August 20, 1891. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER . 
150 
small estate, inherited from his father, in the territory of the Sabines, 
and at seventeen was taken from his farm to repel Hannibal’s invasion 
of Italy, and after the war returned to his estate, practising husbandry 
and oratory in the neighbouring towns. His work, “ De Re Rustica,” 
shows him to have been an industrious and judicious husbandman, and, 
though statesman, orator, and general, bis highest honour is his volu¬ 
minous work on agriculture. He mentions two kinds of plough, one for 
heavy and the other for light soils. 
Varro, born 116 B.c., wrote a treatise upon agriculture, “ De Re 
Rustica,” in three books, and among other implements, mentions a 
plough with two mould boards, which was used to “ ridge ” with. He 
died at Rome in 28 b.c. Cicero, a native of Arpenum, was born in the 
in the Valley of Ustica, about fifteen miles from Tivoli, and a cottage at 
Tiber, and another at Rome, so that he was a gardener and farmer,, 
combining the ornamental with the useful. He died 17th November,. 
8 B.C. 
Lucullus, the conqueror of Mithridates, had a splendid villa and 
magnificent gardens in the north of the city (Rome) on Mount Pincius, 
called Collis Hortorum, which held first rank, and he first transplanted 
the Cherry tree to Rome from Cerasus, in Pontus. He is stated to have 
died before 56 B.C. The Pincian Hill is still laid out in walks and 
gardens, a much frequented spot, and occupying high ground east of the 
Piazza del Popolo, commands extensive views of modern Rome. 
Pliny, author of “ Historia Naturalis,’’ was a native of Verona or 
Fig. 24.—EARLY RIVERS NECTARINE. (See page 149.) 
year 106 B C.,his father living in retirement devoted to literary pursuits. 
He had country seats, and was the intimate friend of Varro. 
Virgil, born 15th October, 70 B.C., at Andes, a little village Dear 
Mantua, appears to have been inducted into the routine of a small 
estate which his father possessed and cultivated. Virgil seems to have 
inherited this farm, for at thirty years of age he went to Rome to seek 
the restoration of his estate, taken possession of by the soldiers of 
Octavius and Antony, and was presented to Augustus. That, however, 
is questioned, but his “ Georgies ” (Doem on agriculture), written at the 
suggestion of Mecacnas, and completed in 31 B.C., after seven years’ 
labour, prove his acquaintance with the cultivation of the soil. He 
advises me to “ bring down the waters of a river upon the seed corn, 
and when the field is parched, and the plants dying, convey it from the 
brow of a hill in channels.” This is, perhaps, the first mention of 
irrigation in Europe. 
Horace, born December 8th, 65 B.C., had a husbandman father, who 
purchased the farm where the poet was born, but his paternal estate 
was confiscated. Mecsenas stood his friend and patron, and had the 
favour of Augustus Caesar. Horace owned the Sabine Estate, situated 
Como, born 23 A.D., and travelled in Germany and Spain. Among: 
other things he mentions a plough with one mould-board, others with a. 
coulter. Fallowing was believed in by the Romans, and manure was 
collected from many sources, pigeon’s dung was most prized, then night 
soil, mixed with street scrapings, and urine, and esteemed of the greattst 
value for Vines and Olive trees. Lime was used by the Romans as a 
manure for fruit trees. Indeed, their cultivation was scientific, and in. 
general such as would meet the approbation of to-day cultivators, and 
this they made important—namely, the thorough tillage of the soi'. 
Pliny affords an example of what the Romans, with their great advan¬ 
tages, might have done for the extension of human knowledge. He was 
procurator of the Emperor Nero in Spain, significant of some of the 
sources of his information, which, according to his own account, were 
compiled from upwards of 2000 volumes, making extracts from all the 
books he read, and at his death left his nephew (Pliny the Younger) 160 
volumes of these notes. He perished in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, 
which overwhelmed Pompeii and Herculaneum 24th August, 79. It may 
be instructive to note that the Pompeian houses mostly belonged to the 
wealthy middle class, and had an open court in the centre enclosed by 
