382 AGRICULTURE. 



mixture of soils produces the same effect. Clay, he says, should 

 be mixed with sand, and sand with clay. 



The seed was sown by hand and covered with a rake. Grain 

 was reaped with a sickle, bound in sheaves, carted to a well- 

 prepared threshing-floor, in an airy situation, where it might be 

 threshed and fanned by the wind, as is still practised in modern 

 Greece, Italy, and other countries of the Continent. Afterward 

 it was laid up in bins, chests, or granaries, and taken out as 

 wanted by the family, to be pounded into meal in mortars or 

 quern-mills. 



Thorns and other plants for hedges were produced from the 

 woods, as we find in a passage from Homer, in which he repre- 

 sents Ulysses as finding Laertes digging and preparing to plant 

 a row ,of quicksets. The implements enumerated by Hesiod 

 are, a plow, of which he recommends two be provided, in case 

 of accident, and a cart ten spans (seven feet six inches) in width, 

 with two low wheels. The plow consisted of three parts, the 

 share-beam, the draught-pole, and the plow-tail. The share- 

 beam is to be made of oak, and the other parts of elm or bay. 

 They are to be joined firmly with nails. The beasts of labor 

 mentioned are oxen and mules. The former were more com- 

 mon, and it would appear, from a passage in Homer, were yoked 

 by the horns. Oxen of four years and a half are recommended 

 to be purchased, as most serviceable. In winter, both oxen and 

 mules were fed under cover, on hay and straw, mast, and the 

 leaves of vines and various trees. 



The most desirable age for a plowman is forty. He must be 

 well fed, go naked in summer, rise and go to work very early, and 

 have a sort of an annual feast, proper rest, good food, and cloth- 

 ing consisting of coats of kid skins, worsted socks, and half- , 

 boots of ox hides in winter. He must not let his eyes wander 

 about while at the plow, but cut a straight furrow ; nor be 

 absent in mind while sowing the seed, lest he sow the same 

 furrow twice. 



The vine is to be pruned and staked in due season, the vintage 

 made in fine weather, and the grapes left a few days to dry, and 

 then carried to the press. The products of Grecian agriculture 

 were the grains and legumes at present in cultivation, with the 

 vine, fig, olive, apple, date, and other fruits. The live-stock 



