Chap. 6.] 
MAOTKE. 
457 
Columella^'' gives the second rank to pigeon manure, and 
the next to that of the poultry-yard ; but he condemns that 
of the aquatic birds. Some authors, again, are agreed in re- 
garding the residue of the human food^'' as the very best of 
all manures ; while others would only employ the superfluous 
portion of our drink, mixing with it the hair that is to be 
found in the curriers' workshops. Some, however, are for 
employing this liquid by itself, though they would mix water 
with it once more, and in larger quantities even than when 
originally mixed with the wine at our repasts ; there being a 
double share of noxious qualities to correct, not only those 
originally belonging to the wine,^^ but those imparted to it 
by the human body as well. Such are the various methods 
by which we vie with each other in imparting nutriment to 
the earth even. 
Next to the manures above mentioned, the dung of swine is 
highly esteemed, Columella being the only writer that con- 
demns it. Some, again, speak highly of the dung of all 
quadrupeds that have been fed on cytisus, while there are 
others who prefer that of pigeons. I^ext to these is the 
dung of goats, and then of sheep ; after which comes that of 
oxen, and, last of all, of the beasts of burden. Such were 
the distinctiojis that were established between the various ma- 
nures among the ancients, such the precepts that they have left 
us, and these I have here set forth as being not the mere subtle 
inventions of genius, but because their utility has been proved 
in the course of a long series of years. In some of the pro- 
vinces, too, which abound more particularly in cattle, by rea- 
95 De Ee Eust. ii. 15. ' 
9^ Mixed with, other manures, it is employed at the present day in Nor- 
mandy. 
This manure is still extensively employed in Flanders, Switzerland, 
and the vicinity of Paris. In the north of England it is mixed with ashes, 
and laid on the fields. There was an old prejudice, that vegetation grown 
with it has a fetid odour, but it has for some time been looked upon as 
exploded. 
'^^ Or urine. In the vicinity of Paris, a manure is employed called 
urate, of which urine forms the basis. 
9» Fee seems to think that this passage means that the bad smell of urine 
is imparted to it by the wine that is drunk. It is difficult to say what 
could have been the noxious qualities imparted by wine to urine as a ma- 
nure, and Pliny probably would have been somewhat at a loss to explain 
his meaning. 
