28 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. Part I. 



decision of a judge." (Lib. i. 15.) Palladius directs to enclose meadows, and gardens, 

 and orchards. Columella mentions folds for enclosing the cattle in the night-time ; but 

 the chief fences of his time were the enclosures called parks for preserving wild beasts, 

 and forming agreeable prospects from the villas of the wealthy. Pliny mentions these, 

 and says they were the invention of Fulvius Lupinus. (Nat. Hist., lib. viii.) Varro 

 describes fences raised by planting briars or thorns, and training them into a hedge ; and 

 these, he says, have the advantage of not being in danger from the burning torch of the 

 wanton passenger ; fences of stalks, interwoven with twigs, ditches with earthen dykes, 

 and walls of stone or brick, or rammed earth and gravel. (Lib. i. cap. 14.) 



145. Trees were pruned and felled at different times, according to the object in view. 

 The olive was little cut ; the vine had a winter dressing, and one or two summer 

 dressings. Green branches or spray, of which the leaves were used as food for oxen and 

 sheep, were cut at the end of summer ; copse wood for fuel, in winter ; and timber trees 

 generally in that season. Cato, however, directs that trees wliich are to be felled for 

 timber should be cut down at different times, according to their natures : such as ripen 

 seeds, when the seed is ripe ; such as do not produce seeds, when the leaves drop ; such as 

 produce both flowers and seeds at the same time, also when the leaves drop ; but if they 

 are evergreens, such as the cypress and pine, they may be felled at any time. 



146. Fruits were gathered by hand. The ripest grapes were cut first ; such as were 

 selected for eating were carried home and hung up ; and those for the press were put in 

 baskets, and carried to the wine-press to be picked and then pressed. Olives were plucked 

 by hand, and some selected for eating ; the rest were laid up in lofts for future bruising, or 

 they were immediately pressed. Such as could not be reached by ladders, Varro directs 

 to be " struck with a reed rather than with a rod, for a deep wound requires a physician." 

 It does not appear that green olives were pickled and used as food as in modern times. 



147. Such are the chief agricidtural operations of the Romans, of which it cannot fail to 

 be observed as most remarkable, that they differ little from what we know of the rural 

 operations of the Jews and Greeks on the one hand, and from the practices of modem 

 times on the other. 



Sdbsect. 6. Of the Crops cultivated, and Animals reared by the Romans. 



148. The cereal grasses cultivated by the Romans were chiefly the triticum or wheat, the 

 far, or Indian corn (Zea), and the hordeum or barley : but they sowed also the siligo or 



rye, the holcus or millet, the panic grass (Panicum ?niliaceum), and the avena or oat. 



149. Of legumes they cultivated the faba or bean, the pisurn or pea, the lupinus or 

 lupine, the ervum or tare, the lens or flat tare (idthyrus Clcera), tlie chickling vetch (JLa- 

 thyrus sativus), the chick or mouse pea (Cicer arietinum), andthekidneybean(Phas6olus). 

 The bean was used as food for the servants or slaves, the others were grown principally 

 for food to the labouring cattle. 



150. The sesamum, or oily grain (S'^samum orientAle X.) 

 (fig. 18.), was cultivated for the seeds, from which an oil was 

 expressed, and used as a substitute for that of olives, as it 

 still is in India and China, and as the oil of the poppy is 

 in Holland, that of the walnut in Savoy, and that of the 

 hemp in Russia. 



151. The lierbage plants were chiefly the trifolium or clover, 

 the medic or lucem, and the cytisus. What the latter plant 

 is, has not been distinctly ascertained. Tliey cultivated also 

 the ocymum and fcenum grtscum, with several others, which 

 from the descriptions left of them cannot now be identified. 

 The najms or turnip, and rapa or rape, were much esteemed 

 and carefully cultivated. Pliny says " they require a dry 

 soil; that the rapa will grow almost any where; that it is 

 nourished by mists, hoar-frosts, and cold ; and that he has seen 

 some of them upvv^ards of forty pounds' weight. The napus," 

 he says, " delights equally in colds, which make it both 

 sweeter and larger, while by heat they grow to leaves." He 

 adds, " the more diligent husbandmen plough five times for the napus, four times for tlie 

 rapa, and apply dung to both." (Nat. Hist., lib. xviii. cap. 13.) Palladius recommends 

 soot and oil as a remedy against flies and snails, in the culture of the napus and rapa. 

 While the turnips were growing, it appears, persons were not much restricted from pulling 

 them. Columella observes that, in his time, the more religious husbandmen still ob- 

 served an ancient custom, mentioned by Varro as being recorded by Demetrius, a Greek. 

 This was, that w'lile sowing them they prayed they might grow both for themselves and 

 neighbours. Pliny says the sower was naked. 



152. Of crops used in the arts may be mentioned the flax, the sesamum already men- 

 tioned, and the poppy ; the two latter were grown for their seeds, which were bruised for oil. 



