ROMAN AGRICULTURE. 405 



heart," says Columella, " does not need to have water set over 

 it, because the hay produced in a juicy soil is better than that 

 excited by water. When the poverty of the soil requires it, 

 however, water may be let over it." The same author describes, 

 very particularly, the position of the land for water meadows : 

 " Neither a low field with hollows, nor a broken field with steep, 

 rising grounds, is proper ; the first because it contains too 

 long the water collected in the hollows, and the last because it 

 makes the water to run too quickly over it. A field, however, 

 that has a moderate descent, may be made a meadow, whether 

 it be rich or poor, if so situated as to be watered ; but the best 

 situation is where the surface is smooth, and the descent so 

 gentle as to prevent either showers, or the rivers that overflow 

 it, from remaining long, and on the other hand to allow the 

 water that comes over it gently to glide off. Therefore if, in 

 any part of a field intended for a meadow, a pool of water should 

 stand, it should be let off by drains, for the loss is equal, either 

 from too much water or too little grass." Old water meadows 

 were renewed by breaking them up and sowing them with grain 

 for three years. The third year they were laid down with 

 vetches and grass seed, and then watered again, but not with a 

 great force of water, till the ground had become firm and bound 

 together with turf. Watering, Pliny informs us, was com- 

 menced immediately after the equinox, and restrained when the 

 grass sent up flower stalks ; it was recommended in mowing 

 grounds, after the hay season, and in pasture lands at intervals. 

 Drainage, although an operation of an opposite nature to 

 watering, is yet essential to its success. It was particularly 

 attended to by the Romans, both to remove surface water, and 

 to intercept and carry off under the surface the water of springs. 

 Cato gives directions for opening the furrows of sown fields, 

 and clearing them so that the water might find its way readily 

 to the ditches ; and for wet-bottomed lands he directs to make 

 drains three feet broad at the top, four feet deep, and a foot and a 

 quarter wide at the bottom ; to lay them with stones, or, if these 

 cannot be got, with willow rods placed contrariwise, or twigs tied 

 together. Columella directs both open and covered drains to 

 be made sloping at the sides, and, in addition to what Cato says 

 respecting the waterways of covered drains, directs to make the 



