( I] AIM AND SCOPE OF AGRICULTURE 9 



fruits of the earth perish through fiery glow " or 

 cold! For myself, even in this part of the world 

 where night and day follow each other at reason- 

 able intervals, life would be impossible, did I not 

 6 in summer time break the day by a siesta. How 

 then could sowing, growing, or mowing be possible 

 in that part of the world where there is a six-months 

 night or day? 



Contrast with this Italy, where every useful pro- 

 duct not merely grows, but grows to perfection. 

 What spelt is comparable with that of Campania, 

 what wheat with the Apulian, what wine with the 

 Falernian, what oil with the Venafrian? Is not 

 Italy so stocked with fruit-trees as to seem one great 

 orchard? Is Phrygia, which Homer calls a|a9r£^oWirav, 

 more thickly covered with vines than our country? 

 Or is Argos more fruitful, which the same poet calls 

 7ro?u/9ry^ov? In what other land does the iugerum^ 

 produce fifteen cullei^ of wine, which is the case in 

 some districts of Italy? Does not M. Cato write in 

 his book ** Of Origins " as follows; ** That part of 

 the Ager Gallicus " is called Roman which, lying 



' 2 actus quadratic 2^^9>oo Roman square feet = 28,000 Eng- 

 lish square feet (approximately), i.e., nearly i^ acre. 



* A cuUeus = 20 amphorae. The amphora, as a measure of 

 capacity = 6 gallons, 7 pints. The yield of 15 cullei to the 

 iugerum amounts to about 3,000 gallons (18,000 bottles) to the 

 acre. 



' Ager Gallicus. A strip of coast between the river Axis — 



I the ancient northern frontier of Italy — and the Rubicon, the 

 later northern frontier. It was possessed successively by 



