32 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE Part I. 



culture. In some cases it is of importance for the general reader to be aware of this, 

 before perusing their rustic authors ; as in the case of heterogeneous grafting, and the 

 spontaneous generation and transmutation of plants, which, though stated by Virgil and 

 Pliny, and others, as facts, are known to every physiologist to be impossible : but otlier 

 relations are too gross to be entertained as truths by any one. Of these we may mention 

 the lunar days, the impregnation of animals by particular winds, &c. It is impossible 

 not heartily to concur with Lord Kaimes in congratulating the present age on its delivery 

 from such " heavy fetters." It is curious to observe the religious economy of Cato. 

 After recommending the master of the family to be regular in performing his devotions, he 

 expressly forbids the rest of the family to perform any, either by themselves or others, 

 telling them that they were to consider that the master performed sufficient devotions for 

 the family. [Cat., cap. 43.) This was probably intended not only to save time, but also 

 to prevent such slaves as had naturally more susceptible imaginations than the others, 

 from becoming religious enthusiasts. 



173. JVhat degree of improvement agriculture received from the Romans, is a question 

 we laave no means of answering. Agriculture appears obviously to have declined 

 from the time of Cato and Varro to Pliny ; and therefore any improvement it received 

 must have taken place antecedently to their era. As these authors, however, generally 

 refer to the Greeks as their masters in this art, it appears very doubtful whether they 

 did any thing more than imitate their practice. As a more luxurious people, they 

 introduced new fruits, and probably improved the treatment of birds, and otlier minor 

 products ; but these belong more to gardening and domestic economy, than to field 

 cultivation. In the culture of corn, herbage, plants, and fruit trees, and in the breeding 

 and rearing of cattle, Noah and his sons, the Jews, the Babylonians, Egyptians, and 

 Greeks, may have been as far advanced as the Romans, for any thing that appears to the 

 contrary. The great agricultural advantage which mankind have derived from the 

 Romans, is the diffusion of the art by their almost universal conquests. 



Sect. VII. Of tJie Extent to which Agriculture was carried in the Roman Provinces, and 



of its Decline. 



174. Tlie art of agriculture was not onlyfamUiar to, but held in estimation by, every Ro- 

 man soldier. It was practised by him in every foreign country where he was stationary ; 

 and he taught it to the inhabitants of such as were uncultivated. In some countries, as in 

 Carthaginia, great part of Spain, and a part of the south-east of France, agriculture 

 was as far advanced as in Italy; because at Carthage and Marseilles the Greeks had 

 planted colonies, which flourished anterior to the Romans, or at least long before they 

 extended their conquests to these countries : but in Helvetia, Germany, and Britain, it 

 was in a very rude state or unknown. 



175. In Germany, except on the borders of the Rhine, agriculture was never 

 generally practised. The greater part of the country was covered with forests ; and 

 hunting and pasturage were the chief occupations of the people when not engaged in war. 

 The decline of the Roman power in that country, therefore, could make very little dif- 

 ference as to its agriculture. 



176. In Britain, according to Ceesar, agriculture was introduced by colonies from 

 Belgium, which took shelter there from the encroachments of tlie Belgae from Germany, 

 about B.C. 150. These colonies began to cultivate the sea coasts ; but the natives of the 

 inland parts lived on roots, berries, flesh, and milk, and it appears from Dionysius 

 that they never tasted fish. Pliny mentions the use of marl as being known to the 

 Britons ; and Diodorus Siculus describes their method of preserving corn, by laying it 

 up in the ear in caves or granaries. 



177. Rut the general spread of agriculture in Britain was no doubt effected by the 

 Romans. The tribute of a certain quantity of com, which they imposed on every part of 

 the country, as it fell under their dominion, obliged the inhabitants to practise tillage ; 

 and from the example of the conquerors, and the richness of the soil, they soon not only 

 produced a sufficient quantity of corn for their own use and that of the Roman troops, but 

 afforded every year a very great surplus for exportation. The Emperor Julian, in the 

 fourth century, built granaries to receive this corn, and on one occasion sent a fleet of 

 eight hundred ships, " larger than common barks," to convey it to the mouth of the 

 Rhine, where it was sent up the country for the support of the plundered inhabitants. 



178. Agricultxire among the Romans themselves had begun to decline in Varro' s time, and 

 was at a low ebb in the days of Pliny. Many of the great men in Rome, trusting 

 to their revenues from the provinces, neglected the culture of their estates in Italy ; 

 others, in want of money to answer the demands of luxury, raised all they could upon 

 credit or mortgage, and raised the rents of tlieir tenants to an oppressive height to 

 enable them to pay the interest. The farmer was in this manner deprived of his capital ; 

 his spirits were broken, and he ceased to exert himself, or became idle and rapacious like 

 his landlord, The civil wars in the end of the second century, tlie tyrannic conduct of 



