INTRODUCTION xxiii 



ali three with restraint and judgement. But what 

 is most striking is the perfection of the method 

 adopted, which it would be difficult even now to 

 surpass for precision and clearness of arrangement. 

 The divisions which Varro made of his complex 

 and unwieldy subject are natural, classifications are 

 scientific, the plan of treatment is logical and con- 

 sistent throughout. Whether the modern farmer 

 may learn anything of profit from Varro's treatise 

 or not is a question for the agricultural expert, but 

 there :^an be no doubt that the methods slowly 

 elaborated through many hundreds of years by the 

 most practical of all peoples, and used with com- 

 plete success until the time when Italian agriculture 

 was ruined by foreign competition (amongst other 

 causes), must be worth knowing. These methods 

 Varro is at great pains to describe, so that we get 

 from hiai a brilliantly clear picture of a Roman 

 farm as it existed in the first century before Christ. 

 And many are the interesting facts to be noted by 

 the way— the use of marne as manure in Gaul and 

 of vegetable charcoal instead of salt, the employment 

 of silosy the imperfect domestication of geese other 

 than white, the distribution in the wild state of bulls, 

 horses, goats, sheep, and hens, the difference be- 

 tween the type of indigenous cattle found in Italy 

 then and that which now exists there — all of which, 



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