14 T R A X 8 A C T I N 8 . 



being tilled by the hands of men, crowned with laurels and 

 decorated with triumphal honors." 



Four hundred and fifty-nine years before Christ, the farm- 

 er Cincinnatus left his plow to assume the Dictatorship, amidst 

 the shouts and exultation of Rome ; raised an army and con- 

 quered a powerful enemy ; and, at the end of sixteen days, re- 

 turned to his little farm and resumed his work. So with many 

 other men distinguished in Roman history. Under such in- 

 fluences, fostered and encouraged by practical and patriotic 

 men, agriculture reached a high degree of perfection, and it is 

 not too much to say, that this progress has exerted a powerful 

 influence on all subsequent times. 



We find, accordingly, that improvements were made in ag- 

 ricultural implements — some changes especially in the plow. 

 It consisted, as intimated above, of a beam, to which the 

 yoke was attached ; a handle with a cross piece by which the 

 plowman held ; a share fixed into a share beam, two mould- 

 boards, a coulter, and sometimes a wheel which could be used 

 or not, at pleasure. The Romans had, also, spades, hoes, 

 rakes and harrows ; yet even with these improvements the 

 farmer's work advanced but slowly ; thus it took two days to 

 plow three-fourths of an acre, the first time, and one to plow 

 it, the second. 



The distinction of soils and their adaptation to particular 

 crops was well understood, and the farmer paid special atten- 

 tion to the enlargement and improvement of his manure heaps. 

 Lupines and clover were sown to plow in green. The stubble 

 was often burnt for the ashes. 



The most common crop among the Romans was wheat, but 

 they also raised rye, barley, oats, flax, lupines, millet, peas, 

 beans and turnips. Much ground was devoted to the culti- 

 vation of the grape and the olive also. 



The terse and sensible maxims of the Roman agricultural 

 writers are worthy of remark, and many of them will be found 

 as applicable to us, as to those for whom they were written. 

 <■' What is good tillage ?" asks Cato, the great Orator, Politic 

 cian and General. " To plow !" he answers. "What is the 



