THE PROBLEM OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 29 



From the descriptions which we read of nomadic peoples in the 

 present day, we can form a fairly clear idea of the economy of similar 

 tribes long ago. In the management of the herd, in successful breed- 

 ing and training, there is opportunity for the constant exercise of 

 forethought and skill. The land over which the cattle range is not 

 appropriated. Each family, however, possesses its own herd; and 

 there may also be an understanding, for mutual convenience, between 

 two septs or families, as to the runs which their cattle are to occupy 

 respectively. When we bear in mind these facts as to the general 

 character of such tribes, we shall be in a better position for interpreting 

 the hints which Caesar gives us in regard to some matters of detail. 

 . They were, as he tells us, mostly occupied with hunting and 

 warfare, and they derived subsistence from their herds and the spoils 

 of the chase; but they hardly devoted themselves to agriculture at 

 all. Under these circumstances it is quite clear that the assignment 

 of land which Caesar describes must either have been forest for game 

 or pasturage for cattle; in any case, it was waste land they wished to 

 use, as they could have little interest in securing possession of fields 

 that were suitable for tillage. What they wished to have was the 

 right to use a well-stocked waste, and the lands thus assigned were 

 common to the members of a particular family or sept for the time 

 being, and were not held in severalty. 



C. Agricultural Development of the Ancient Nations 



5. GREEK HUSBANDRY 1 

 BY PERCY GARDNER AND F. BYRON JEVONS 



The Achaeans, as they come before us in the Homeric poems, are 

 rather a pastoral than an agricultural race. It is in their herds of 

 cattle, sheep, and swine, rather than in the produce of their lands, 

 that the wealth of the heroic kings consisted. It was cattle which 

 furnished them with a measure of value; and cattle, together with 

 slaves, were the most valuable spoil which they secured in their mili- 

 tary and piratical expeditions. Thucydides traces, the same lines as 

 Homer. In early times, he tells us, the insecurity of property was 

 too great to allow of the planting of trees, which would of course lie 

 at the mercy of an invading enemy. And although -men tilled the 



1 Adapted from Manual of Greek Antiquities, pp. 370-76. (Copyright by 

 Charles Griffen & Co., Ltd. /London.) 



