404 AGRICULTURE. 



produce per acre of a good crop. A second crop was cut, called 

 cordum, and was chiefly used for feeding sheep in winter. Hay 

 was also made of leafy twigs, for the same purpose. Cato 

 directs the bailiff to " cut down poplar, elm, oak spray, and put 

 them up in time, not over dry, for fodder for the sheep." 



Weeding and stirring the soil were performed ; the first by 

 cutting with a hook, or pulling the weeds up with the hand ; 

 the second by sarcling or hoeing. Beans were hoed three 

 times ; the first time they were earthed up, but not the second 

 or third. Lupines were not hoed at all, because, " so far from 

 being invested with weeds they destroy them." Horse hoeing 

 was also practised, the origin of which is thus given by Pliny : 

 "We must not omit," says he, "a particular kind or method of 

 plowing, at this time practised in Italy, beyond the Po, and 

 introduced by the injuries of war. The Salassi, when they rav- 

 aged the lands lying under the Alps, tried likewise to destroy 

 the panic and millet that had just come above the ground. 

 Finding that the situation of the crops prevented them from 

 destroying it in the ordinary way, they plowed the fields ; but 

 the crop at harvest being double what it used to be, taught the 

 farmer to plow among the grain." This operation, he informs 

 us, was performed either when the stocks were beginning to 

 appear, or when the plant had put forth two or three leaves. 

 The grain being generally sown in drills, or covered with the 

 plow, so as to come up in rows, readily admitted this practice. 



Pasturing and harrowing grain, when too luxuriant, were prac- 

 tised. Virgil says, "*What commendation shall I give him, who, 

 lest his grain should lodge, pastures it while young, as soon as 

 the blade equals the furrows ? " Pliny directs to " comb the 

 grain with a harrow before it is pastured, and hoe it afterward." 



Watering on a large scale was applied to both arable and 

 grass land. Virgil advises, " to bring down the waters of a river 

 upon sown grain, and when the field is parched, and the plants 

 dying, convey it from the brow of the hill in channels." Pliny 

 mentions the practice, and observes that the water destroys 

 the weeds, nourishes the grain, and serves in place of hoeing. 

 Watering grass-lands was practised whenever an opportunity 

 was offered. "As much as is in your power," says Cato, "make 

 watered meadows." " Land that is naturally rich and in good 



