On the Application of Manures, 



237 



From which it might seem as if no very marked advance in the 

 principles of husbandry had been made since the Homeric age, 

 considering the lapse of time that had inter vened^, since it had not 

 yet been fully understood that a judicious rotation of crops would 

 stand in the place of fallowing, whilst the practice of manuring 

 land, which is the next step in the system of improving it, had 

 already been adopted in the earlier period alluded to. 



Thus Homer describes the faithful dog, v/ho alone recognises 

 his master on his return to Ithaca, as lying neglected on a heap of 

 dung with which the labourers were about to manure the farm. 



At) t'o-£ Keir cnrudecrTOQ, air ot^op.ivoLO ayuKrog^ 

 'Ej/ TToWy Koirpo)^ r/' o't TrpoTrapoLde dvpaioy^ 

 'Hfxioviov re, jooajyTe, aXig i<:e')(vt' 6(pp' aV ayoier 



Afjioieg 'O^vacrfjog rijixeyog fieya K07rpi]aovTeg' 



No notice, it is observed by Cicero,* is made of manuring by 

 Hesiod, so that we may perhaps conclude that the practice was of 

 recent introduction at the period when Homer lived. 



In the age of Virgil, however, some progress seems to have 

 been made towards that which constitutes perhaps the grand im- 

 provement of modern times — I mean the rotation of crops ; for 

 the Roman poet, immediately after the lines above quoted, in 

 which he recommends the arable land to lie fallow every alternate 

 year, adds, 



" Aut ibi flava seres, mutato sidere, farra, 

 Unde prius laetum siliqua quassante legumen, 

 Aut tenuis foetus vicise, tristisque lupini 

 Sustuleris fragiles calamos, sylvamque sonantem." 



Showing his acquaintance with the fact that the substitution of 

 pulse or other leguminous plants will refresh the soil as well as 

 the practice of fallowing, '^for thus too/' says he, by a change 

 of crop, the ground is made to rest." 



" Sic quoque mutatis requiescunt fcetibus arva." 



This passage of Virgil, Pliny explains in a manner which 

 proves that the Romans, though conscious of the utility of alter- 

 nating leguminous with farinaceous crops, or, as we now express 

 ourselves, restorative with exhausting ones, did not seem to know 

 that a rotation might be introduced which should entirely super- 

 sede the necessity of fallowing in many soils, and render its re- 

 currence much less frequent in all. 



" Virgilius," he says, " alternis cessare arva suadet, et hoc, si patian- 

 tur ruris spatia, utilissimum procul dubio est. Quod si neget conditio. 



* De Senectute, ch, xv. 



