ADDBESS. 13 



everything with the most scrupulous care. They adopted a 

 ■ biennial system of rotation, of fallow and grain, which is the 

 system still pursued in many countries in the South of Eu- 

 rope. They also paid great attention to the selection of the 

 best seed for the succeeding crops. So far as all the essen- 

 tial practices of agriculture are concerned, their cultivation 

 was of a liigh order. But it must be confessed that their ag- 

 ricultural implements would but ill compare with ours, in their 

 admirable adaptation to the purposes for which they were in- 

 tended. 



The names of not less than fifty agricultural writers have 

 come down to us, but there are only a few whose works have 

 been preserved. I, have selected one or two extracts, as an 

 illustration of the general character and tone of the whole. 

 " No man," says Xenophon, " can be a farmer, till he is 

 taught by experience. Observation and instruction may do 

 much, but practice teaches many particulars, which no master 

 could ever have thought to remark upon." I find a curious 

 prescription for frightening a tree into bearing. 



" Gird up your loins, roll up your sleeves, then take hold 

 of an axe or mattock, and, being full of wrath, approach the 

 tree as if intending to cut it down. Let now some one come 

 up to you and beg you not to cut it down, pledging himself at 

 the same time that it will do better next year. Then you, ap- 

 pearing to yield to this man's request, will spare the tree, which 

 after this will become a great bearer." 



Turning now to Rome, we find that agriculture was as 

 much honored there, as in Greece, being regarded as one of 

 the noblest occupations of man. Commerce, indeed, was 

 looked upon as degrading, in the earlier a^ges of Rome, and 

 war and agriculture engaged the whole attention of the Ro- 

 man citizen, the farmer thinking himself able both to till and 

 to defend his little farm. That was the age when the highest 

 praise, that could be bestowed upon a man, was to call him a 

 good farmer. He was thought to be highly honored, who was 

 so commended. " The earth took pleasure" says Pliny, " in 



