C a t o' s Farm Management 



Of Planting 

 (XXXIV) Wherever the land is 

 cold and wet, sow there first, and last 

 of all in the warmest places. 



empirical practice of soil improvement with legumes 

 was quite as good as ours. Varro (I, 23) explains 

 it more fully than Cato: 



"Some lands are best suited for hay, some for 

 corn, some for wine and some for oil. So also some 

 lands are best suited for forage crops, among which 

 are basil, succotash, vetch, alfalfa, snail clover, 

 lupines. All things should not be sown in rich 

 land, nor should thin land be left unsown. For it is 

 better to sow in thin land those things which do not 

 require much nourishment, such as snail clover and 

 the legumes, except always chick pea (for this is a 

 legume as are the other plants which are not 

 reaped but from which the grain is plucked) 

 because those things which it is the custom to pluck 

 {legere) are called legumes. In rich land 

 should be sown those things which require much 

 nourishment, such as cabbage, corn, wheat and flax. 

 Certain plants are cultivated not so much for their 

 immediate yield of grain, as with forethought for the 

 coming year, because cut and left lying they improve 

 the land. So if land is too thin it is the practice to 

 plow in, for manure, lupines not yet podded, and 

 likewise the field bean, if it has not yet ripened so 

 that it is fitting to harvest the beans." 



Columella (II, 13), and after him Palladius (I, 

 6), advises that legumes be plowed in green and not 

 merely as dry straw: he insists further that if the 

 hay is saved the stubble of legumes should be 

 promptly plowed, for he says the roots will evaporate 

 their own moisture and continue to pump the land 

 of its fertility unless they are at once turned over. 



If the Romans followed this wise advice they were 

 better farmers than most of us today, for we are 



[47] 



