i] OF REAPING loi 



CHAPTER L 



OF REAPING 



The term harvest, messis, is properly applied to 

 such things as we measure (metimur)^ especially to 

 corn — and from that word [metiri) it is derived. 

 The corn harvest is got in three ways; one, as in 

 Umbria, where they cut the straw close to the 

 j ground and lay the sheaves as they are cut, on the 

 p ground. When they have got a good number of 

 j sheaves, they go over them again, and sheaf by 

 sheaf they cut off the ears from the straw. The ears 

 are thrown into a basket and sent to the threshing 

 floor, the straw is left on the field to be taken away 

 and stacked. In the second method of reaping, 

 used, for instance, in Picenum, they have a curved ^ 

 piece of wood with a small iron saw at the end. 

 This grasps a bundle of ears, cuts them off, and. 

 leaves the stalks standing in the field to be subse- 

 quently cut close to the ground. The third method 

 — adopted near Rome and in most places — is to cut 

 the stalk, the top of which is held by the left hand, 



Incurvum bacillum. Pliny (N. H., xviii, 30) describes a 

 horse-drawn corn-mower which may be this referred to by 

 Varro : Valli praegrandes dentibus in margine infestis^ duabus 

 rotis per segetem impelluntur; iumento in contrarium iuncto: 

 Ha direptae in vallum cadunt spicae. Palladius (June II) de- 

 scribes at greater length and more clearly a corn-cutter which 

 was pushed by an ox. 



