C a t o ' s Farm Management 



Of the Duties of the Owner 

 (ll) When you have arrived at 

 your country house and have saluted 

 your household, you should make the 

 rounds of the farm the same day, if 

 possible; if not, then certainly the 

 next day. When you have observed 

 how the field work has progressed, 

 what things have been done, and 

 what remains undone, you should 



colleges. Too often the conclusion is drawn that 

 scientific agriculture will not pay; but Cato puts his 

 finger on the true reason. The man who does not 

 depend on his land for his living too often permits 

 his farm to get what Cato calls the "spending habit." 

 Pliny (H. N. XVIII, 7) makes some pertinent obser- 

 vations on the subject: 



"I may possibly appear guilty of some degree of 

 rashness in making mention of a maxim of the an- 

 cients which will very probably be looked upon as 

 quite incredible, 'that nothing is so disadvantageous 

 as to cultivate land in the highest style of perfec- 

 tion.' " 



And he illustrates by the example of a Roman 

 gentleman, who, like Arthur Young in XVIII Cen- 

 tury England, wasted a large fortune in an attempt 

 to bring his lands to perfect cultivation. "To culti- 

 vate land well is absolutely necessary," Pliny con- 

 tinues, "but to cultivate it in the very highest style 

 is mere extravagance, unless, indeed, the work is 

 done by the hands of a man's own family, his 

 tenants, or those whom he is obliged to keep at any 

 rate." 



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