THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



91 



Cousidcratious upon the Agriculture ofthe 

 .* ncients, and its progress^ down to modern 

 times.* 



[Translated from the French ofthe Baj-on Jucherem de 

 St. Denys, for the Northern Light, by John A. Dix.] 



The principles, by wliich the Inhois of agiiciil- 

 tirre may he advantageously yuiilecl, should be 

 di-awii fioni experience and from the traditions 

 handed down from generation to generation by 

 antecedint cidtivators. The Romans held in high 

 estimation the agricultmul njaxi(ns, which they 

 received from their ancestors--, or which tl)(:y had 

 derived from the writings of tlie scientific agri- 

 culturists of Greece. Let ns consider some of 

 these maxims as ilhistiative of the rural econo- 

 my ofthe ancient Romans. 



The first was, to sow little and labor much ; the 

 ancient cultivators having observed tl at the pro- 

 ducts of agriculttn-al industry were not in propor- 

 tion to the quantity of seed sown, but in ])ro|)or- 

 tion tothe amount of labor expended in prepar- 

 ing and working the soil. Pliny and Virgil re- 

 garded large farms as prejudicial to agriculture. 

 The Carthaginian agriculturists said, that the 

 quantity of hind should never exceed the jiowers 

 ofthe cultivator, but, on the contrary, that he 

 should possess more physicial force than was 

 necessary (or the proper cultivation of his 



The second was, thai the oiciitr ofthe land shouJd, 

 as far as possible, reside upon it. The celebrated 

 Carthaginian agriculturist Mago .«aid that he, who 

 bought Ji farm, should immediately sell his town- 

 house. 



The third maxim was designed to show that 

 it ispnuch more advantageous to cidtivate well a 

 small [)iece of ground, than to cultivate indifier- 

 ently a greater surface. Columella, on this point, 

 recites the following anecdote : " A vine-dresser 

 iiad two daughters and a vineyard. When his 

 eldest daughter was married, he gave i.er the 

 third ofthe vineyard. Yet he obtained ofthe 

 two-thirds, which remained, as large a harvest 

 as the whole |)ro|)erty yielded before. He gave 

 another third of tlie same viiieyard to his second 

 datighler on her marriage. Redoubling his care 

 and efforts, he olitaiueil from the third, which 

 he reserved to himself, the sanje quantity ofgrapes 

 as he had been accustomed to receive from the 

 entire vineyard." 



Pliny stated a fact, which confirms the same 

 maxim: "A cultivator," says ho, "obtained 

 frojn his field more abundant crops than his 

 neighbors. The latter accused him of sorcery, 

 and put liim upon his trial. He presented to the 

 judge his tiuining utensils, which were of excel- 

 lent" constriiclion and of good order, his oxen, 

 which were strong and in fine condition, and a 

 robust, i:ciive and intelligent daughter. ' Behold,' 

 exclaimed he, 'the magic arts, wiiich I have em- 

 ployed to procure from my fields more abundant 

 harvests than those, which my more negligent 

 and less active accusers obtain from theirs.' He 

 was inunediately acquitted." 



Pliny ol)serves, as liunishing the foundation of 

 a fourth maxim, that theie should be no profusion 

 in jigricultm-al industry ; and he adds that in un- 

 duly extending its operations, we expose our- 

 .'ielves to loss and injmy as effectually as by 

 an insufiicient and inqierfect application of la- 

 bor. 



Economy is the fifth ma.ximof the ancient ag- 

 riculturists. We should consider him, says 

 Pliny, a bad fanner, w ho buys that which his 

 ground may be made to produce, or who per- 

 foinis in the day time labor, which njay be done 

 in the evening. 



iMildness and humanity were inculcated by 

 the ancient agriculturists "towards domestics and 



CdrMmella, Pliny and Virgil recommended to 

 cultivalors to unite theory with practice, and to 

 pay i)articular attention to meteorological |)he- 

 nomena in respect to different species of culture. 

 These authors and Varro also affirm that it is 

 impossible to become a skillful agricultinist 

 without making, in different branches of cultiva- 

 tion and in the labors of agricidtnre, a variety of 

 experiments. Experience aud imitation, says 

 Varro, are the best instructors for agriculturists 



* Journal of the Academy of Agriculture, Manulac 

 luring and Commercial Industrj- ; Pans. Vol. 6. No 



and the surest mode of bringing their labors to 

 perfection. 



Proddcts and profits of Agriculture in the 

 time op the ancient romans. 

 The ordinary mode of calculating the profits 

 resulting from the cultivation ofthe earth con- 

 sists in knouiiig the ininierical quantity ofthe 

 produce ofthe seed. Rut this niclhod is decep- 

 tive, and is often the source of egregious errors. 

 For on a farm well watered and manured, forty 

 times the quantity ofthe seed may some time be 

 obtained, while with a more negligent culture the 

 same land would 3 ield not more than five or six 

 times the quantity of the seed sown. The Old 

 Testament informs us that the patriarch Isaac ob- 

 taiued sometimes a hundred for one from a field 

 in the land of Gerar. The Evangelist iMark tells 

 us that seed sown on good gromid produces, 

 "some thiity, some sixty, and some an hundred," 

 Varro informs us that good lands in the vicin- 

 ity of Garada in Syria and of Byzacinm in Africa 

 often yield a hundjed fold. Pliny adds that in 

 the fields in this part of Africa, a hundred stocks 

 of wheat have often been produced irom a sin- 

 gle grain. The argillo-siliceons soils of Byzaci- 

 um were cultivated with difficulty in dry seasons 

 by oxen ofthe greatesl strength, while with a sin- 

 gle ass it could be broken up and prepared for 

 seed when the earth was moistened by rain. 



The productions of the earth in Italy were 

 much less abamlant. They were ten !br one on 

 good lands, excepting in Tuscany, where they 

 were equal to fifteen for one. The crops were 

 comparatively nuich less considerable in the 

 times of Columella, when agriculture had already 

 fallen into neglect. 



The price of land in the time of Pliny and 

 Colnmella was twenty-five times the average 

 value ofthe annual crops. Capital invested in 

 the purchase of land was considered at that time 

 as yielding foin- per cent, annually. The ordina- 

 ry rate of interest was six per cent. But this 

 interest was conventional, not legal ; for money, 

 being regarded as an article of merchandise, 

 could be loaned at any price. The rate of inter- 

 est was, therefore, uncertain and variable, aud 

 was enhanced or depressed according to circum- 

 stances. 



The Roman agriculturists considered in re- 

 ference TO AGRICULTURAL ART AND THE SCI- 

 ENCES. 



The sciences cultivated by the Greeks and Ro- 

 mans were principally mathem;itical and specu- 

 lative. They knew nothing of cheiiiislry, vege- 

 table physiology and other branches of natural 



None of their writers on agriculture 



imdertake to ex|)lain the foundation ofthe max- 

 ims or practices in use. Unable to accoimt upon 

 philosophical principles tor the different pheno- 

 mena of nature, the Greek and Roman agricul- 

 turists had recomse to supernatm-al causes. — 

 There was no limit to their superstitious notions. 

 They believed in the existence of good and bad 

 spirits, whose influence was exceedingly pow- 

 erful on the productions of the earth. Hesiod 

 attached as much importance to propitious and 

 uupropitions days as to jirocesses dictated by ex- 

 perience. These superstitions are manircstcil in 

 the writings of Homer, Aristotle and Tlicophras- 

 tus. They believed in the transmutation of 

 plants, in tlie jiowerful iufiiience of changes of 

 the moon and in the impiegnation of animals by 

 certain winds. Lord Kames, in congratulating 

 the present age on its freedom from such absurd- 

 ities, observes that the religious ideas of Catoon 

 the subject of agriculture were curious and extrav- 

 agant. 



But agriculture, which had improved ju'eviou.s.- 

 ly to the age of Cato, began to decline after the 

 death of that agriculturist. The Romans ma<le 

 some progress in liusbandry and in the art of 

 breeding and improving domestic animals. But 

 the cidtivators of the soil had no other rules 

 among them, exceptimr those, for which they 

 were indebted to the genius and experience ofthe 

 agriculturists of Greece. 



"Vet the inofir'ssion of agriculture always en- 

 joyed a high consideration among the Romans. 

 The soldiers of Rome in extending their con- 

 quests never failed to diffuse their agricultural 

 knowledge throughout those countries, in which 

 agriculture was, as it were, an unknown art. An 

 agriculturist as well as a conqueror, every sol- 

 dier, at the permanent military stations, cultivated 



the earth and taught the inhabitants of the sur- 

 rounding districts how to turn their labor to the 

 III St acount . Switzerland, Germany and Great 

 Britain were indebted to the lessons and the ex- 

 amples ofthe Roman soldiers for their knowl- 

 edge of the first principles of agriculture. But 

 the Jews, the Babylonians, the Egyptians, the 

 Carthaginians and the Greeks, ns well as the col- 

 onies ofthe two last nations, had nothing to learn 

 li-om the Romans as to the cultivation ofthe 

 earth. 



From the time of Vnrro agriculture began to de- 

 cline in Rome. It reached the last stage of de- 

 pression when Pliny wrote. 



The greater part ofthe principal families in 

 Rome confiding in the revenues, which they 

 drew from the provinces, neglected their lands in 

 Italy, and ruined their tenants by exalting from 

 them exorbitant rents. Civil wars, the tyrannical 

 exactions of the emperors and ofthe greedy mul- 

 titude of their courtiers, the transfer of the seat of 

 the em[iire to Constantinople near Ihemiddle of the 

 third century destro'.ed Italy and opened the way 

 to the invasion of tlie barbarians, and liuried ag- 

 riculture and the arts in one common ruin. 



The Farmer. 



By WILLIAM HOWITT. 



There is no class of men, if times are hut toler- 

 ably good, that ciijuy tlioiuselves so highly as 

 farmers. They are lidlc kings. Their concerns 

 are not huddled into a cuiner as those of a town 

 tradesman are. In town, many a man who turns 

 thousands of pounds per week, is hemmed in 

 close by buildings, and cuts no figure at all. A 

 narrow shop, a contracted warehouse, without an 

 inch of room besides to turn him in, on any hand ; 

 without a yard, a stable, or an outhouse of any de- 

 scription ; perhaps hoisted aloft, up three or four 

 pair of dirty stairs, is all the room that the wealthy 

 tradesman can often bless himself with : and 

 then, day after day, mouth after month, year after 

 year, he is to be found, like a bat in a hole of a 

 wall, ora toad in the lieart of a stone, or of an oak 

 tree, t^pring, ami siiiimier, .■iiul auliimii, go round : 

 suii.--liiiie aiul ilouirs spread over the world; the 

 sweetest breezes blow, the sweetest waters mur- 

 mur along the vales, but they are all lost upon 

 him ; he is the doleful firisouer of Mammon, and 

 so he lives ai d dies. The fiirmer would not take 

 the wealth of the world on such terms. His con- 

 cerns, howi MrMiudl, spread themselves out in a 

 plea.-aiii aniplitiide, both to his eye and heart. 

 Ilis liouse stands in its own stately solitude; his 

 outhouses stand round extensively, without any 

 stubborn and limiting contraction ; his acres 

 stretch over hill and dale ; there his flocks and 

 herds are feeding ; there Ids laborers are toiling — 

 he is king and sole commander there. He lives 

 amongst the purest air and the most delicious 

 quiet. * * Anqile old fashioned kitchens, with 

 theii> chimney corners ofthe true projecling-beam- 

 ed and seated construction, still remaining; blaz- 

 ing fires in winter, sliinii;g on suspended hams 

 and flitches, guns supported on hooks above, dogs 

 basking on the hearth below; cool, shady parlors 

 in summer, with open windows, and odors from 

 garden awd shrubbery blowmg in ; gardens wet 

 with jiurest dews, and hiiiiuiiing at noontide with 

 bees; and green fields aiul verdurous trees, or 

 deep woodlands lying all round, where a hundred 

 rejoicing voices of birds or other creatures are 

 heard, and winds blow to and fro, full of health 

 and life-enjoyment. How enviable do such \i\a- 

 ces seem to the fretted spirits of towns, who are 

 comiielled not only to bear their burthen of cares, 

 but to enter daily imo the public strife against 

 selfish evil and ever-spreading corrujition. When 

 one callsto mind the simple abundance of fiirm- 

 hoiises, their rich cream and milk, unadulterated 

 butter, and bread grown upon their own lands. 

 sweet as that which ri.iist broke, and bles.sed as 

 he gave to his disciples ; their fiiiits ripe and fresh 

 plucked from the snnuy wall, or the garden bed, 

 or the pleasant old orchard ; when one cast.s 

 one's eye upon, or calls to one's memory the as- 

 pect of these houses, many of them so antiquely 

 piclurcsqiie, or so bright looking and cotnforlable, 

 ill deep retired valleys, by beautiful streams, or 

 amongst fragrant woodlands, one cannot help say- 

 ing with King James of Scotland, when he met 

 Johnny Armstrong: — "What want these men 

 that a king should have .-" 



