a progressive art. 

 There is not the smallest evidence of improvement. With the single exception of 

 lucerne, there is no new object of culture introduced ; and the system which the father 

 unvaryingly pursued, seems to have been equally unvaryingly followed by the son. 

 What were its characteristics is determined in a very few words — system, accurac}', 

 carefulness, and a sharp eye against waste. The whole of the maxims of Cato have 

 a tendency to the repression of outlay ; and the consequence was, that the productive 

 powers of their lands decreased, as the soil became exhausted from the frequency of the 

 crops. What is called high farming — by which is meant a large expenditure, with a 

 view to increase produce — was out of the question ; and instead of looking forward with 

 a view to the means of success, the Eoman farmer seems rather to have possessed the 

 faculty of looking backward, in order to preserve himself stationary in his position. 

 This, of course, was fatal to advancement; and hence the dreary waste of his years, 

 as well as of his lands, in the agricultural course he pursued. Under the division 

 on farming, in the following pages, this subject is noticed in greater detail. 



Of the system of farriery, as practised among the ancients, we possess very little 

 knowledge. We have, occasionally, a slight notice from Columella, who treats at 

 length on the general management of cattle ; and in Renatus, who flourished a couple 

 of centuries later, the subject of animal diseases is more elaborately handled. He 

 urges the necessity of a high cultivation of the veterinary art, not only as being a 

 source of pecuniary gain, but as being the means of enlarging our sympathies with the 

 sufferings of the lower animals. With the exception of the necessarily crude and 

 imperfect performances of these two writers on this subject, no ancient treatise, bearing 

 directly on the diseases to which animals are subject, and composed by a professional 

 man, has descended to us. There are no evidences whatever, in the writers just named, 

 that they were acquainted with the sciences of anatomy and physiology — a circumstance 



