BOOK I. 13 



field is hoed and weeded ; the ripe grain with part of the stalk is cut down 

 by scythes and threshed on the floor, or its ears are cut off and stored in the 

 barn and later beaten with flails and winnowed with fans, until finally the 

 pure grain is stored in the granary, whence it is brought forth again when 

 occasion demands or necessity arises. Again, if we wish to procure better 

 and more productive fruits from trees and bushes, we must resort to 

 cultivating, pruning, and grafting, which cannot be done without tools. 

 Even as without vessels we cannot keep or hold liquids, such as milk, honey, 

 wine, or oil, neither could so many living things be cared for without 

 buildings to protect them from long-continued rain and intolerable cold. 

 Most of the rustic instruments are made of iron, as ploughshares, share- 

 beams, mattocks, the prongs of harrows, hoes, planes, hay-forks, straw 

 cutters, pruning shears, pruning hooks, spades, lances, forks, and weed 

 cutters. Vessels are also made of copper or lead. Neither are wooden 

 instruments or vessels made without iron. Wine cellars, oil-mills, stables, 

 or any other part of a farm building could not be built without iron tools. 

 Then if the bull, the wether, the goat, or any other domestic animal is led 

 away from the pasture to the butcher, or if the poulterer brings from the farm 

 a chicken, a hen, or a capon for the cook, could any of these animals be cut 

 up and divided without axes and knives ? I need say nothing here about 

 bronze and copper pots for cooking, because for these purposes one could 

 make use of earthen vessels, but even these in turn could not be made and 

 fashioned by the potter without tools, for no instruments can be made out 

 of wood alone, without the use of iron. Furthermore, hunting, fowling, and 

 fishing supply man with food, but when the stag has been ensnared does not 

 the hunter transfix him with his spear ? As he stands or runs, does he not 

 pierce him with an arrow ? Or pierce him with a bullet ? Does not the 

 fowler in the same way kill the moor-fowl or pheasant with an arrow ? Or 

 does he not discharge into its body the ball from the musket ? I will not 

 speak of the snares and other instruments with which the woodcock, wood- 

 pecker, and other wild birds are caught, lest I pursue unseasonably and too 

 minutely single instances. Lastly, with his fish-hook and net does not the 

 fisherman catch the fish in the sea, in the lakes, in fish-ponds, or in rivers ? 

 But the hook is of iron, and sometimes we see lead or iron weights attached 

 to the net. And most fish that are caught are afterward cut up and dis- 

 embowelled with knives and axes. But, more than enough has been said on 

 the matter of food. 



Now I will speak of clothing, which is made out of wool, flax, feathers, 

 hair, fur, or leather. First the sheep are sheared, then the wool is combed. 

 Next the threads are drawn out, while later the warp is suspended in the 

 shuttle under which passes the wool. This being struck by the comb, at length 

 cloth is formed either from threads alone or from threads and hair. Flax, 

 when gathered, is first pulled by hooks. Then it is dipped in water and 

 afterward dried, beaten into tow with a heavy mallet, and carded, then 

 drawn out into threads, and finally woven into cloth. But has the artisan 

 or weaver of the cloth any instrument not made of iron ? Can one be made 



