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 CORNELL UNIVERSITY 
 
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New York 
 
 State College of Agriculture 
 
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 Library 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 HEW YOEE ' BOSTON ■ CHICAGO ■ DALLAS 
 ATLANTA ■ SAN FSANCISCO 
 
 MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 
 
 LONDON ■ BOUBAY ■ CALCCTTA 
 HELBOURNE 
 
 THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Lid. 
 
 lOKONTO 
 
ROMAN 
 
 > 
 
 FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 THE TREATISES OF 
 
 CATO AND VARRO 
 
 DONE INTO ENGLISH, WITH NOTES OF MODERN 
 
 INSTANCES 
 
 BY 
 A VIRGINIA FARMER 
 
 Nrai f offc 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 1913 
 
 All ritlUs reserved 
 
 c \l 
 
Co^moHT, 1913, 
 
 By the MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 Set up and electiotyped. Published June, 1913. 
 
 pKXas or T- MOBST ft BOVt 
 OBKBVnKLD. ILUS-, O- ■■ A. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 
 [E present editor made the acquaint- 
 ance of Cato and V,arro standing at a 
 book stall on the Quai Voltaire in Paris, 
 and they carried him away in imagina- 
 tion, during a pleasant half hour, not 
 to the vineyards and olive yards of Roman Italy, 
 but to the blue hills of a far distant Virginia where 
 the com was beginning to tassel and the fat cattle 
 were loafing in the pastures. Subsequently, when 
 it appeared that there was then no readily availa- 
 ble English version of the Roman agronomists, this 
 translation was made, in the spirit of old Piero 
 Vettori, the kindly Florentine scholar, whose por- 
 trait was painted by Titian and whose monument 
 may still be seen in the Church of Santo Spirito: 
 in the preface of his edition of Varro he says that 
 he undertook the work, not for the purpose of dis- 
 playing his learning, but to aid others in the study 
 of an excellent author. Victorius was justified by 
 his scholarship and the present editor has no such 
 claim to attention: he, therefore, makes the confes- 
 sion frankly (to anticipate perhaps such criticism 
 as Bentley's "a very pretty poem, Mr. Pope, but 
 
 [v] 
 
PREFACE 
 
 don't call it Homer") and offers the little book to 
 those who love the country, and to read about the 
 country amidst the crowded life of towns, with the 
 hope that they may find in it some measure of the 
 pleasure it has afforded the editor. 
 
 The texts and commentaries used have been those 
 of Schneider and Keil, the latter more accurate but 
 
 the former more sympathetic. 
 
 F. H. 
 Belvoir, 
 Fauquier County, 
 Virginia. 
 
 December, 1912. 
 
 [vi] 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Note upon the Roman Agronomists, i 
 
 Note on the Obligation of Virgil to Varro, 15 
 
 CATO'S DE AGRICULTURE 
 SYNOPSIS 
 
 Introduction: Of the Dignity of the Farmer, 19 
 
 jOf Buying a Farm, 20 
 
 Of the Duties of the Owner, 23 
 
 ^Of Laying out the Farm, 27 
 
 Of Stocking the Farm, 3 1 
 
 Of the Duties of the Overseer, 32 
 
 Of the Duties of the Housekeeper, 35 
 
 Of the Hands, 36 
 
 Of Draining, 37 
 
 Of Preparing the Seed Bed, 38 
 
 Of Manure, 40 
 
 Of Soil Improvement, 41 
 
 Of Forage Crops, 42 
 
 Of Planting, 43 
 
 Of Pastures^ 43 
 
 Of Feeding Live Stock, 43 
 
 Of the Care of Live Stock, 45 
 
 Of Cakes and Salad, 48 
 
 Of Curing Hams, 49 
 
 [vii] 
 
VARRO'S RERUM RUSTICARUM 
 LIBRI TRES 
 
 
 SYNOPSIS 
 
 
 
 BOOK I 
 
 
 
 The Husbandry of Agriculture 
 
 
 CHAPTfia 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. 
 
 Introduction: the literary tradition of coun- 
 
 
 
 try life, 
 
 SI 
 
 
 Of the definition of Agriculture: 
 
 
 II. 
 
 a. What it is not, 
 
 57 
 
 III. 
 
 b. What it is. 
 
 72 
 
 IV. 
 
 The purposes of Agriculture are profit and 
 
 
 
 pleasure, 
 
 73 
 
 V. 
 
 The four-fold division of the study of Agri- 
 
 
 
 culture, 
 
 76 
 
 
 7° Concerning the farm itself: 
 
 
 VI. 
 
 How conformation of the land affects 
 
 
 
 Agriculture, 
 
 78 
 
 VII. 
 
 How character of soil affects Agriculture, 
 
 82 
 
 VIII. 
 
 (A digression on the maintenance of vine- 
 
 
 
 yards). 
 
 8S 
 
 IX. 
 
 Of the different kinds of soils, 
 
 88 
 
 X. 
 
 Of the units of area used in measuring 
 
 
 
 land. 
 
 92 
 
 
 Of the considerations on building a stead- 
 
 
 
 ing: 
 
 
 XI. 
 
 a. Size, 
 
 93 
 
 
 b. Water supply. 
 
 93 
 
 XII. 
 
 c. Location, with regard to health. 
 
 94 
 
 XIII. 
 
 d. Arrangement, 
 [ viii ] 
 
 96 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 XIV. 
 XV. 
 
 XVI. 
 XVII. 
 
 & 
 
 XVIII. 
 XIX. 
 
 & 
 
 XX. 
 
 XXI. 
 XXII. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 XXV. 
 
 & 
 
 XXVI. 
 XXVII. 
 
 & 
 
 XXVIII. 
 
 PAGE 
 Of the protection of farm boundaries: 
 
 a. Fences, lOO 
 
 b. Monuments, 102 
 Of the considerations of neighbourhood, 103 
 
 2" Concerning the equipment of a farm: 106 
 
 Of agricultural labourers, 107 
 
 Of draught animals, 1 14 
 
 Of watch dogs, 118 
 
 Of fanning implements, 118 
 
 $° Concerning the operation of a farm: 121 
 
 Of planting field crops, 121 
 
 Of planting olives, 123 
 
 Of planting vines, 125 
 
 jf Concerning the agricultural seasons: 126 
 
 Of the solar measure of the year, 126 
 illustrated by 
 
 A Calendar of Agricultural Operations 
 
 throughout the year, in eight seasons, viz: 
 
 XXIX. 1° February 7-March 24, 
 
 XXX. 2° March 24-May 7, 
 
 XXXI. 3° May 7-June 24, 
 
 XXXII. 4° June 24-July 21, 
 
 XXXIII. 5° July 2i-September 26, 
 
 XXXIV. 6° September 26-October 28, 
 XXXV. 7° October 28-December 24, 
 
 XXXVI. 8° December 24-February 7, 
 XXXVII. Of the influence of the moon on Agriculture 
 to which is added 
 
 129 
 
 131 
 132 
 
 134 
 13s 
 135 
 136 
 
 137 
 137 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Another Calendar of Six Agricultural Seasons 
 
 with a 
 
 commentary on their several occupations, viz: 
 
 
 CHAFIKE 
 
 1° Preparing time: 
 
 PAGE 
 
 
 Of tillage, 
 
 139 
 
 XXXVIII. 
 
 Of manuring, 
 
 140 
 
 XXXIX. 
 
 2° Planting time: 
 
 Of the four methods of propagating plants, 
 
 
 
 viz: 
 
 141 
 
 XL. 
 
 a. Seeding and here of seed selection. 
 
 142 
 
 
 b. Transplanting, 
 
 144 
 
 
 c. Cuttage, 
 
 144 
 
 
 d. Graftage, and 
 
 14s 
 
 
 e. A "new" method, inarching. 
 
 146 
 
 XLI. 
 
 Of when to use these different methods, 
 
 146 
 
 XLII. 
 
 Of seeding alfalfa, 
 
 149 
 
 XLIII. 
 
 Of seeding clover and cabbage. 
 
 151 
 
 XLIV. 
 
 Of seeding grain, 
 
 151 
 
 
 5° Cultivating time: 
 
 IS3 
 
 XLV. 
 
 Of the conditions of plant growth, 
 
 IS3 
 
 XLVI. 
 
 Of the mechanical action of plants. 
 
 iSS 
 
 XLVII. 
 
 Of the protection of nurseries and mead- 
 
 
 
 ows. 
 
 iSS 
 
 XLVIII. 
 
 Of the structure of a wheat plant, 
 
 156 
 
 XLIX. 
 
 4° Harvest time: 
 
 157 
 
 
 Of the hay harvest. 
 
 157 
 
 L. 
 
 Of the wheat harvest. 
 
 158 
 
 LI. 
 
 The threshing floor. 
 
 161 
 
 LII. 
 
 Threshing and winnowing, 
 
 162 
 
 LIII. 
 
 Gleaning, 
 
 163 
 
 LIV. 
 
 Of the vintage. 
 
 164 
 
 LV. 
 
 Of the olive harvest. 
 
 16s 
 
 
 5° Housing time: 
 
 167 
 
 LVI. 
 
 Of storing hay, 
 
 167 
 
 LVII. 
 
 Of storing grain, 
 
 167 
 
 LVIII. 
 
 Of storing legumes, 
 
 169 
 
 LIX. 
 
 Of storing pome fruits, 
 
 169 
 
 LX. 
 
 Of storing olives. 
 
 171 
 
 [x] 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTEK 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 LXI. 
 
 Of storing amurca, 
 
 171 
 
 LXII. 
 
 <5° Consuming time: 
 
 171 
 
 LXIIL 
 
 Of cleaning grain, 
 
 172 
 
 LXIV. 
 
 Of condensing amurca, 
 
 172 
 
 LXV. 
 
 Of racking wine, 
 
 173 
 
 LXVI. 
 
 Of preserved olives. 
 
 173 
 
 LXVII. 
 
 Of nuts, dates and figs, 
 
 174 
 
 LXVIII. 
 
 Of stored fruits, 
 
 174 
 
 LXIX. 
 
 Of marketing grain, 
 
 Epilogue: the dangers of the streets of 
 
 174 
 
 
 Rome, 
 
 17s 
 
 
 BOOK II 
 
 
 
 The Husbandry of Live Stock 
 
 
 
 Introduction: the decay of country life. 
 
 177 
 
 I. 
 
 Of the origin, the importance and the econ- 
 
 
 
 omy of live stock husbandry. 
 
 181 
 
 II. 
 
 Of sheep, 
 
 197 
 
 III. 
 
 Of goats. 
 
 207 
 
 IV. 
 
 Of swine. 
 
 212 
 
 V, 
 
 Of neat cattle. 
 
 225 
 
 VI. 
 
 Of asses. 
 
 234 
 
 VII. 
 
 Of horses, 
 
 236 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Of mules. 
 
 244 
 
 IX. 
 
 Of herd dogs. 
 
 247 
 
 X. 
 
 Of shepherds, 
 
 ass 
 
 XL 
 
 Of milk and cheese and wool, 
 
 262 
 
 BOOK III 
 
 The Husbandry of the Steading 
 
 I. Introduction: the antiquity of country life, 269 
 II. Of the definition of a Roman villa, 273 
 
 III. Of the Roman development of the industries 
 
 of the steading, 283 
 
 IV. Of aviaries, 286 
 
 [xi] 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTXS 
 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 V. 
 
 a. for profit, 
 
 
 288 
 
 
 b. for pleasure (including here the descrip- 
 
 
 
 tion of Varro's own 
 
 aviary). 
 
 291 
 
 VI. 
 
 Of pea-cocks, 
 
 
 297 
 
 VII. 
 
 Of pigeons. 
 
 
 299 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Of turtle doves, 
 
 
 305 
 
 IX. 
 
 Of poultry, 
 
 
 306 
 
 X. 
 
 Of geese. 
 
 
 31S 
 
 XI. 
 
 Of ducks. 
 
 
 319 
 
 XII. 
 
 Of rabbits. 
 
 
 320 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Of game preserves, 
 
 
 324 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Of snails. 
 
 
 32s 
 
 XV. 
 
 Of dormice. 
 
 
 327 
 
 XVI. 
 
 Of bees. 
 
 
 329 
 
 XVII. 
 
 DEZ, 
 
 Of fish ponds, 
 
 
 347. 
 353 
 
 [xii] 
 
ROMAN FARM MAXAGEMENT 
 
NOTE UPON THE ROMAN 
 AGRONOMISTS 
 
 Quaecunque autem propter discipUnam ruris nostrorum 
 temponim cum prisds discrepant, non deterrere debent a lec- 
 tione discentem. Nam multo plura reperiuntur, apud veteres, 
 quae nobis probanda sint, quam quae repudianda. 
 
 Columella I, i. 
 
 ]HE study of the Roman treatises on 
 farm management is profitable to the 
 modem farmer however practical and 
 scientific he may be. He will not find 
 in them any thing about bacteria and 
 the "nodular hypothesis" in respect of legumes, nor 
 any thing about plant metabolism, nor even any 
 thing about the effects of creatinine on growth and 
 absorption; but, important and fascinating as are the 
 illuminations of modem science upon practical ag- 
 riculture, the intelligent farmer with imagination 
 (every successful farmer has imagination, whether or 
 not he is intelligent) will find some thing quite 
 as important to his welfare in the body of Roman 
 husbandry which has come down to us, namely: a 
 back-ground for his daily routine, an appreciation 
 that two thousand years ago men were studying the 
 same problems and solving them by intelligent rea- 
 
 [il 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 soning. Columella well says that in reading the 
 ancient writers we may find in them more to approve 
 than to disapprove, however much our new science 
 may lead us to differ from them in practice. The 
 'characteristics of the Roman methods of farm man- 
 agement, viewed in the light of the present state of 
 the art in America, were thoroughness and patience. 
 The Romans had learned many things which we are 
 now learning again, such as green manuring with 
 legumes, soiling, seed selection, the testing of soil for 
 sourness, intensive cultivation of a fallow as well as 
 of a crop, conservative rotation, the importance of 
 live stock in a system of general farming, the preser- 
 vation of the chemical content of manure and the 
 composting of the rubbish of a farm, but they brought 
 to their farming operations some thing more which 
 we have not altogether learned — the character which 
 made them a people of enduring achievement. Varro 
 quotes one of their proverbs "Romanus sedendo 
 vincit," which illustrates my present point. The 
 Romans achieved their results by thoroughness and 
 patience. It was thus that they defeated Hannibal 
 and it was thus that they built their farm houses 
 and fences, cultivated their fields, their vineyards 
 and their oliveyards, and bred and fed their live 
 stock. They seem to have realized that there are no 
 short cuts in the processes of nature, and that the 
 
 [2] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT: 
 
 law of compensations is invariable. The foundation 
 of their agriculture was tii^ fallow ^ and one finds them 
 constantly using it as a sidiile — in the advice not to 
 breed a mare every year, as in that not to exact tcx) 
 much tribute from a bee hive. Ovid even warns a 
 lover to allow fallow seasons to intervene in his court- 
 ship. 
 
 While one can find instruction in their practice 
 even tcxiay, one can benefit even more from their 
 
 ^ "The manner in which the ancients managed their fallow 
 is certainly most worthy of our attention: their care in plough- 
 ing, according to the situation of the land, and nature of the 
 climate, and their manner of adapting the kind of ploughing 
 to answer the purposes intended by the operation, are also most 
 worthy of our imitation. Their exactness in these things ex- 
 ceeds any thing of the kind found amongst the modems, and is 
 even beyond what any practical writer on agriculture has pro- 
 posed. This is an evidence that tillage is not even in this age 
 brought to that perfection of which it is capable: and that, 
 notwithstanding all the improvements lately introduced, we 
 may yet receive some instruction from a proper attention to 
 the precepts and practices of the ancients. I am desirous to add 
 that this attention may be useful by preventing improvers 
 from running into every specious scheme of agriculture pro- 
 duced by a lively imagination and engaging them to study the 
 great variety of soils and even climates in this island, and to 
 be careful in adapting to these their several operations." Dick- 
 son Husbandry of the Ancients^ XXIII. 
 
 The Rev. Andrew Dickson, who died in 1776, was minister 
 of Aberlady in the county of East Lothian, the son of a pro- 
 gressive and successful Scots farmer, and had experience in 
 practical agriculture, as well as in scholarship, as his book 
 shows. 
 
 13] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 agricultural philosophy, for the characteristic of the 
 American farmer is that he is in too much of a hurry. 
 
 The ancient literature of farm management was 
 voluminous. Varro cites fifty Greek authors on the 
 subject whose works he knew, beginning with Hesiod 
 and Xenophon. Mago of Carthage wrote a treatise 
 in the Punic tongue which was so highly esteemed 
 that the Roman Senate ordered it translated into 
 Latin, but, like most of the Greeks,* it is now lost to 
 us except in the literary tradition. 
 
 Columella says that it was Cato who taught Agri- 
 culture to speak Latin. Cato's book, written in the 
 middle of the second century B. C, was the first on 
 the subject in Latin; indeed, it was one of the very 
 first books written in that vernacular at all. Of the 
 other Latin writers whose bucolic works have sur- 
 vived, Varro and Virgil wrote at the beginning of the 
 Augustan Age and were followed by the Spanish 
 Columella under Tiberius, and by Pliny (with his 
 Natural History) under Titus. After them (and "a 
 long way after," as Mr. Punch says) came in the 
 fourth century the worthy but dull Palladius, who 
 
 'The compilation of rural lore, known as the Geoponica, 
 which exists in Greek, was made at Byzantium for the Em- 
 peror Constantine VII about the middle of the tenth century 
 A. D. It is very largely a paraphrase of the Roman authors, 
 and is useful principally in elucidating their textual difficulties. 
 
 r4l 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 supplied the hornbook used by the agricultural 
 monks throughout the Dark Ages. 
 
 Marcus Porcius Cato (B. C. 234-149), known in 
 history as the elder Cato, was the type of Roman 
 produced by the most vigorous days of the Republic. 
 Born at Tusculum on the narrow acres which his 
 peasant forefathers had tilled in the intervals of 
 military service, he commenced advocate at the 
 country assizes, followed his fortunes to Rome and 
 there became a leader of the metropolitan bar. He 
 saw gallant military service in Spain and in Greece, 
 commanded an army, held all the curule offices of 
 state and ended a contentious life in the Senate de- 
 nouncing Carthage and the degeneracy of the times. 
 
 He was an upstanding man, but as coarse as he 
 was vigorous in mind and in body. Roman literature 
 is full of anecdotes about him and his wise and witty 
 sayings. 
 
 Unlike many men who have devoted a toilsome 
 youth to agricultural labour, when he attained fame 
 and fortune he maintained his interest in his farm, 
 and wrote his De re rustica in green old age. It tells 
 what sort of farm manager he himself was, or wanted 
 to be thought to be, and, though a mere collection 
 of random notes, sets forth more shrewd common 
 sense and agricultural experience than it is possible 
 
 [5] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 to pack into the same number of English words. It 
 remains today of much more than antiquarian 
 interest. 
 
 Marcus Terentius Varro (B. C. 116-28) whom 
 Quintilian called "the most learned of the Romans," 
 and Petrarch "il terzo gran lume Romano," ranking 
 him with Cicero and Virgil, probably studied agricul- 
 ture before he studied any thing else, for he was bom 
 on a Sabine farm, and although of a well to do family, 
 was bred in the habits of simplicity and rural industry 
 with which the poets have made that name synony- 
 mous. All his life he amused the leisure snatched 
 from his studies with intelligent supervision of the 
 farming of his several estates : and he wrote his trea- 
 tise Rerum Rusticarum in his eightieth year.^ 
 
 He had his share of active life, but it was as a 
 scholar that he distinguished himself.* Belonging 
 to the aristocratic party, he became a friend and 
 
 ^ Donald G. Mitchell made an interesting coUadon, in his 
 Wet Days at Edgewood, of the large number of books on agricul- 
 ture which have been written in old age and by men of a£Fairs, 
 in many lands and many languages. 
 
 * It is interesting to record, however, that Varro received the 
 Navalis Corona for personal gallantry in the war against the 
 pirates. This distinction was even more rare than our modem 
 Medal of Honor or Victoria Cross, and was awarded only to a 
 commander who leapt under arms on the deck of an enemies' 
 ship and then succeeded in capturing her. 
 
 [61 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 supporter of Pompey, and, after holding a naval com- 
 mand under him in the war against the Pirates in 
 B. C. 67, was his legatus in Spain at the beginning of 
 the civil wars and there surrendered to Caesar. He 
 was again on the losing side at the battle of Pharsalia, 
 but was pardoned by Caesar, who selected him to be 
 librarian of the public library he proposed to estab- 
 lish at Rome.^ From this time Varro eschewed poli- 
 tics and devoted himself to letters, although his trou- 
 bles were not yet at an end : after the death of Caesar, 
 the ruthless Antony despoiled his villa at Casinum 
 (where Varro had built the aviary described in book 
 Three), and like Cicero he was included in the pro- 
 scriptions which followed the compact of the trium- 
 virs, but in the end unlike Cicero he escaped and 
 spent his last years peacefully at his villas at Cumae 
 and Tusculum. 
 
 His literary activity was astonishing: he wrote 
 at least six hundred books covering a wide range of 
 antiquarian research. St. Augustine, who dearly 
 
 * Caesar did not live to accomplish this, but some years after 
 his death a public library was established at Rome by Asinius 
 Pollio, which Pliny says (H. N. VII, 31) was the first ever built, 
 those at Alexandria and Pergamus having been private insti- 
 tutions of the kings. 
 
 In a land where public libraries have been every where 
 founded out of the accumulations of Big Business, it is interest- 
 ing to note that Pollio derived the funds with which this the 
 first of their kind was endowed, from the plunder of the Illyrians! 
 
 [7] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 loved to turn a balanced phrase, says that Varro had 
 read so much that it is difficult to understand when 
 he found time to write, while on the other hand he 
 wrote so much that one can scarcely read all his 
 books. Cicero, who claimed him as an intimate 
 friend, describes {Acad. Ill) what Varro had written 
 before B. C. 46, but he went on producing to the 
 end of his long life, eighteen years later: "For," 
 says Cicero, "while we are sojourners, so to speak, in 
 our own city and wandering about like strangers, 
 your books have conducted us, as it were, home again, 
 so as to enable us at last to recognize who and whence 
 we are. You have discussed the antiquities of our 
 country and the variety of dates and chronology 
 relating to it. You have explained the laws which 
 regulate sacrifices and priests : you have unfolded the 
 customs of the city both in war and peace: you have 
 described the various quarters and districts : you have 
 omitted mentioning none of the names, or kinds, or 
 functions, or causes of divine or human things: you 
 have thrown a flood of light on our poets and alto- 
 gether on Latin literature and the Latin language: 
 you have yourself composed a poem of varied beau- 
 ties and elegant in almost every part: and you have 
 in many places touched upon philosophy in a manner 
 sufficient to excite our curiosity, though inadequate 
 
 to instruct us." 
 
 [8] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 Of Varro's works, beside the Rerum Rusticarum, 
 there have survived only fragments, including a 
 considerable portion of the treatise on the Latin 
 language: the story is that most of his books were 
 deliberately destroyed at the procurement of the 
 Church to conceal St. Augustine's plagiarism from 
 them; yet the De Civitate Dei, which is largely de- 
 voted to refuting Varro's pagan theology, is a peren- 
 nial monument to his fame. St. Augustine says 
 (VI, 2): "Although his elocution has less charm, he 
 is so full of learning and philosophy that ... he 
 instructs the student of facts as much as Cicero de- 
 lights the student of style." 
 
 Varro's treatise on farm management is the best 
 practical book on the subject which has come down 
 to us from antiquity. It has not the spontaneous 
 originality of Cato, nor the detail and suave elegance 
 of Columella. Walter Harte in his Essays on Hus- 
 bandry (1764) says that Cato writes like an English 
 squire and Varro like a French academician. This 
 is just comment on Cato but it is at once too much 
 and too little to say of Varro: a French academician 
 might be proud of his antiquarian learning, but 
 would balk at his awkward and homely Latin, as in- 
 deed one French academician, M. Boissier, has since 
 done. '' The real merit of Varro's book is that it is the 
 well digested system of an experienced and success- 
 
 [9I 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 ful farmer who has seen and practised all that he 
 records. 
 
 The authority from which Virgil drew the prac- 
 tical farming lore, for which he has been extolled in 
 all ages, was Varro: indeed, as a farm manual the 
 Georgics go astray only when they depart from Varro. 
 It is worth while to elaborate this point, which Pro- 
 fessor Sellar, in his argument for the originality of 
 Virgil, only suggests.* 
 
 After Philippi the times were ripe for books on ag- 
 riculture. The Roman world had been divided be- 
 tween Octavian and Antony and there was peace 
 in Italy: men were turning "back to the land." 
 
 An agricultural regeneration of Italy was impend- 
 ing, chiefly in viticulture, as Ferrero has pointed out. 
 With far sighted appreciation of the economic ad- 
 vantages of this, Octavian determined to promote 
 the movement, which became one of the completed 
 glories of the Augustan Age, when Horace sang 
 
 Tua, Cxsar, aetas 
 Fruges et agris rettulit uberes. 
 
 * Cf . Sellar, Roman Poets of the Augustan Age. Virgil Ch. V. 
 Boissier, Etudes sur M. T. Farron, Ch. IX. Servius Comm. in 
 Verg. Georg. I, 43. 
 
 It does not appear that many of the commentators on Virgil 
 have taken the trouble to study Varro thoroughly. They are 
 usually better scholars than farmers. 
 
 ho] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 T^arro's book appeared in B. C. 37 and during 
 that year Maecenas commissioned Virgil to put into 
 verse the spirit of the times; just as, under similar 
 circumstances, Cromwell pensioned Samuel Hartlib. 
 Such is the co-incidence of the dates that it is not 
 impossible that the Rerum Rusticarum suggested 
 the subject of the Georgics, either to Virgil or to 
 Maecenas. 
 
 There is no evidence in the Bucolics that Virgil 
 ever had any practical knowledge of agriculture 
 before he undertook to write the Georgics. His father 
 was a farmer and Virgil perhaps had tended his 
 father's flock, as he pictures himself doing under 
 the guise of Tityrus; certainly he spent many hours 
 of youth "patulae recubans sub tegmine fagi" steep- 
 ing his Celtic soul with the beauty and the melancholy 
 poetry of the Lombard landscape: and so he came 
 to know and to love bird and flower and the external 
 
 aspects of 
 
 wheat and woodland 
 tilth and vineyard, hive and horse and herd, 
 
 but it does not appear that he ever followed the 
 plough, or, what is more important, ever laid off a 
 ploughgate. As a poet of nature no one was ever 
 better equipped (the highest testimony is that of 
 Tennyson), but when it came to writing poetry 
 around the art of farm management it was necessary 
 
 [II] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 for him to turn to books for his facts. He acknowl- 
 edges {Geo. I, 176) his obligation only to veterum 
 pracepta without naming them, but as M. Gaston 
 Boissier says he was evidently referring to Varro 
 "le plus moderne de tous les anciens." * Virgil evi- 
 dently regarded Varro's treatise as a solid foundation 
 for his poem and he used it freely, just as he drew 
 on Hesiod for literary inspiration, on Lucretius for 
 imaginative philosophy, and on Mago and Cato and 
 the two Sasemas for local colour. 
 
 Virgil probably had also the advantage of personal 
 contact with Varro during the seven years he was 
 composing and polishing the Georgics. He spent 
 them largely at Naples {Geo. IV, 563) and Varro was 
 then established in retirement at Cumae: thus they 
 were neighbours, and, although they belonged to 
 different political parties, the young poet must have 
 known and visited the old polymath; there was every 
 reason for him to have taken advantage of the oppor- 
 tunity. Whatever justification there may be for this 
 conjecture, the fact remains that Varro is in the back- 
 ground every where throughout the Georgics, as 
 the "deadly parallel" in the appended note will in- 
 dicate. This is perhaps the most interesting thing 
 
 ' It is not remarkable that Virgil failed to make acknowledg- 
 ment to Varro in the Georgics when he failed to make acknowl- 
 edgment to Homer in the ^neid. See Petrarch's Epistle to 
 Homer for a loyal but vain attempt to justify this neglect. 
 
 [12] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 about Varro's treatise: instructive and entertaining 
 as it is to the farmer, in the large sense of the effect 
 of literature on mankind, Virgil gave it wings — ^the 
 useful cart horse became Pegasus. 
 
 As a consequence of the chorus of praise of the 
 Georgtcs, there have been those, in all ages, who have 
 sneered at Virgil's farming. The first such advocatus 
 diaboli was Seneca, who, writing to Lucilius (Ep. 86) 
 from the farm house of Scipio Africanus, fell foul of 
 the advice {Geo. I, 216) to plant both beans and 
 millet in the spring, saying that he had just seen at 
 the end of June beans gathered and millet sowed on 
 the same day: from which he generalized that Virgil 
 disregarded the truth to turn a graceful verse, and 
 sought rather to delight his reader than to instruct 
 the husbandman. This kind of cheap criticism does 
 not increase our respect for Nero's philosophic minis- 
 ter.i Whatever may have been Virgil's mistakes, 
 
 1 Cf. F. W. H. Myers' Classical Essays, p. 1 10: 
 " For in the face of some German criticism it is necessary to 
 repeat that in order to judge poetry it is, before all things, 
 necessary to enjoy it. We may all desire that historical and 
 philological science should push her dominion into every recess 
 of human action and human speech, but we must utter some 
 protest when the very heights of Parnassus are invaded by a 
 spirit which surely is not science, but her unmeaning shadow; 
 a spirit which would degrade every masterpiece of human 
 genius into the mere pabulum of hungry professors, and which 
 values a poet's text only as a field for the rivalries of sterile 
 pedantry and arbitrary conjecture." 
 
 [13] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 every fanner of sentiment should thank God that 
 one of the greatest poems in any language contains 
 as much as it does of a sound tradition of the practical 
 side of his art, and here is where Varro is entitled to 
 the appreciation which is always due the school- 
 master of a genius. 
 
 iHl 
 
NOTE ON THE OBLIGATION OF 
 VIRGIL TO VARRO 
 
 U<¥^^^^ 
 
 T the beginning of the first Georgic 
 (i~S) Virgil lays out the scope of the 
 poem as dealing with three subjects, 
 agriculture, the care of live stock and 
 the husbandry of bees. This was 
 Varro's plan (R. R. I, i, 2, and I, 2 passim) except 
 that under the third head Varro included, with bees, 
 all the other kinds of stock which were usually kept 
 at a Roman steading. Varro asserts that his was the 
 first scientific classification of the subject ever made. 
 Virgil (G. I, 5-13) begins too with the invocation of 
 the Sun and the Moon and certain rural deities, as 
 did Varro (R. R. I, i, 4). The passages should be 
 compared for, as M. Gaston Boissier has pointed out, 
 the difference in the point of view of the two mien is 
 here illustrated by the fact that Varro appeals to 
 purely Roman deities, while Virgil invokes the 
 literary gods of Greece. Following the Georgics 
 through, one who has studied Varro will note other 
 passages for which a suggestion may be found in 
 Varro, usually in facts, but some times in thought 
 and even in words, viz: Before beginning his agri- 
 cultural operations a farmer should study the char- 
 
 tisl 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 acter of the country (G. I, 50: R. R. I, 6), the prevail- 
 ing winds and the climate (G. I. 51 : R. R. I, 2, 3), the 
 farming practice of the neighbourhood (G. I, 52: 
 R. R. 1, 18, 7), "this land is fit for corn, that for vines, 
 and the other for trees," (G. I, 54: R. R. I, 6, 5). He 
 should practise fallow and rotation (G. I, 71 : R. R. 
 I, 44, 2), and compensate the land by planting 
 legumes (G. I, 74: R. R. I, 23); he should irrigate his 
 meadows in summer (G. I, 104: R. R. I, 31, 5), and 
 drain off surface water in winter (G. I, 113: R. R. I, 
 36). Man has progressed from a primitive state, 
 when he subsisted on nuts and berries, to the domes- 
 tication of animals and to agriculture (G. I, 1 21-159: 
 R. R, II, I, 3), The threshing floor must be protected 
 from pests (G. I, 178: R. R. I, 51). Seed should be 
 carefully selected (G, I, 197: R. R. 40, 2); the time 
 for sowing grain is the autumn (G. I, 219: R. R. I, 
 34). "Everlasting night" prevails in the Arctic 
 regions (G. I, 247: R. R. I, 2, 5); the importance to 
 the farmer of the four seasons (G. I. 258; R. R. I, 27) 
 and the influence of the Moon (G. I. 276: R. R. I, 37). 
 The several methods of propagating plants de- 
 scribed (G. II, 9-34: R. R. I, 39), but here Varro fol- 
 lows Theophrastus (H. P. II, i); trees grow slowly 
 from seed (G, II, 57; R. R. I, 41, 4); olives are propa- 
 gated from truncheons (G. II, 63; R. R. I, 41, 6). 
 "The praise of Italy" (G. II, 136-176: R. R. I, 2, 6), 
 
 ti6] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 where trees bear twice a year (G. II, 150: R. R. I, 7, 
 6). Certain plants affect certain soils (G. II, 177: 
 R. R. I, 9). A physical experiment (G. II, 230; R. 
 R. I, 7); the advantage of the quincunx in planting 
 (G. II, 286: R. R. I, 7). Fence the vineyard to keep 
 out live stock (G. II, 371: R. R. I, 14); the goat a 
 proper sacrifice to Bacchus (G. II, 380: R. R. I, 2, 
 19). Be the first to put your vine props under cover 
 (G. II, 409: R. R. I, 8, 6). 
 
 The points of cattle (G. Ill, 50: R. R. II, S, 7); 
 their breeding age (G. Ill, 61 : R. R. II, 5, 13); segre- 
 gate the bulls before the breeding season (G. Ill, 212: 
 R. R. II, 5, 12). Recruit your herd with fresh blood 
 (G. Ill, 69: R. R. II, S, 17). How to break young 
 oxen (G III, 163: R. R. I, 20). 
 
 Of breeding live stock, the males should be fat, 
 the females lean (G. Ill, 123-129: R. R. II, S, 12). 
 
 The points of a horse (G. Ill, 79: R. R. II, 7, 5). 
 Mares fecundated by the wind (G. Ill, 273 : R. R. II, 
 
 I, 19). The care of the brood mare (G. Ill, 138: 
 R. R. II, 7, 10). The bearing of a spirited colt in the 
 field (G. Ill, 75: R. R. II, 7, 6); the training of a 
 colt, "rattling bridles" in the stable (G. Ill, 184: 
 R. R. II, 7, 12). 
 
 Supply bedding for the sheep (G. Ill, 298: R. R. 
 
 II, 2, 8), the goat stable should face southeast (G. Ill, 
 302: R. R. II, 3, 6). Goats' hair used for military 
 
 [17] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 purposes (G. Ill, 313: R. R. II, ii, ii.) Goats affect 
 rough pasture (G. Ill, 314: R. R. II, 3, 6). A shep- 
 herd's daily routine (G. Ill, 322; R. R. II, 2, lo-ii). 
 The life of shepherds in the saltus (G. Ill, 340: R. R. 
 II, 10, 6). Beware of a ram with a spotted tongue 
 (G. Ill, 387: R. R. II, 2, 4). Anoint sheep as a pre- 
 caution against scab (G. Ill, 448: R. R. II, 11, 7). 
 
 The location of the bee-stand : a drinking pool with 
 stones in it (G. IV, 26: R. R. Ill, 16, 27); planted 
 round with bee plants (G, IV, 25: R. R. Ill, 16, 13), 
 and free from an echo (G. IV, 50: R. R. Ill, 16, 12). 
 When saving a swarm sprinkle bees balm and beat 
 cymbals (G, IV, 62: R. R. Ill, 16, 7 and 30). Bees at 
 war obey their leaders 'as at the sound of a trumpet,' 
 but may be quelled by the bee-keeper (G. IV, 70-87: 
 R. R. Ill, 16, 9 and 35). Keep the mottled king and 
 destroy the black one (G. IV, 90: R. R. Ill, 16, 18); 
 the "old Corycian" and the brothers Veiani (G. IV, 
 125: R. R. Ill, 16, 10): the bees' care of their king 
 (G. IV, 212: R. R III, 16, 8). Take off the honey 
 twice in the season (G. IV, 221: R. R. Ill, 16, 34); 
 the generation of bees from the carcase of an ox 
 (G. rV, 281: R. R. II, 5, s) and cf. the wisdom on 
 this subject attributed to Varro by the Geoponica 
 (XV, 2). 
 
 [18] 
 
CATO'S DE AGRICULTURA 
 
 Introduction: of the dignity of the farmer 
 
 \4<Mm%\ 
 
 HE pursuits of commerce would be as 
 
 T admirable as they are profitable if they 
 were not subject to so great risks: and 
 so, likewise, of banking, if it was always 
 honestly conducted. For our ancestors 
 considered, and so ordained in their laws, that, while 
 the thief should be cast in double damages, the 
 usurer should make four-fold restitution. From this 
 we may judge how much less desirable a citizen they 
 esteemed the banker than the thief. When they 
 sought to commend an honest man, they termed him 
 good husbandman, good farmer. This they rated 
 the superlative of praise.* Personally, I think highly 
 
 ' It was perhaps this encomium upon the farmer at the expense 
 of the banker which inspired Horace's friend Alfius to withdraw 
 his capital from his banking business and dream a delicious idyl 
 of a simple carefree country life: but, it will be recalled (Epode 
 II, the famous^ "Beatus ille qui procul negotiis") that Alfius, 
 like many a modern amateur farmer, recruited from town, 
 soon repented that he had ever listened to the alluring call of 
 "back to the land" and after a few weeks of disillusion in the 
 country, returned to town and sought to get his money out 
 again at usury. 
 
 Columella (I, praef.) is not content with Cato's contrast of 
 the virtue of the farmer with the iniquity of the banker, but he 
 
 [19] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 of a man actively and diligently engaged in com- 
 merce, who seeks thereby to make his fortune, yet, 
 as I have said, his career is full of risks and pitfalls. 
 But it is from the tillers of the soil that spring the 
 best citizens, the stanchest soldiers ; and theirs are the 
 enduring rewards which are most grateful and least 
 envied. Such as devote themselves to that pursuit 
 are least of all men given to evil counsels. 
 
 And now, to get to my subject, these observations 
 will serve as preface to what I have promised to dis- 
 cuss. 
 ^ Of buying a farm 
 
 (I) * When you have decided to purchase a farm, 
 be careful not to buy rashly; do not spare your visits 
 and be not content with a single tour of inspection. 
 
 brings in the lawyer's profession for animadversion also. This, 
 he says, the ancient Romans used to term a canine profession, 
 because it consisted in barking at the rich. 
 
 ^The Roman numerals at the beginning of the paragraphs 
 indicate the chapters of Cato from which they are translated. 
 If Cato had not pretended to despise every thing which smacked 
 of Greek literary art he might have edited and arranged his 
 material, in which event his book would have been easier to read 
 than it is, and no less valuable. Modem scholarship would not 
 now venture to perform such an office for such a result, because 
 it involves tampering with a text (as who should say, shooting 
 a fox!) and yet modern scholarship wonders at the decay of 
 classical studies in an impatient age. At the risk of anathema 
 the present version has attempted to group Cato's material, 
 and in so doing has omitted most of those portions which are 
 now of merely curious interest. 
 
 [20] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 The more you go, the more will the place please you, 
 if it be worth your attention. Give heed to the ap- 
 pearance of the neighbourhood, — a flourishing coun- 
 try should show its prosperity. "When you go in, 
 look about, so that, when needs be, you can find your 
 way out." 
 
 Take care that you choose a good climate, not sub- 
 ject to destructive storms, and a soil that is naturally 
 strong. If possible, your farm should be at the foot 
 of a mountain, looking to the South, in a healthy 
 situation, where labour and cattle can be had, well 
 watered, near a good sized town, and either on the 
 sea or a navigable river, or else on a good and much 
 frequented road. Choose a place which has not often 
 changed ownership, one which is sold unwillingly, 
 that has buildings in good repair. 
 
 Beware that you do not rashly contemn the ex- 
 perience of others. It is better to buy from a man 
 who has farmed successfully and built well.^ ^ 
 
 ^ This, of course, means buying at a high price, except in ex- 
 traordinary cases. There is another system of agriculture which 
 admits of the pride of making two blades of grass grow where 
 none was before, and the profit which comes of buying cheap 
 and selling dear. This is farming for improvement, an art 
 which was well described two hundred years before Cato. 
 Xenophon {(Economicus XX, 22) says: 
 
 "For those who are able to attend to their affairs, however, 
 and who will apply themselves to agriculture earnestly, my 
 father both practised himself and taught me a most successful 
 
 [21] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 When you inspect the farm, look to see how many 
 wine presses and storage vats there are; where there 
 are none of these you can judge what the harvest is. 
 On the other hand, it is not the number of farming 
 implements, but what is done with them, that counts. 
 Where you find few tools, it is not an expensive farm 
 to operate. Know that with a farm, as with a man, 
 however productive it may be, if it has the spending 
 habit, not much will be left over.^ 
 
 method of making profit; for he would never allow me to buy 
 ground already cultivated, but exhorted me to purchase such 
 as from want of care or want of means in those who had pos- 
 sessed it, was left untitled and unplanted. He used to say that 
 well cultivated land cost a great sum of money and admitted of 
 no improvement, and he considered that land which is unsus- 
 ceptible of improvement did not give the same pleasure to the 
 owner as other land, but he thought that whatever a person had 
 or bought up that was continually growing better afforded him 
 the highest gratification." 
 
 ' Every rural community in the Eastern part of the United 
 States has grown familiar with the contrast between the in- 
 telligent amateur, who, while endeavoring earnestly to set an 
 example of good agriculture, fails to make expenses out of his 
 land, and the bom farmer who is self-supporting in the practice 
 of methods contemned by the agricultural colleges. Too often 
 the conclusion is drawn that scientific agriculture will not pay; 
 but Cato puts his finger on the true reason. The man who does 
 not depend on his land for his living too often permits his farm 
 to get what Cato calls the "spending habit." Pliny {H. N. 
 XVIII, 7) makes some pertinent observations on the subject: 
 
 "I may possibly appear guilty of some degree of rashness in 
 making mention of a maxim of the ancients which will very 
 probably be looked upon as quite incredible, 'that nothing is 
 
 [22] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 Of the duties of the owner 
 
 (II) When you have arrived at your country house 
 and have saluted your household, you should make 
 the rounds of the farm the same day, if possible; if 
 not, then certainly the next day. When you have 
 observed how the field work has progressed,^ what 
 
 8o disadvantageous as to cultivate land in the highest style of 
 perfection.'" 
 
 And he illustrates by the example of a Roman gentleman, 
 who, like Arthur Young in eighteenth century England, wasted a 
 large fortune in an attempt to bring his lands to perfect cultiva- 
 tion. "To cultivate land well is absolutely necessary," Pliny 
 continues, "but to cultivate it in the very highest style is mere 
 extravagance, unless, indeed, the work is done by the hands 
 of a man's own family, his tenants, or those whom he is obliged 
 to keep at any rate." 
 
 ^ In this practice has been the delight of men of affairs of all 
 ages who turn to agriculture for relaxation. Horace cites it 
 with telling efiFect in the ode (III, 5) in which he describes the 
 noble serenity of mind with which Regulus returned to the tor- 
 ture and certain death which awaited him at Carthage: and 
 Homer makes an enduring picture of it in the person of the King 
 supervising his fall ploughing, which Hephaestus wrought upon 
 the shield of Achilles {Iliad, XVIII, 540). "Furthermore, he 
 set in the shield a soft fresh ploughed field, rich tilth and wide, 
 the third time ploughed, and many ploughers therein drove 
 their yokes to and fro as they wheeled about. Whensoever 
 they came to the boundary of the field and turned, then would 
 a man come to each and give into his hands a goblet of sweet 
 wine: while others would be turning back along the furrows, 
 fain to reach the boundary of the deep tilth, . . . and among 
 them the King was standing in silence, with his staff, rejoicing 
 in his heart." 
 
 [23 1 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 things have been done, and what remains undone, 
 you should summon your overseer the next day, and 
 should call for a report of what work has been done 
 in good season and why it has not been possible to 
 complete the rest, and what wine and corn and other 
 crops have been gathered. When you are advised on 
 these points you should make your own calculation 
 of the time necessary for the work, if there does not 
 appear to you to have been enough accomplished. 
 The overseer will report that he himself has worked 
 diligently, but that some slaves have been sick and 
 others truant, the weather has been bad, and that it 
 has been necessary to work the public roads. When 
 he has given these and many other excuses, you 
 should recall to his attention the program of work 
 which you had laid out for him on your last visit 
 and compare it with the results attained. If the 
 weather has been bad, count how many stormy days 
 there have been, and rehearse what work could have 
 been done despite the rain, such as washing and 
 pitching the wine vats, cleaning out the bams, sort- 
 ing the grain, hauling out and composting the manure, 
 cleaning seed, mending the old gear, and making 
 new, mending the smocks and hoods furnished for 
 the hands. On feast days the old ditches should be 
 mended, the public roads worked, briers cut down, 
 the garden dug, the meadow cleaned, the hedges 
 
 [24] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 trimmed and the clippings collected and burned, the 
 fish pond cleaned out. On such days, furthermore, 
 the slaves' rations should be cut down as compared 
 with what is allowed when they are working in the 
 fields in fine weather. 
 
 When this routine has been discussed quietly and 
 with good humour and is thoroughly understood by 
 the overseer, you should give orders for the comple- 
 tion of the work which has been neglected. 
 
 The accounts of money, supplies and provisions 
 should then be considered. The overseer should 
 report what wine and oil has been sold, what price 
 he got, what is on hand, and what remains for sale. 
 Security should be taken for such accounts as ought 
 to be secured. All other unsettled matters should 
 be agreed upon. If any thing is needed for the com- 
 ing year, it should be bought; every thing which is 
 not needed should be sold. Whatever there is for 
 lease should be leased. Orders should be given (and 
 take care that they are in writing) for all work which 
 next it is desired to have done on the farm or let to 
 contract. You should go over the cattle and deter- 
 mine what is to be sold. You should sell the oil, if 
 you can get your price, the surplus wine and com, 
 the old cattle, the worn out oxen, and the cull sheep, 
 the wool and the hides, the old and sick slaves, and 
 if any thing else is superfluous you should sell that. 
 
 [25] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 The appetite of the good farmer is to sell, not to 
 buy.' 
 
 (IV) Be a good neighbour. Do not roughly give 
 oifence to your own people. If the neighbourhood 
 regards you kindly^ you will find a readier market for 
 what you have to sell, you will more easily get your 
 work done, either on the place or by contract. If 
 you build, your neighbours will aid you with their 
 services, their cattle and their materials. If any mis- 
 fortune should overtake you (which God forbid!) 
 they will protect you with kindly interest.^ 
 
 ' This advice to sell the worn out oxen and the sick slaves 
 justly excited Plutarch's generous scorn, and has been made 
 the text of a sweeping denunciation by Mommsen of the practice 
 of husbandry by men of affairs in Cato's time. "The whole 
 system," says Mommsen, "was pervaded by the utterly unscru- 
 pulous spirit characteristic of the power of capital." And he 
 adds, "If we have risen to that little-to-be-envied elevation of 
 thought which values no feature of an economy save the capital 
 invested in it, we cannot deny to the management of the Roman 
 estates the praise of consistency, energy, punctuality, frugality 
 and solidity." Without any desire to defend Cato, one may 
 suggest, out of an experience in a kind of farm management 
 not very different from that Cato pictures, that it is doubtful 
 whether even Cato himself was quite as economical and efficient, 
 and so as capitalistic in his farming, as he advises others to be: 
 certainly a whole race of contemporary country gentlemen was 
 not equal to it. It is much easier to write about business-like 
 farming than to practise it. 
 
 ^ Hesiod (W. & D. 338) had already given this same advice 
 to the Greek farmer: 
 
 " Invite the man that loves thee to a feast, but let alone thine 
 enemy, and especially invite him that dwelleth near thee, for 
 
 [26] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 Of laying out the farm 
 
 (I) If you ask me what is the best disposition to 
 make of your estate, I would say that should you 
 have bought a farm of one hundred jugera (about 66 
 acres) all told,* in the best situation, it should be 
 planted as follows: I " a vineyard, if it promises a 
 good yield, 2** an irrigated garden, 3° an osier bed, 4° 
 
 if, mark you, any thing untoward shall have happened at home 
 neighbours are wont to come ungirt, but kinsfolk gird them- 
 selves first." This agreement of the Socialist Hesiod with the 
 Capitalist Cato is remarkable only as it illustrates that both 
 systems when wisely expounded rest on human nature. That 
 upon which they here agree is the foundation of the modern 
 European societies for rural co-operative credit which President 
 Taft recommended to the American people. These societies, 
 says the bulletin of the International Institute of Agriculture 
 published at Rome in 1912, rest on three chief safeguards: 
 
 (a) That membership is confined to persons residing within 
 a small district, and, therefore, the members are personally 
 known to one another; 
 
 (b) That the members, being mutually responsible, it will be 
 to the interest of all members to keep an eye upon a borrower 
 and to see that he makes proper use of the money lent to him; 
 
 (c) That in like manner, it is to the interest of all members 
 to help a member when he is in difficulties. 
 
 * This was an estate of average size, probably within Virgil's 
 precept, (Georgic II, 412). "Laudato ingentia rura, exiguum 
 colito." Some scholars have deemed this phrase a quotation 
 from Cato, but it is more likely derived from Mago the Cartha- 
 ginian who is reported to have said: " Imbecilliorem agrum 
 quam agricolam, esse debere," — the farmer should be bigger 
 than his farm. 
 
 [27] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 an olive yard, 5° a meadow, 6°a com field, 7° a wood 
 lot, 8" a cultivated orchard, and 9° a mast grove. ^ 
 ' (III) In his youth, the farmer ought, diligently 
 to plant his land, but he should ponder before he 
 builds. Planting does not require reflection, but de- 
 mands action. It is time enough to build when you 
 have reached your thirty-sixth year, if you have 
 farmed your land well meanwhile. When you do 
 build, let your buildings be proportioned to your 
 estate, and your estate to your buildings.* It is 
 
 ^ The philosophy of Cato's plan of laying out a farm is found 
 in the agricultural history of the Romans down to the time of 
 the Punic wars. Mommsen (II, 370) gives the facts, and Ferrero 
 in his first volume makes brilliant use of them. There is sketched 
 the old peasant aristocrat living on his few acres, his decay and 
 the creation of comparatively large estates worked by slaves in 
 charge of overseers, which followed the conquest of the Italian 
 states about B. C. 300. This was the civilization in which Cato 
 had been reared, but in his time another important change was 
 taking place. The Roman frontier was again widened by the 
 conquest of the Mediterranean basin: the acquisition of Sicily 
 and Sardinia ended breadstuif farming as the staple on the 
 Italian peninsular. The competition of the broad and fertile 
 acres of those great Islands had the effect in Italy which the 
 cultivation of the Dakota wheat lands had upon the grain farm- 
 ing of New York and Virginia. About 150 B. C. the vine and 
 the olive became the staples of Italy and corn was superseded. 
 Although this was not accomplished until after Cato's death, 
 he foresaw it, and recommended that a farm be laid out accord- 
 ingly, and his scheme of putting one's reliance upon the vine 
 and the olive was doubtless very advanced doctrine, when it 
 first found expression. 
 
 * Pliny quotes Cato as advising to buy what others have built 
 
 [28] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 fitting that the farm buildings should be well con- 
 structed, that you should have ample oil cellars and 
 wine vats, and a good supply of casks, so that you 
 can wait for high prices, something which will re- 
 dound to your honour, your profit and your self- 
 respect. 
 
 (IV) Build your dwelling house in accordance with 
 your means. If you build well in a good situation 
 and on a good property, and furnish the house suit- 
 ably for country life, you will come there more often 
 and more willingly.^ The farm will then be better, 
 fewer mistakes will be made, and you will get larger 
 crops. The face of the master is good for the land.*/ 
 
 rather than build oneself, and thus, as he says, enjoy the fruits 
 of another's folly. The cacoethes eedificandi is a familiar disease 
 among country gentlemen. 
 
 ^ Columella (1, 4) makes the acute observation that the coun- 
 try house should also be agreeable to the owner's wife if he 
 wishes to get the full measure of enjoyment out of it. Mago, the 
 Carthaginian, advised to, " if you buy a farm, sell your house in 
 town, lest you be tempted to prefer the cultivation of the urban 
 gods to those of the country." 
 
 * According to German scholarship the accepted text of 
 Cato's version of this immemorial epigram is a model of the 
 brevity which is the test of wit, "Frons occipitio prior est." Pliny 
 probably quoting from memory, expands it to "Frons domini 
 plus prodest quam occipitium." Palladius (I, 6) gives another 
 version: "Praesentia domini provectus est agri." It is found in 
 some form in almost every book on agriculture since Cato, until 
 we reach the literature in which science has taken the place of 
 wisdom — in the Byzantine Geoponica, the Italian Crescenzi, the 
 Dutch Heresbach, the French Maison Rustique, and the English 
 
 [29] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 (VI) Plant elm trees along the roads and fence 
 rows, so that you may have the leaves to feed the 
 sheep and cattle, and the timber will be available if 
 you need it. If any where there are banks of streams 
 or wet places, there plant reeds; and surround them 
 with willows that the osiers may serve to tie the vines. 
 
 (VII) It is most convenient to set out the land 
 nearest the house as an orchard, whence fire wood 
 and faggots may be sold and the supply of the master 
 obtained. In this enclosure should be planted every 
 thing fitting to the land and vines should be married 
 to the trees.* 
 
 Gervase Markham. Poor Richards Almanack gives it twice, as 
 " the foot of a master is the best manure" and "the eye of a 
 master will do more work than both his hands." It is perennial 
 in its appeal. The present editor saw it recently in the German 
 comic paper Fliegende Blatter. But the jest is much older than 
 Cato. It appears in ^schylus, Perste, 171 and Xenophon em- 
 ploys it in (Economicus (XII, 20) : 
 
 "The reply attributed to the barbarian," added Ischomachus, 
 " appears to me to be exceedingly to the purpose, for when the 
 King of Persia having met with a fine horse and wishing to have 
 it fattened as soon as possible, asked one of those who were con- 
 sidered knowing about horses what would fatten a horse soonest, 
 it is said that he answered 'the master's eye.'" 
 
 *The English word "orchard" scarcely translates arbustum, 
 but every one who has been in Italy will recall the endless pro- 
 cession of small fields of maize and rye and alfalfa through 
 which serried ranks of mulberry or feathery elm trees, linked 
 with the charming drop and garland of the vines, seem to dance 
 toward one in the brilliant sunlight, like so many Greek maidens 
 on a frieze. These are arbusta. 
 
 [30] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 (VIII) Near the house lay out also a garden with 
 garland flowers and vegetables ^ of all kinds, and 
 set it about with myrtle hedges, both white and 
 black, as well as Delphic and Cyprian laurel. 
 
 Of stocking the farm 
 
 (X) An olive farm of two hundred and forty 
 jugera (i6o acres) ought to be stocked as follows: an 
 overseer, a house keeper, five labourers, three ox 
 drivers, one swineherd, one ass driver, one shepherd; 
 in all thirteen hands: three pair of oxen,* three asses 
 
 ' Cato was a strong advocate of the cabbage; he called it the 
 best of the vegetables and urged that it be planted in every 
 garden for health and happiness. Horace records (Odes. Ill, 
 21, ii) that old Cato's virtue was frequently warmed with wine, 
 and Cato himself explains (CLVI) how this could be accom- 
 plished without loss of dignity, for, he says, if, after you have 
 dined well, you will eat five cabbage leaves they will make you 
 feel as if you had had nothing to drink, so that you can drink 
 as much more as you wish — "bibesque quantum voles!" 
 
 This was an ancient Egyptian precaution which the Greeks 
 had learned. Cf. Athenaeus, I, 62. 
 
 ^ Henry Home, Lord Karnes, a Scots judge of the eighteenth 
 century, whom Dr. Johnson considered a better farmer than 
 judge and a better judge than scholar, but who had many of 
 the characteristics of our priscus Cato, argues (following an 
 English tradition which had previously been voiced by Walter of 
 Henley and Sir Anthony Fitzherbert) in his ingenious Gentleman 
 Farmer against the expense of ploughing with horses and urges a 
 return to oxen. He points out that horses involve a large orig- 
 inal investment, are worn out in farm work, and after their 
 prime steadily depreciate in value; while, on the other hand, the 
 ox can be fattened for market when his usefulness as a draught 
 
 [31] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 with pack saddles, to haul out the manure, one other 
 ass to turn the mill, and one hundred sheep,^ 
 
 Of the duties of the overseer ^ 
 
 (V) These are the duties of the overseer: He should 
 maintain discipline. He should observe the feast 
 days. He should respect the rights of others and 
 steadfastly uphold his own. He should settle all 
 quarrels among the hands; if any one is at fault he 
 should administer the punishment. He should take 
 care that no one on the place is in want, or lacks food 
 or drink; in this respect he can afford to be generous, 
 
 animal is over, and then sell for more than his original cost; 
 that he is less subject to infirmities than the horse; can be fed 
 per tractive unit more economically and gives more valuable 
 manure. These are strong arguments where the cost of human 
 labour is small and economical farm management does not re- 
 quire that the time of the ploughman shall be limited if the 
 unit cost of ploughing is to be reasonable. The ox is slow, but 
 in slave times he might reasonably have been preferred to the 
 horse. Today Lord Kames, (or even old Hesiod, who urged 
 that a ploughman of forty year and a yoke of eight year steers 
 be employed because they turned a more deliberate and so a 
 better furrow) would be considering the economical practica- 
 bility of the gasolene motor as tractive power for a gang of 
 "crooked" ploughs. 
 
 ^ Cato adds a long list of implements and other necessary 
 equipment. 
 
 *The Roman overseer was usually a superior, and often a 
 much indulged, slave. Cf. Horace's letter {Epist. I, 14) to his 
 overseer. 
 
 I32I 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 for he will thus more easily prevent picking and steal- 
 ing.' 
 
 Unless the overseer is of evil mind, he will himself 
 do no wrong, but if he permits wrong-doing by others, 
 the master should not suffer such indulgence to pass 
 with impunity. He should show appreciation of 
 courtesy, to encourage others to practise it. He 
 should not be given to gadding or conviviality, but 
 should be always sober. He should keep the hands 
 busy, and should see that they do what the master 
 has ordered. He should not think that he knows 
 more than his master. The friends of the master 
 should be his friends, and he should give heed to those 
 whom the master has recommended to him. He 
 should confine his religious practices to church on 
 Sunday, or to his own house.^ 
 
 He should lend money to no man unbidden by the 
 master, but what the master has lent he should col- 
 lect. He should never lend any seed reserved for 
 
 ' This was the traditional wisdom which was preached also 
 in Virginia in slave times. In his Arator (1817) Col. John Taylor 
 of Caroline says of agricultural slaves: 
 
 "The best source for securing their happiness, their honesty 
 and their usefulness is their food. . . . One great value of es- 
 tablishing a comfortable diet for slaves is its convenience as an 
 instrument of reward and punishment, so powerful as almost to 
 abolish the thefts which often diminish considerably the owner's 
 ability to provide for them." 
 
 * Reading "compitalibus in compito," literally "the cross 
 roads altar on festival days." 
 
 [33] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 sowing, feed, corn, wine, or oil, but he should have 
 relations with two or three other farms with which 
 he can exchange things needed in emergency. He 
 should state his accounts with his master frequently. 
 He should not keep any hired men or day hands 
 longer than is necessary. He should not sell any 
 thing without the knowledge of the master, nor 
 should he conceal any thing from the master. He 
 should not have any hangers-on, nor should he con- 
 sult any soothsayer, fortune teller, necromancer, or 
 astrologer. He should not spare seed in sowing, for 
 that is bad economy. He should strive to be expert 
 in all kinds of farm work, and, without exhausting 
 himself, often lend a hand. By so doing, he will 
 better understand the point of view of his hands, 
 and they will work more contentedly; moreover, he 
 will have less inclination to gad, his health will be 
 better, and he will sleep more refreshingly. 
 
 First up in the morning, he should be the last to 
 go to bed at night; and before he does, he should see 
 that the farm gates are closed, and that each of the 
 hands is in his own bed, that the stock have been 
 fed. He should see that the best of care is taken of 
 the oxen, and should pay the highest compliments 
 to the teamsters who keep their cattle in the best 
 condition. He should see to it that the ploughs and 
 plough shares are kept in good repair. Plan all the 
 
 [34] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 work in ample time, for so it is with farm work, if 
 one thing is done late, every thing will be late. 
 
 (XXXIX) When it rains try to find some thing to 
 do indoors. Clean up, rather than remain idle. Re- 
 member that while work may stop, expenses still 
 go on. 
 
 Oj the duties of the housekeeper 
 
 (CXLIII) The overseer should be responsible for 
 the duties of the housekeeper. If the master has 
 given her to you for a wife, you should be satisfied 
 with her, and she should respect you. Require that 
 she be not given to wasteful habits; that she does not 
 gossip with the neighbours and other women. She 
 should not receive visitors either in the kitchen or 
 in her own quarters. She should not go out to parties, 
 nor should she gad about. ^ She should not practise 
 
 * It is evident that Cato's housekeeper would have welcomed 
 a visit from Mr. Roosevelt's Rural Uplift Commission. We 
 may add to this Sir Anthony Fitzherbert's description of the 
 duties of a farmer's wife in sixteenth century England: 
 
 "It is a wyues occupation to wynowe all maner of comes, 
 to make malte, to wasshe and wrynge, to make heye, shere 
 come, and in tyme of nede to helpe her husbande to fyll the 
 mucke-wayne or dounge-carte, dryue the ploughe, to loode hey, 
 come and suche other. And to go or ride to the market, to sel 
 butter, chese, mylke, egges, chekyns, capons, hennes, pygges, 
 gese, and all maner of cornes. And also to bye all maner of 
 necessarye thynges belongynge to houssholde, and to make a 
 trewe rekenynge and acompte to her husbande what she hath 
 payed." 
 
 [3Sl 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 religious observances, nor should she ask others to 
 do so for her without the permission of the master 
 or the mistress. ' Remember that the master practises 
 religion for the entire household. ^ She should be neat 
 in appearance and should keep the house swept and 
 garnished. Every night before she goes to bed she 
 should see that the hearth is swept and clean. On 
 the Kalends, the Ides, the Nones, and on all feast 
 days, she should hang a garland over the hearth. 
 On those days also she should pray fervently to the 
 household gods. She should take care that she has 
 food cooked for you and for the hands. She should 
 have plenty of chickens and an abundance of eggs.* 
 She should diligently put up all kinds of preserves 
 every year. 
 
 Oj the hands 
 (LVI) The following are the customary allowances 
 for food: For the hands, four pecks of meal for the 
 
 Sir Anthony Fitzherbert (1470-1538) was the English judge 
 whose law books are, or should be, known to all lawyers. His 
 Boke of Husbandry, published in 1534, is one of the classics of 
 English agriculture, and justly, for it is full of shrewd observa- 
 tion and deliberate wisdom expressed in a virile style, with 
 agreeable leaven of piety and humour. Fitzherbert anticipated 
 a modern poet, Henley, in one of his most happy phrases: 
 "Ryght so euery man is capitayne of his owne soule". The 
 Husbandry is best available to the modern reader in the edition 
 by Skeat published for the English Dialect Society in 1882. 
 
 * Cato is careful not to undertake to say how this may be as- 
 sured; another evidence of his wisdom. 
 
 I36] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 winter, and four and one-half for the summer. For 
 the overseer, the housekeeper, the wagoner, the 
 shepherd, three pecks each. For the slaves, four 
 pounds of bread for the winter, but when they begin 
 to cultivate the vines this is increased to five pounds 
 until the figs are ripe, then return to four pounds. 
 
 (LVII) The sum of the wine allowed for each hand 
 per annum is eight quadrantals, or Amphora, but 
 add in the proportion as they do work. Ten quad- 
 rantals per annum is not too much to allow them to 
 drink. 
 
 (LVIII) Save the wind fall olives as much as pos- 
 sible as relishes for the hands. Later set aside such 
 of the ripe olives as will make the least oil. Be 
 careful to make them go as far as possible. When 
 the olives are all eaten, give them fish pickles and 
 vinegar. One peck of salt per annum is enough for 
 each hand. 
 
 (LIX) Allow each hand a smock and a cloak every 
 other year. As often as you give out a smock or 
 cloak to any one take up the old one, so that caps 
 can be made out of it. A pair of heavy wooden shoes 
 should be allowed every other year. 
 
 Oj draining 
 
 (XLIII) If the land is wet, it should be drained 
 with trough shaped ditches dug three feet wide at 
 
 [37] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 the surface and one foot at the bottom and four feet 
 deep. Blind these ditches with rock. If you have 
 no rock then fill them with green willow poles braced 
 crosswise. If you have no poles, fill then with fag- 
 gots. Then dig lateral trenches three feet deep and 
 four feet wide in such way that the water will flow 
 from the trenches into the ditches. 
 
 (CLV) In the winter surface water should be 
 drained off the fields. On hillsides courses should be 
 kept clear for the water to flow off. During the 
 rainy season at the beginning of Autumn is the great- 
 est risk from water. When it begins to rain all the 
 hands should go out with picks and shovels and clear 
 out the drains so that the water may flow off into 
 the roads, and the crops be protected. 
 
 Oj 'preparing the seed bed 
 
 (LXI) What is the first principle of good agricul- 
 ture? To plough well. What is the second? To 
 plough again; and the third is to manure. When you 
 plough corn land, plough well and in good weather, 
 lest you turn a cloddy furrow. The other things of 
 good agriculture are to sow seed plentifully, to thin 
 the young sprouts, and to hill up the roots with earth. 
 
 (V) Never plough rotten land^ nor drive flocks 
 or carts across it. 
 
 ^ In his instructive discourse on ploughing, Columella (II, 4) 
 
 [38] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 If care is not taken about this, the land so abused 
 will be barren for three years. 
 
 gives the key to Cato's warning against ploughing land when it 
 is in the condition he calls rotten {cariosa) : 
 
 "Rich land, which holds moisture a long time, should be 
 broken up {proscindere) at the season when the weather is be- 
 ginning to be warm and the weeds are developing, so that none 
 of their seed may mature: but it should be ploughed with such 
 close furrows that one can with difficulty distinguish where the 
 plough share has been, for in that way all the weeds are uprooted 
 and destroyed. 
 
 "The spring ploughing should be followed up with frequent 
 stirring of the soil until it is reduced to dust, so that there may 
 be no necessity, or very little, of harrowing after the land is 
 seeded: for the ancient Romans said that a field was badly 
 ploughed which had to be harrowed after the seed had been 
 sown. 
 
 "A farmer should himself make sure that his ploughing has 
 been well done, not alone by inspection, for the eye is often 
 amused by a smooth surface which in fact conceals clods, but 
 also by experiment, which is less likely to be deceived, as by 
 driving a stout stick through the furrows: if it penetrates the 
 soil readily and without obstruction, it will be evident that all 
 the land there about is in good order: but if some part harder 
 than the rest resists the pressure, it will be clear that the plough- 
 ing has been badly done. When the ploughmen see this done 
 from time to time they are not guilty of clod hopping. 
 
 "Hence wet land should be broken up after the Ides of April, 
 and, when it has been ploughed at that season, it should be 
 worked again, after an interval of twenty days, about the time 
 of the solstice, which is the eighth or ninth day before the Ka- 
 lends of July, and again the third time about the Kalends of 
 September, for it is not the practice of experienced farmers to 
 till the land in the interval after the summer solstice, unless the 
 ground shall have been soaked with a heavy down-pour of sud- 
 den rain, like those of winter, as does some times happen at this 
 
 [39] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 Of manure 
 / 
 
 (V) Plan to have a big compost heap and take the 
 
 best of care of the manure. When it is hauled out see 
 
 that it is well rotted and spread. The Autumn is the 
 
 time to do this. 
 
 (XXXVII) You can make manure of litter, lupine 
 
 straw, chaff, bean stalks, husks and the leaves of ilex 
 
 and of oak.' 
 
 season. In that event there is no reason why the fallow should 
 not be cultivated during the month of July. But when you do 
 till at this season beware lest the land be worked while it is 
 muddy: or when, having been sprinkled by a shower, it is in the 
 condition which the country people call varia and cariosa, that 
 is to say, when, after a long drought, a light rain has moistened 
 the surface of the upturned sod but has not soaked to the bottom 
 of the furrow. 
 
 "Those plough lands which are cultivated when they are 
 miry are rendered useless for an entire year — they can be neither 
 seeded nor harrowed nor hoed — but those which are worked 
 when they are in the state which has been described as varia, 
 remain sterile for three years on end. We should, therefore, 
 follow a medium course and plough when the land neither lacks 
 moisture nor yet is deep in marsh. 
 
 ' Columella (II, 13) justly says about manure, "Wherefore 
 if it is, as it would seem to be, the thing of the greatest value to 
 the farmer, I consider that it should be studied with the greatest 
 care, especially since the ancient authors, while they have not 
 altogether neglected it, have nevertheless discussed it with too 
 little elaboration." He goes on (II, 14) to lay down rules about 
 the compost heap which should be written in letters of gold in 
 every farm house. 
 
 " I appreciate that there are certain kinds of farms on which 
 it is impossible to keep either live stock or birds, yet even in such 
 
 [40] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 (XXX) Fold your sheep on the land which you 
 are about to seed, and there feed them leaves.* 
 
 Oj soil improvement 
 
 (XXXVII) The things which are harmful to corn 
 land are to plough the ground when it is rotten, and to 
 plant chick peas which are harvested with the straw 
 and are salt. Barley, fenugreek and pulse all exhaust 
 com land, as well as all other things which are har- 
 vested with the straw. Do not plant nut trees in the 
 
 places it Is a lazy farmer who lacks manure: for he can collect 
 leaves, rubbish from the hedge rows, and droppings from the 
 high ways: without giving offence, and indeed earning gratitude, 
 he can cut ferns from his neighbour's land: and all these things 
 he can mingle with the sweepings of the courtyard: he can dig a 
 pit, like that we have counselled for the protection of stable 
 manure, and there mix together ashes, sewage, and straw, and 
 indeed every waste thing which is swept up on the place. But 
 it is wise to bury a piece of oak wood in the midst of this com- 
 post, for that will prevent venomous snakes from lurking in it. 
 This will suffice for a farm without live stock." 
 
 One can see in Flanders today the happy land smiling its 
 appreciation of farm management such as this, but what Amer- 
 ican farmer has yet learned this kind of conservation of his 
 natural resources. 
 
 * The occupants of the motor cars which now roll so swiftly 
 and so comfortably along the French national highway from 
 Paris to Tours, through the pleasant fays de Beauce, can see 
 this admirable and economical method of manuring still in prac- 
 tice. The sheep are folded and fed at night, under the watchful 
 eye of the shepherd stretched at ease in his wheeled cabin, on 
 the land which was ploughed the day before. 
 
 [41] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 corn land. On the other hand, lupines, field beans 
 and vetch manure com land.^ 
 
 (VI) Where the soil is rich and fertile, without 
 shade, there the corn land ought to be. Where the 
 land lies low, plant rape, millet, and panic grass. 
 
 Of forage crops 
 
 (VIII) If you have a water meadow you will not 
 want forage, but if not then sow an upland meadow, 
 so that hay may not be lacking. 
 
 (LIII) Save your hay when the times comes, and 
 beware lest you mow too late. Mow before the seed 
 is ripe. House the best hay by itself, so that you may 
 
 * These of course are all legumes. The intelligent farmer 
 today sits under his shade tree and meditates comfortably upon 
 the least expensive and most profitable labour on his farm, the 
 countless millions of beneficent bacteria who, his willing slaves, 
 are ceaselessly at work during hot weather forming root tubercles 
 on his legumes, be it clover or cow peas, and so fixing for their 
 lord the free atmospheric nitrogen contained in the soil. As 
 Macaulay would say, "every school boy knows" now that le- 
 guminous root nodules are endotrophic mycorrhiza, — but the 
 Romans did not! Nevertheless their empirical practice of soil 
 improvement with legumes was quite as good as ours. Varro 
 (I, 23) explains the Roman method of green manuring more 
 fully than Cato. Columella (II, 13) insists further that if the 
 hay is saved the stubble of legumes should be promptly ploughed 
 for he says the roots will evaporate their own moisture and 
 continue to pump the land of its fertility unless they are at once 
 turned over. 
 
 If the Romans followed this wise advice they were better 
 farmers than most of us today, for we are usually content to 
 let the stubble dry out before ploughing. 
 
 [42] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 feed it to the draft cattle during the spring plough- 
 ing, before the clover is mature. 
 
 (XXVII) Sow, for feed for the cattle, clover, 
 vetch, fenugreek, field beans and pulse. Sow these 
 crops a second and a third time. 
 
 Oj planting 
 
 (XXXIV) Wherever the land is cold and wet, 
 sow there first, and last of all in the warmest places. 
 
 Oj pastures 
 
 (L) Manure the pastures in early spring in the 
 dark of the moon, when the west wind begins to 
 blow. When you close your pastures (to the stock) 
 clean them and root out all weeds. 
 
 Oj j ceding live stock 
 
 (XXX) As long as they are available, feed green 
 leaves of elm, poplar, oak and fig to your cattle and 
 sheep. 
 
 (V) Store leaves, also, to be fed to the sheep before 
 they have withered.* 
 
 (XXX) Take the best of care of your dry fodder, 
 
 'Was this ensilage? The ancients had their silo pits, but 
 they used them chiefly as granaries, and as such they are de- 
 scribed, by Varro (I, 57, 63), by Columella (I, 6), and by Pliny 
 (XVIII, 30, 73)- 
 
 [43] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 which you house for the winter, and remember always 
 how long the winter may last. 
 
 (IV) Be sure you have well constructed stables 
 furnished with substantial stalls and equipped with 
 latticed feed racks. The intervals between the bars 
 of the racks should be one foot. If you build them 
 in this way, the cattle will not waste their food. 
 
 (LIV) This is the way that provender should be 
 prepared and fed : When the seeding is finished, gather 
 mast and soak it in water. Feed a measure of it 
 every day to each steer; or if they have not been 
 worked it will be sufficient to let them pasture the 
 mast beds. Another good feed is a measure of grape 
 husks which you shall have preserved in jars. By 
 day turn the cattle out and at night feed twenty-five 
 pounds of hay to each steer. If hay is short, feed 
 the leaves of the ilex and ivy.* Stack the straw of 
 wheat, barley, beans, vetch and lupine, indeed all 
 the grain straws, but pick out and house the best of it. 
 Scatter your straw with salt and you can then feed 
 it in place of hay. When in the spring you begin to 
 feed (more heavily to prepare for work), feed a meas- 
 ure of mast or of grape husks, or a measure of ground 
 lupines, and fifteen pounds of hay. When the clover 
 
 'The extravagant American farmer has not yet learned to 
 feed the leaves of trees, but in older and more economical civili- 
 zations the practice is still observed. 
 
 [44] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 is ripe, feed that first. Gather it by hand so that it 
 will bloom a second time, for what you harvest with 
 the sickle blooms no more. Feed clover until it is 
 dry, then feed vetch and then panic grass, and after 
 the panic grass feed elm leaves. If you have poplar, 
 mix that with the elm so that the elm may last the 
 longer. If you have no elm feed oak and fig leaves. 
 
 Nothing is more profitable than to take good care 
 of your cattle. 
 
 Cattle should not be put out to graze except in 
 winter when they are not worked; for when they eat 
 green stuff they expect it all the time, and it is then 
 necessary to muzzle them while they plough. 
 
 Oj the care of live stock 
 
 (V) The flocks and herds should be well supplied 
 with litter and their feet kept clean. If litter is short, 
 haul in oak leaves, they will serve as bedding for 
 sheep and cattle. Beware of scab among the sheep and 
 cattle. This comes from hunger and exposure to rain. 
 
 (LXXII) To prevent the oxen from wearing down 
 their hoofs, anoint the bottom of the hoof with liquid 
 pepper before driving them on the highroad. 
 
 (LXXIII) Take care that during the summer the 
 cattle drink only sweet and fresh water. Their 
 health depends on it. 
 
 (XCVI) To prevent scab among sheep, make a 
 
 [45] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 mixture of equal parts of well strained amurca,' of 
 water in which lupine has been steeped, and of lees 
 of good wine. After shearing, anoint all the flock with 
 this mixture, and let them sweat profusely for two 
 or three days. Then dip them in the sea. If you have 
 no sea water, make salt water and dip then in that. 
 If you will do this they will suffer no scab, they will 
 have more and better wool and they will not be 
 molested by ticks. 
 
 (LXXI) If an ox begins to sicken, give him with- 
 out delay a raw hen's egg and make him swallow it 
 whole. The next day make him drink from a wooden 
 bowl a measure of wine in which has been scraped 
 the head of an onion. Both the ox and his attendant 
 should do these things fasting and standing upright. 
 
 (CII) If a serpent shall bite an ox, or any other 
 quadruped, take a cup of that extract of fennel, 
 which the physicians call smyrnean, and mix it with 
 a measure of old wine. Inject this through his nos- 
 trils and at the same time poultice the wound with 
 hogs' dung.'' You can treat a man the same way. 
 
 * Amurca was the dregs of olive oil. Cato recommends its 
 use for many purposes in the economy of the farm, for a moth 
 proof (XCVIII), as a relish for cattle (CIII), as a fertilizer 
 (CXXX), and as an anointment for the threshing floor to kill 
 weevil (XCI). 
 
 * There is a similar remedy for scratches in horses, which is 
 traditional in the cavalry service today, and is extraordinarily 
 efficacious. 
 
 [46] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 (CLX) If a bone is dislocated it can be made 
 sound by this incantation. Take a green reed four 
 or five feet long, cut it in the middle and let two men 
 hold the pieces against your hips. Begin then to 
 chant as follows : 
 
 "In Alio. S. F. Motas Vaeta, 
 Danes Dardaries Astataries Dissunapiter" 
 
 and continue until the free ends of the reed are 
 brought slowly together in front of you. Meanwhile, 
 wave a knife above the reeds, and when they come 
 together and one touches the other, seize them in 
 your hand and cut them right and left. These pieces 
 of reed bound upon a dislocated or fractured bone 
 will cure it. 
 
 But every day repeat the incantation, or in place 
 of it this one: 
 
 "Huat Hanat Huat 
 Ista Pista Sista 
 Domiabo Damnaustra" ^ 
 
 * These examples will serve to illustrate how far Cato's vet- 
 erinary science was behind his agriculture, and what a curious 
 confusion of native good sense and traditional superstition there 
 was in his method of caring for his live stock. On questions of 
 preventing malady he had the wisdom of experience, but malady 
 once arrived he was a simple pagan. There was a notable ad- 
 vance in the Roman knowledge of how to treat sick cattle in the 
 century after Cato. Cf. Varro, II, 5. 
 
 The words of the incantations themselves are mere sound 
 and fury signifying nothing, like the "counting out" rhythms 
 used by children at their games. 
 
 [47] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 Of cakes and salad ' 
 
 (LXXV) This is the recipe for cheese cake (Jibum) : 
 Bray well two pounds of cheese in a mortar, and, 
 when this is done, pour in a pound of com meal (or, 
 if you want to be more dainty, a half pound of flour) 
 and mix it thoroughly with the cheese. Add one egg 
 and beat it well. Pat into a cake, place it on leaves 
 and bake slowly on a hot hearth stone under a 
 dish. 
 
 (CXIX) This is the recipe for olive salad {epity- 
 rum) : Select some white, black and mottled olives and 
 stone them. Mix and cut them up. Add a dressing of 
 oil, vinegar, coriander, cumin, fennel, rue and mint. 
 Mix well in an earthen ware dish, and serve with oil. 
 
 (CXXI) This is the recipe for must cake {musta- 
 ceus) : Sprinkle a peck of wheat flour with must. Add 
 anise, cumin, two pounds of lard, a pound of cheese 
 and shredded laurel twigs. When you have kneaded 
 the dough, put laurel leaves under it and so bake. 
 
 ' Cato gives many recipes of household as well as agricultural 
 economy. Out of respect for the pure food law most of them 
 have been here suppressed, but these samples are ventured 
 because Varro mentions them and the editor is advised that 
 some enterprising young ladies in Wisconsin have recently 
 had the courage to put them to the test, and vow that they ate 
 their handiwork! As they live to tell the tale, it is assumed 
 that the recipes are harmless. 
 
 [48] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 Of curing hams 
 
 (CLXII) This is the way to cure hams in jars or 
 tubs: When you have bought your hams trim off the 
 hocks. Take a Jialf peck {semodius) of ground Roman 
 salt for each ham. Cover the bottom of the jar or 
 tub with salt and put in a ham, skin down. Cover 
 the whole with salt and put another ham on top, 
 and cover this in the same manner. Be careful that 
 meat does not touch meat. So proceed, and when 
 you have packed all the hams, cover the top with 
 salt so that no meat can be seen, and smooth it out 
 even. When the hams have been in salt five days, 
 take them all out with the salt and repack them, put- 
 ting those which were on top at the bottom. Cover 
 them in the same way with salt and press them down. 
 
 After the twelfth day remove the hams finally, 
 brush off the salt and hang them for two days in the 
 wind. On the third day wipe them off clean with a 
 sponge and rub them with (olive) oil. Then hang 
 them in smoke for two days, and on the third day 
 rub them with a mixture of (olive) oil and vinegar. 
 
 Then hang them in the meat house, and neither 
 bats nor worms will touch them.' 
 
 ' Cf. the following traditional formula as practised in Virginia: 
 A VIRGINIA RECIPE FOR CURING HAMS 
 
 "Rub each ham separately with yi teaspoonful of saltpetre 
 (use a small spoon) ; then rub each ham with a large tablespoon- 
 
 [49] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 ful of best black pepper; then rub each ham with a gill of mo- 
 lasses (black strap is best). 
 Then for i,ooo lbs. of ham take 
 
 3^ pecks of coarse salt, 
 
 2^ lbs. of saltpetre, 
 
 2 qts. hickory ashes, 
 
 2 qts. molasses, 
 
 2 teacupfuls of red pepper. 
 Mix all together on the salting table. Then rub each ham with 
 this mixture, and, in packing, spread some of it on each layer of 
 ham. Use no more salt than has been mixed. Pack skin down 
 and let stand for five weeks, then hang in the smoke house for 
 five or six weeks, and smoke in damp weather, using hickory 
 wood." 
 
 As a ham, however well cured, is of no use to civilized man 
 until it is cooked, and as this crowning mystery is seldom re- 
 vealed out of Virginia, it may not be out of place to record here 
 the process: 
 
 A VIRGINIA RECIPE FOR COOKING HAMS 
 Soak over night in cold water, having first scrubbed the ham 
 with a small brush to remove all the pepper, saltpetre, etc., 
 left from the curing process. 
 
 Put on to boil next morning in tepid water, skin downwards, 
 letting it simmer on back of stove, never to boil hard. This 
 takes about four hours (or until it is done, when the ham is 
 supposed to turn over, skin upwards, of its own accord, as it 
 will if the boiler is large enough). Set aside over another night 
 in the water it has boiled in. 
 
 The following day, skin and bake in the oven, having cov- 
 ered the ham well with brown sugar, basting at intervals with 
 cider. When it is well baked, take it out of the oven and baste 
 another ten to twenty minutes in the pan on top of the stove. 
 The sugar crust should be quite brown and crisp when done. 
 
 To be thoroughly appreciated a ham should be carved on the 
 table, by a pretty woman. A thick slice of ham is a crime 
 against good breeding. 
 
 [so] 
 
VARRO'S RERUM RUSTICARUM 
 UBRI TRES 
 
 BOOK I 
 
 THE HUSBANDRY OF AGRICULTURE 
 
 Introduction: the literary tradition of country life 
 
 I 
 IAD I leisure, Fundania, this book 
 
 H would be more worthy of you, but I 
 write as best I may, conscious always 
 of the necessity of haste : for, if, as the 
 saying is, all life is but a bubble, the 
 more fragile is that of an old man, and my eightieth 
 year admonishes me to pack my fardel and prepare 
 for the long journey. 
 
 You have bought a farm and wish to increase its 
 fertility by good cultivation, and you ask me what 
 I would do with it were it mine. Not only while I 
 am still alive will I try to advise you in this, but I 
 will make my counsel available to you after I am 
 dead. For as it befel the Sibyl to have been of service 
 to mankind not alone while she lived, but even to 
 the uttermost generations of men after her demise 
 (for we are wont after so many years still to have 
 solemn recourse to her books for guidance in inter- 
 pretation of strange portents), so may not I, while 
 I still live, bequeath my counsel to my nearest and 
 
 [SI] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 dearest,* I will then write three books for you, to 
 which you may have recourse for guidance in all 
 things which must be done in the management of a 
 farm. 
 
 And since, as men say, the gods aid those who 
 propitiate them, I will begin my book by invoking 
 divine approval, not like Homer and Ennius, from 
 the Muses, nor indeed from the twelve great gods 
 of the city whose golden images stand in the forum, 
 six male and as many female, but from a solemn 
 council of those twelve divinities who are the tute- 
 laries of husbandmen. 
 
 First: I call upon Father Jupiter and Mother 
 
 * It is interesting that Varro has realized the hope, here ex- 
 pressed, that his wisdom might survive for the benefit of the 
 "uttermost generations of men" only in the case of this treatise 
 on Husbandry among the many monuments of his industry and 
 learning. Petrarch in his Epistle to Varro in that first delightful 
 book of Letters to Dead Authors {de rebus familiaribus XXIV, 6) 
 rehearses the loss of Varro's books and, adapting the thought 
 here expressed in the text, regrets for that reason that Varro 
 cannot be included in that company of men "whom we love even 
 after their death owing to the good and righteous deeds that 
 live after them, men who mold our character by their teaching 
 and comfort us by their example, when the rest of mankind 
 offends both our eyes and our nostrils; men who, though they 
 have gone hence to the common abode of all (as Plautus says 
 in Casina), nevertheless contibue to be of service to the living." 
 If Petrarch had been a farmer he might have saved some of his 
 regret, for Varro is surely, by virtue of the Rerum Rusticarum, a 
 member of the fellowship Petrarch describes. 
 
 [52] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 Earth, who fecundate all the processes of agriculture 
 in the air and in the soil, and hence are called the 
 great parents. 
 
 Second: I invoke the Sun and the Moon by whom 
 the seasons for sowing and reaping are measured. 
 
 Third: I invoke Ceres and Bacchus because the 
 fruits they mature are most necessary to life, and 
 by their aid the land yields food and drink. 
 
 Fourth: I invoke Robigus and Flora by whose 
 influence the blight is kept from crop and tree, and 
 in due season they bear fruit (for which reason is the 
 annual festival of the robigalia celebrated in honour 
 of Robigus, and that of the floralia in honour of 
 Flora).! 
 
 Next: I supplicate Minerva, who protects the olive; 
 and Venus, goddess of the garden, wherefore is she 
 worshipped at the rural wine festivals. 
 
 And last: I adjure Lympha, goddess of the foun- 
 tains, and Bonus Eventus, god of good fortune, since 
 without water all vegetation is starved and stunted 
 and without due order and good luck all tillage is in 
 vain. 
 
 And so having paid my duty to the gods, I pro- 
 ceed to rehearse some conversations * concerning 
 
 ' Varro was essentially an antiquary and it is amusing to ob- 
 serve that he is unableto suppress his learning even in his prayers. 
 One is reminded of the anecdote of the New England minister, 
 who, in the course of an unctuous prayer, proclaimed, with magis- 
 terial authority, "Paradoxical as it may appear, Lord, it is 
 nevertheless true, etc." 
 
 ^ Following Plato and Xenophon and Cicero, Varro cast his 
 
 [S3 I 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 agriculture in which I have recently taken part. 
 From them you will derive all the practical instruc- 
 tion you require, but in case any thing is lacking and 
 you wish further authority, I refer you to the treatises 
 of the Greeks and of our own countrymen. 
 
 The Greek writers who have treated incidentally 
 of agriculture are more than fifty in number. Those 
 whom you may consult with profit are Hieron of 
 Sicily and Attalus Philometor, among the philos- 
 ophers; Democritus the physicist; Xenophon the 
 disciple of Socrates ; Aristotle and Theophrastus, the 
 peripatetics; Archytas the pythagorean; likewise the 
 Athenian Amphilochus, Anaxipolis of Thasos, Apollo- 
 dorus of Lemnos, Aristophanes of Mallos, Antigonus 
 of Cyme, Agathocles of Chios, ApoUonius of Per- 
 gamum, Aristandrus of Athens, Bacchius of Miletus, 
 Bion of Soli, Chaeresteus and Chaereas of Athens, 
 Diodorus of Priene, Dion of Colophon, Diophanes 
 of Nicsea, Epigenes of Rhodes, Evagon of Thasos, 
 
 books into the form of dialogues to make them entertaining 
 (" and what is the use of a book," thought Alice in Wonderland, 
 "without pictures or conversations."): for the same reason he 
 was careful about his local colour. Thus the scene of this first 
 book, which relates to agriculture proper, is laid at Rome in the 
 temple of Earth on the festival of the Seed Sowing, and the 
 characters bear names of punning reference to the tilling of the 
 soil. Varro was strong on puns, avowing (Cicero Acad. I, 2) 
 that that form of humour made it easier for people of small 
 intelligence to swallow his learning. 
 
 [54] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 Euphronius of Athens, and his name sake of Amphip- 
 olis, Hegesias of Maronea, the two Menanders, one 
 of Priene, the other of Heraclaea, Nicesius of Maro- 
 nea, Pythion of Rhodes. Among the rest whose 
 countries I do not know, are Andiotion, ^Eschrion, 
 Aristomenes, Athenagoras, Crates, Dadis, Dionysius, 
 Euphiton, Euphorion, Eubulus, Lysimachus, Mna- 
 seas, Menestratus, Plentiphanes, Persis, and Theoph- 
 ilus. 
 
 All those whom I have named wrote in prose, but 
 there are those also who have written in verse, as 
 Hesiod of Ascra and Menecrates of Ephesus. 
 
 The agricultural writer of the greatest reputation 
 
 is, however, Mago the Carthaginian * who wrote in 
 
 * The story is that when Scipio captured Carthage he dis- 
 tributed the Punic libraries among the native allies, reserving 
 only the agricultural works of Mago, which the Roman Senate 
 subsequently ordered to be translated into Latin, so highly were 
 they esteemed. Probably more real wealth was brought to 
 Rome in the pages of these precious volumes than was repre- 
 sented by all the other plunder of Carthage. "The improving a 
 kingdom in matter of husbandry is better than conquering a 
 new kingdom," says old Samuel Hartlib, Milton's friend, in 
 his Legacie. It is a curious fact that as the Romans derived 
 agricultural wisdom from their ancient enemies, so did the 
 English. Cf. Thorold Rogers' Six Centuries of Work and Wages. 
 "We owe the improvements in English agriculture to Hol- 
 land. From this country we borrowed, at the beginning of 
 the seventeenth century, the cultivation of winter roots, and, 
 at that of the eighteenth, the artificial grasses. The Dutch had 
 practised agriculture with the patient and minute industry of 
 market gardeners. They had tried successfully to cultivate 
 
 [55] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 the Punic tongue and collected in twenty-eight books 
 all the wisdom which before him had been scattered 
 in many works. Cassius Dionysius of Utica trans- 
 lated Mago into Greek in twenty books (and dedi- 
 cated his work to the praetor Sextilius), and not- 
 withstanding that he reduced Mago by eight books 
 he cited freely from the Greek authors whom I have 
 named. Diophanes made a useful digest of Cassius 
 in six books, which he dedicated to Deiotarus, King 
 of Bithynia. I have ventured to compress the sub- 
 ject into the still smaller compass of three books, 
 the first on the husbandry of agriculture, the second 
 on the husbandry of live stock and the third on the 
 husbandry of the steading. 
 
 From the first book I have excluded all those 
 things which I do not deem to relate immediately to 
 agriculture: thus having first limited my subject I 
 
 every thing to the uttermost, which could be used tor human 
 food, or could give innocent gratification to a refined taste. 
 They taught agriculture and they taught gardening. They 
 were the first people to surround their homesteads with flower 
 beds, with groves, with trim parterres, with the finest turf, to 
 improve fruit trees, to seek out and perfect edible roots and 
 herbs at once for man and cattle. We owe to the Dutch that 
 scurvy and leprosy have been banished from England, that 
 continuous crops have taken the place of barren fallows, that 
 the true rotation of crops has been discovered and perfected, 
 that the population of these islands has been increased and that 
 the cattle and sheep in England are ten times what they were 
 in numbers and three times what they were in size and quality." 
 
 IS6] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 proceed to discuss it, following its natural divisions. 
 My information has been derived from three sources, 
 my own experience, my reading, and what I have 
 heard from others. 
 
 0/ the definition of agriculture 
 
 a. What it is not 
 
 II. On the holiday which we call Sementivae I 
 came to the temple of Tellus at the invitation of the 
 Sacristan (I was taught by my ancestors to call him 
 Mditumus but the modern purist tells me I must say 
 jEdituus). There I found assembled C. Fundanius, 
 my father-in-law, C. Agrius, a Roman Knight and 
 a disciple of the Socratic school, and P. Agrasius, 
 of the Revenue service: they were gazing on a map 
 of Italy painted on the wall. "What are you doing 
 here? " said I. "Has the festival of the seed-sowing 
 drawn you hither to spend your holiday after the 
 manner of our ancestors, by praying for good crops ?" 
 "We are here," said Agrius, "for the same reason 
 that you are, I imagine — ^because the Sacristan has 
 invited us to dinner. If this be true, as your nod 
 admits, wait with us until he returns, for he was 
 summoned by his chief, the sedile, and has not yet 
 returned though he left word for us to wait for him." 
 
 "Until he comes then," said I, "let us make a 
 
 [57] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 practical application of the ancient proverb that 
 'The Roman conquers by sitting down.'" 
 
 "You're right," cried Agrius, and, remembering 
 that the first step of a journey is the most difficult,^ 
 he lead the way to the benches forthwith and we fol- 
 lowed. When we were seated Agrasius spoke up. 
 "You who have travelled over many lands," said he, 
 "have you seen any country better cultivated than 
 Italy?" 
 
 "I, for one, don't believe," replied Agrius, "that 
 there is any country which is so intensely cultivated. 
 By a very natural division Eratosthenes has divided 
 the earth into two parts, that facing South and that 
 facing North: and as without doubt the North is 
 healthier than the South, so it is more fertile, for a 
 healthy country is always the most fertile. It must 
 be admitted then that the North is fitter for cultiva- 
 tion than Asia, and particularly is this true of Italy; 
 first, because Italy is in Europe, and, second, because 
 this part of Europe has a more temperate climate 
 than the interior. For almost everlasting winter 
 grips the lands to the North of us. Nor is this to be 
 
 ^ The Roman proverb which Agrius had in mind reminds one 
 of the witty French woman's comment upon the achievement of 
 St. Denis in walking several miles to Montmartre, after his 
 head had been cut off, (as all the world can still see him doing in 
 the verrieres of Notre Dame de Chartres): "en pareil cas, ce 
 n'est que le premier pas qui coute." 
 
 [S8] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 wondered at since there are regions within the Arctic 
 Circle and at the pole where the sun is not seen for 
 SIX months at a time. Yea, it is even said that it is 
 not possible to sail a ship in those parts because the 
 very sea is frozen over." 
 
 "Would you think it possible," said Fundanius, 
 "for any thing to grow in such a region, and, if it 
 did grow, how could it be cultivated ? The tragedian 
 Pacuvius has spoken sooth where he says : 
 
 ' Should sun or night maintain e'er lasting reign, - 
 Then all the grateful fruits of earth must die, 
 Nipped by the cold, or blasted by the heat.' 
 
 Even here in this pleasant region, where night 
 and day revolve punctually, I am not able to live in 
 summer unless I divide the day with my appointed 
 midday nap. How is it possible to plant or to culti- 
 vate or to harvest any thing there where the days and 
 nights are six months long. On the other hand, what 
 useful thing is there which does not only grow but 
 flourish in Italy? What spelt shall I compare with 
 that of Campania ? What wheat with that of Apulia ? 
 What wine with that of Falernum? What oil with 
 that of Venafrum? Is not Italy so covered with fruit 
 trees that it seems one vast orchard? Is Phrygia, 
 which Homer calls a/iireXoecro-a, more teeming with 
 vines, or is Argos, which the same poet calls TroXvnvpo^, 
 
 [59] 
 
( 
 
 ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 more rich in corn ? ^ In what land does one jugerum 
 produce ten, nay even fifteen, cullei of wine, as in 
 some regions of Italy? Has not M. Cato written in 
 his book of Origines 'That region lying this side of 
 
 ^To this glowing description of agricultural Italy in the 
 Augustan age may be annexed that of Machiavelli on the state 
 of Tuscany in his youth: " Ridotta tutta in somma pace e tran- 
 quillita, coltivata non meno ne' luoghi piu montuosi e piu 
 sterili che nelle pianure e regioni piu fertili. . . ."_ It is our 
 privilege to see the image of this fruitful cultivation of the 
 mountain tops not only in Machiavelli's prose, but on the walls 
 of the Palazzo Riccardi in Gozzoli's Journey of the Magi, where, 
 like King Robert of Sicily, the Magi crossed 
 
 "Into the lovely land of Italy 
 Whose loveliness was more resplendent made 
 By the mere passing of that cavalcade." 
 
 It seems almost a pity to contrast with these the comment of a 
 careful and sympathetic student of the agricultural Italy of the 
 age of King Umberto: "To return to the question of the natural 
 , richness of agricultural Italy," says Dr. W. N. Beauclerk in his 
 .Rural Italy (1888), "we may compare the words of the German 
 I ballad: 'In Italy macaroni ready cooked rains from the sky, and 
 the vines are festooned with sausages,' with the words today 
 rife throughout the Kingdom, 'Rural Italy is poor and miserable, 
 and has no future in store for her.' The fact is that Italy is 
 rich in capabilities of production, but exhausted in spontaneous 
 fertility. Her vast forests have been cut down, giving place to 
 sterile and malarious ground: the plains and shores formerly 
 covered with wealthy and populous cities are now deserted 
 marshes: Sardinia and other ancient granaries of the Roman 
 Empire are empty and unproductive: two-thirds of the Kingdom 
 are occupied by mountains impossible of cultivation, and the 
 remainder is to a large extent ill-farmed and unremunerative. 
 To call Italy the 'Garden of Europe' under these circumstances 
 seems cruel irony." 
 
 [60] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 Ariminium and beyond Picenum, which was allotted 
 to colonists, is called Roman Gaul. There in several 
 places a single jugerum of land produces ten cuUei 
 of wine.' Is it not the same in the region of Faventia 
 where the vines are called tre centaria because a 
 jugerum yields three hundred amphorae of wine," and, 
 looking at me, he added, "indeed L. Martius, your 
 chief engineer, said that the vines on his Faven- 
 tine farm yielded that much.' The Italian farmer 
 looks chiefly for two things in considering a farm, 
 whether it will yield a harvest proportioned to the 
 capital and labour he must invest, and whether the 
 location is healthy. Whoever neglects either of these 
 considerations and despite them proposes to carry 
 on a farm, is a fool and should be taken in charge by 
 a committee of his relatives.* For no sane man is 
 
 ' As we may assume that the yields of wine of which Funda- 
 nius boasts were the largest of which Varro had information in 
 the Italy of his time, it is interesting to compare them with the 
 largest yields of the most productive wine country of France 
 today. Fifteen cullei, or three hundred amphorae per jugerum, 
 is the equivalent of 2700 gallons per acre: while according to 
 P. Joigneauz, in the Livre de la Ferine, the largest yields in 
 modem France are in the Midi (specifically Herault), where in 
 exceptional cases they amount to as much as 250 hectolitres to 
 the hectare, or say 2672 gallons per acre. It may be noted that 
 the yields of the best modem wines, like Burgundy, are less than 
 half of this, and it is probable that the same was true of the 
 vinum Setinum of Augustus, if not of the Horatian Massic. 
 
 * The modem Italian opinion of farming in a fertile but un- 
 healthy situation is expressed with a grim humour in the Tuscan 
 
 [61] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 willing to spend on an agricultural operation time 
 and money which he knows he cannot recoup, nor 
 even if he sees a likely profit, if it must be at the risk 
 of losing all by an evil climate. 
 
 "But there are here present those who can dis- 
 course on this subject with more authority than I, for 
 I see C. Licinius Stolo and Cn. Tremelius Scrofa 
 approaching. It was the ancestor of the first of these 
 who brought in the law for the regulation of land- 
 holding; for the law which forbade a Roman citizen 
 to own more than 500 jugera of land was proposed 
 by that Licinius who acquired the cognomen of 
 Stolo on account of his diligence in cultivating his 
 land : he is said to have dug around his trees so thor- 
 oughly that there could not be found on his farm a 
 single one of those suckers which spring up from 
 the ground at the roots of trees and are called stolones. 
 Of the same family was that other C. Licinius who, 
 when he was tribune of the people, 365 years after 
 the expulsion of the Kings, first transferred the 
 Sovereign function of law making from the Comitium 
 to the Forum, thus as it were constituting that area 
 the 'farm' of the entire people. ^ The other whom 
 
 proverb: "in Maremma s'arricchisce in un anno, si muore in 
 sei mesi." 
 
 1 This is Keil's ingenious interpretation of an obscure passage. 
 We may compare the English designation of a church yard as 
 "God's acre." What Licinius Crassus actually did was, while 
 
 [62] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 I see come hither is Cn. Tremelius Scrofa, your 
 colleague on the Committee of Twenty for the 
 division of the Campanian lands, a man distinguished 
 by all the virtues and considered to be the Roman 
 most expert in agriculture,' 
 
 "And justly so," I exclaimed, " for his farms are a 
 more pleasing spectacle to many on account of their 
 clean cultivation than the stately palaces of others; * 
 
 haranguing from the rostra, to turn his back upon the Comitium, 
 where the Senators gathered, and address himself directly to 
 the people assembled in the Forum. The act was significant as 
 indicating that the sovereignty had changed place. 
 
 ' Tremelius Scrofa was the author of a treatise on agriculture, 
 which Columella cites, but which has not otherwise survived. 
 
 ^ "It was a received opinion amongst the antients that a large, 
 busy, well peopled village, situated in a country thoroughly 
 cultivated, was a more magnificent sight than the palaces of 
 noblemen and princes in the midst of neglected lands." Harte's 
 Essays on Husbandry, p. ii. This is a delightful book, the ripe 
 product of a gentleman and a scholar. In the middle of the 
 eighteenth century it advocated what we are still advocating — 
 that agriculture, as the basis of national wealth, deserves the 
 study and attention of the highest intelligence; specifically it 
 proposed the introduction of new grasses and forage crops (al- 
 falfa above all others) to enable the land to support more live 
 stock. It was published in 1764, just after France had ceded 
 to England by the Treaty of Paris all of her possessions in 
 America east of the Mississippi River; and not the least in- 
 teresting passages of Harte's book are those proposing an agri- 
 cultural development of the newly acquired territory between 
 Lake Illinois (Michigan) and the Mississippi, which he suggests 
 may be readily brought under cultivation with the aid of the 
 buffaloes of the country. He shrewdly says: "Maize may be 
 raised in this part of Canada to what quantity we please, for it 
 
 I63] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 when one goes to visit his country place, one sees 
 granaries and not picture galleries, as at the 'farm' 
 of LucuUus.' Indeed," I added, "the apple market 
 at the head of the Sacred Way is the very image of 
 Scrofa's fruit house." 
 
 As the new comers joined us, Stolo inquired: "Have 
 we arrived after dinner is over, for we do not see 
 L. Fundilius who invited us." 
 
 "Be of good cheer," replied Agrius, "for not only 
 has that egg which indicates the last lap of the chariot 
 race in the games at the circus not yet been removed, 
 but we have not even seen that other egg which is 
 
 grows there naturally in great abundance." It happened, how- 
 ever, that a few years later, in 1778, Col. George Rogers Clark 
 of Virginia made a certain expedition through the wilderness 
 to the British outpost at Vincennes, which saved England the 
 trouble of taking Harte's advice, but that it has not been neg- 
 lected may be evident from the fact that less than a century 
 and a half later, or in 1910, the State of Illinois produced 415 
 million bushels of maize, besides twice as much oats and half 
 as much wheat as did old England herself in the same year of 
 grace. 
 
 Harte was the travelling governor of that young Mr. Stan- 
 hope, to whom my lord Chesterfield wrote his famous worldly 
 wise letters. He was the author also of a Life of Gustavus 
 Adolfhus, which was a failure. Dr. Johnson, who liked Harte, 
 said: "It was unlucky in coming out on the same day with 
 Robertson's History of Scotland. His Husbandry, however, 
 is good." [Boswell, IV, 91). With this judgment of Dr. John- 
 son there has been, and must be, general concurrence. 
 
 ^ Pliny records (H. N. XVIII, 7) that at LucuUus' farm there 
 was less ground for ploughing than of floor for sweeping. 
 
 [64] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 the first course of dinner.^ And so until the Sacris- 
 tan returns and joins us do you discourse to us of the 
 uses or the pleasures of agriculture, or of both. For 
 now the sceptre of agriculture is in your hands, which 
 formerly, they say, belonged to Stolo." 
 
 "First of all," began Scrofa, "we must have a 
 definition. Are we to be limited in discussing agri- 
 culture to the planting of the land or are we to touch 
 also on those other occupations which are carried on 
 in the country, such as feeding sheep and cattle. For 
 I have observed that those who write on agriculture, 
 whether in Greek or Punic or Latin, wander widely 
 from their subject." 
 
 "I do not think that those authors should be imi- 
 tated in that," said Stolo, "for I deem them to have 
 done better who have confined the subject to the 
 straitest limits, excluding all considerations which 
 are not strictly pertinent to the subject. Wherefore 
 the subject of grazing, which many writers treat as 
 a part of agriculture, seems to me to belong rather 
 to a treatise on live stock. That the occupations 
 are different is apparent from the difference in the 
 names of those we put in charge of them, for we call 
 one the farmer (villicus) and the other the herdsman 
 {magister pecoris). The farmer is charged with the 
 
 ' Eggs were the first course, as apples were the last, at a 
 Roman dinner, hence the saying "ab ovo usque ad mala." 
 
 I6s] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 cultivation of the land and is so called from the villa 
 or farm house to which he hauls in the crops from the 
 fields and from which he hauls them away when they 
 are sold. Wherefore also the peasants say vea for 
 via, deriving their word for the road over which they 
 haul from the name of the vehicle in which they do 
 the hauling, vectura, and by the same derivation vella 
 for villa, the farm house to and from which they haul. 
 In like manner the trade of a carrier is called vellatura 
 from the practice of driving a vectura, or cart." 
 
 "Surely," said Fundanius, "feeding cattle is one 
 thing and agriculture is another, but they are related. 
 Just as the right pipe of the tibia is different from the 
 left pipe, yet are they complements because while 
 the one leads, it is to carry the air, and the other 
 follows, it is for the accompaniment." 
 
 "And, to push your analogy further, it may be 
 added," said I, "that the pastoral life, like the tibia 
 dextra, has led and given the cue to the agricultural 
 life, as we have on the authority of that learned man 
 Dicaearchus who, in his Life of Greece from the earliest 
 times, shows us how in the beginning men pursued 
 a purely pastoral life and knew not how to plough nor 
 to plant trees nor to prune them; only later taking up 
 the pursuits of agriculture; whence it may be said that 
 agriculture is in harmony with the pastoral life but is 
 subordinate to it, as the left pipe is to the right pipe." 
 
 [66] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 "Beware," exclaimed Agrius, "of pushing your 
 musical analogy too far, for you would not only rob 
 the farmer of his cattle and the shepherd of his liveli- 
 hood, but you would even break the law of the land 
 in which it is written that a farmer may not graze a 
 young orchard with that pestiferous animal which 
 astrology has placed in the heavens near the Bull." 
 
 "See here, Agrius," said Fundanius, "let there be 
 no mistake about this. The law you cite applies only 
 to certain designated kinds of cattle, as indeed there 
 are kinds of cattle which are the foes and the bane 
 of agriculture such as those you have mentioned — 
 the goats — ^for by their nibbling they ruin young 
 plantations, and not the least vines and olives. But, 
 because the goat is the greatest offender in this re- 
 spect, we have a rule for him which works both ways, 
 namely: that victims of his family are grateful offer- 
 ings on the altar of one god but should never come 
 near the fane of another; since by reason of the same 
 hate one god is not willing even to see a goat and 
 the other is pleased to see him killed. So it is that 
 goats found among the vines are sacrificed to Father 
 Bacchus as it were that they should pay the penalty 
 of their evil doing with their lives; while on the con- 
 trary nothing of the goat kind is ever sacrificed to 
 Minerva, because they are said to make the olive 
 sterile even by licking it, for their very spittle is 
 
 [67] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 poison to the fruit. For this reason goats are never 
 driven into the Acropolis of Athens, except once a 
 year for a certain necessary sacrifice, lest the olive 
 tree, which is said to have its origin there,* might be 
 touched by a goat." 
 
 "No kind of cattle," said I, "are of any use to 
 agriculture except those which aid in the cultivation 
 of the land, as they do when they are yoked to the 
 plough." 
 
 "If this was so," said Agrasius, "how could we 
 afford to take cattle off the land, since it is from our 
 flocks and herds that we derive the manure which 
 is of the greatest benefit to our purely agricultural 
 operations." 
 
 "On your argument of convenience," said Agrius, 
 "we might claim that slftve dealing was a branch of 
 
 * Cf. Gilbert Murray's version of Euripides' Troades, 799: 
 
 In Salamis, filled with the foaming 
 
 Of billows and murmur of bees, 
 Old Telamon stayed from his roaming, 
 
 Long ago, on a throne of the seas; 
 Looking out on the hills olive laden, 
 
 Enchanted, where first from the earth 
 The gray-gleaming fruit of the Maiden 
 
 Athena had birth. 
 
 The physical reason why the olive flourished in Attica, as 
 Theophrastus points out (C. P. V. II, 2), was because it craves 
 a thin soil, and that of Attica, with its out-croppings of calcare- 
 ous rock, suits the olive perfectly, while fit for little else agri- 
 cultural. 
 
 [68] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 agriculture, if they were agricultural slaves which we 
 dealt in. The error lies in the assumption that be- 
 cause cattle are good for the land, they make crops 
 grow on the land. It does not follow, for by that 
 reasoning other things would become part of agricul- 
 ture which have nothing to do with it: as for example 
 spinsters and weavers and other craftsmen which 
 you might keep on your farm." 
 
 "Let us then agree," said Scrofa, "to exclude live 
 stock from our consideration of the art of agriculture. 
 Does any one want to exclude any thing else?" 
 
 "Are we to follow the book of the two Sasernas," 
 I inquired, "and discuss whether the manufacture of 
 pottery is more related to agriculture than mining 
 for silver or other metals? Doubtless the material 
 comes out of the ground in both cases, but no one 
 claims that quarrying for stone or washing sand has 
 any thing to do with agriculture, so why bring in 
 the potter? It is not a question of what comes out of 
 the land, nor of what can be done profitably on a 
 farm, for if it were it might as well be argued that 
 had one a farm lying along a frequented road and a 
 site on it convenient to travellers, it would be the 
 farmer's business to build a cross-roads tavern. But 
 surely, however profitable this might prove, it would 
 not make the speculation any part of agriculture. 
 It is not, I repeat, whether the business is carried on 
 
 I69J 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGKMF.Nl 
 
 on account of the land, nor out of the land, that it 
 may be classed as a part of agriculture, but only if 
 from planting the land one gains a profit." 
 
 "You are jealous of this great writer," interrupted 
 Stolo. "Because of his unfortunate potteries you 
 rebuke him captiously and give him no credit for all 
 the admirable things which he says about matters 
 which certainly relate to agriculture." 
 
 At this sally, Scrofa, who knew the book and justly 
 contemned it, smiled, whereupon Agrasius, who 
 thought that he and Stolo alone knew the book de- 
 manded of Scrofa a quotation from it. 
 
 "Here is his recipe for getting rid of bugs," said 
 Scrofa. " ' Steep a wild cucumber in water and where- 
 ever you sprinkle it the bugs will disappear,' and 
 again, 'Grease your bed with ox gall mixed with 
 vinegar.' " 
 
 Fundanius looked at Scrofa. "And yet Saserna 
 gives good advice even if it is in a book on agri- 
 culture," he said. 
 
 "Yes, by Hercules," said Scrofa, "and especially 
 in his recipe for removing superfluous hair, in which 
 he bids you take a yellow frog and stew it down to a 
 third of its size and then rub the body with what is 
 left." 1 
 
 * In the Geoponica (XIII, 15) there has been preserved a 
 remedy for a similar evil, which, in all fairness, should be credited 
 
 [70] 
 
.vOMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 "I would rather cite," said I, "Sasemas' prescrip- 
 tion for the malady from which Fundanius suffers, 
 for his corns make wrinkles on his brow." 
 
 "Tell me, pray, quickly," exclaimed Fundanius, 
 "for I had rather learn how to root out my corns 
 than how to plant beet roots." 
 
 "I will tell you," said Stolo, "in the very words 
 he wrote it, or at least as I heard Tarquenna read it: 
 'When a man's feet begin to hurt he should think 
 of you to enable you to cure him.'" 
 
 "I am thinking of you," said Fundanius, "now 
 cure my feet." 
 
 "Listen to the incantation," said Stolo. 
 
 'May the earth keep the malady, 
 May good health remain here.' 
 
 Sasema bids you chant this formula thrice nine 
 times, to touch the earth, to spit and be sure that 
 you do it all before breakfast." 
 
 "You will find," said I, "many other wonderful 
 secrets in Saserna, all equally foreign to agriculture, 
 and so all to be left where they are. But it must be 
 admitted that such digressions are found in many 
 other authors. Does not the agricultural treatise of 
 
 to Sasema. In any event, it is what the newspapers used to call 
 "important, if true," viz: "If ever you come into a place where 
 fleas abound, cry Ochl Och! i&x, &x) and they will not touch 
 you." 
 
 [71] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 the great Cato himself fairly bristle with them, as 
 for instance his instructions how to make must cake 
 and cheese cake, and how to cure hams?" 
 
 "You forget," said Agrius, "his most important 
 precept: 'If you wish to drink freely and dine well 
 in company, you should eat five leaves of raw cabbage 
 steeped in vinegar, before sitting down to the table.' " 
 
 b. What agriculture is 
 
 III. "And so," said Agrasius, "as we have agreed 
 upon and eliminated from the discussion all those 
 things which agriculture is not, it remains to discuss 
 what it is. Is it an art, and, if so, what are its prin- 
 ciples and its purposes?" 
 
 Stolo turned to Scrofa and said: "You are our 
 senior in age, in reputation and in experience, you 
 should speak." And Scrofa, nothing loath, began 
 as follows: 
 
 "In the first place, agriculture is not only an art 
 but an art which is as useful as it is important. It is 
 furthermore a science, which teaches how every kind 
 of land should be planted and cultivated, and how 
 to know what kind of land will produce the largest 
 crops for the longest time.* 
 
 * The editor of an Iowa farm journal, who has been making 
 a study of agricultural Europe, has recently reported an inter- 
 esting comparison between the results of extensive farming as 
 
 [72] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 The purposes of agriculture are profit and pleasure 
 
 rV. The elements with which this science deals 
 are the same as those which Ennius says are the ele- 
 ments of the universe — ^water, earth, air and fire. 
 Before sowing your seed it behooves you to study 
 these elements because they are the ori^n of all 
 growing things. So prepared, the farmer should 
 direct his efforts to two ends: profit and pleasure,^ 
 
 practised in Iowa and intensive farming as practised in Bavaria. 
 He begins with the thesis that the object of agriculture is to put 
 the energy of the sun's rays into forms which animals and human 
 beings can use, and, reducing the crop production of each 
 country to thermal units, he finds "that for every man, woman 
 and child connected with farming in Iowa 14,200 therms of sun's 
 energy were imprisoned, while for every man, woman and child 
 connected with farming in Bavaria only 2,600 therms were 
 stored up. In other words, the average Iowa farmer is six times 
 as successful in his efforts to capture the power of the sun's rays 
 as the average Bavarian farmer. On the other hand, the average 
 acre of Iowa land is only about one-seventh as successful as the 
 average acre of Bavarian land in supporting those who live on 
 it. If we look on land as the unit, then the Bavarians get better 
 results than we in Iowa, but if we look on human labor as the 
 unit, then the Iowa farmers are far ahead of those of Bavaria." 
 
 It may be remarked that if the Iowa farmer, who gets his 
 results by the use of machinery, was te adopt also the intensive 
 practice of the Bavarian farmer, he would secure at once the 
 greatest efficiency per acre and per man. and that is the true 
 purpose of agriculture. \ 
 
 ^ It is one of the charms of Varro's treatise that he always 
 insists cheerfully on the pleasure to be derived from the land. 
 It is the same spirit which Cbnnington has remarked cropping 
 
 I73l 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 one solid the other agreeable : but he should give the 
 
 preference to the pursuit of profit.' And yet those 
 
 out in many places in Virgil*s Georgics—tlae joy of the husband- 
 man in his work, as in the "iuvat" of 
 
 "iuvat Ismara Baccho 
 G)nserere, atque olea magnum vestire Taburnum." 
 
 This is the blessed "surcease of sorrow" of which the crowded 
 life of the modern city knows nothing: but, as the practical 
 Roman indicates, it will not support life of its own mere motion. 
 Cf. Dr. Johnson's picture of Shenstone: "He began from this 
 time to entangle his walks and to wind his waters: which he did 
 with such judgment and such fancy as made his little domain 
 the envy of the great and the admiration of the skillful. His 
 house was mean, and he did not improve it: his care was of his 
 grounds. ... In time his ezpences brought clamours about 
 him, that overpowered the lambs' bleat and the linnets' song; 
 and his groves were haunted by beings very different from 
 fawns and fairies." 
 
 ' Walter of Henley, in thirteenth century England, drove home 
 a shrewd comment on the country gentleman who farms with- 
 out keeping accounts and thinks he is engaged in a profit- 
 able industry. "You know surely," he says, "that an acre 
 sown with wheat takes three ploughings, except lands which 
 are sown yearly, and that one with another each ploughing is 
 worth six pence, and harrowing a penny, and on the acre it is 
 necessary to sow at least two bushels. Now two bushels at 
 Michaelmas are worth at least twelve pence, and weeding a 
 half penny and reaping five pence, and carrying in August a 
 penny : the straw will pay for rfie threshing. At three times your 
 sowing you ought to have six bushels, worth three shillings; and 
 the cost amounts to three shillings and three half pence, and 
 the ground is yours and not reckoned." 
 
 Of Walter of Henley little is known, but it is conjectured 
 that he was the bailiff of the manors near Henley which be- 
 longed to the Abbey of Canterbury. His curious and valuable 
 Dite de Hosebondrie, which is as original in its way as Cato's 
 
 l74] 
 
ROMAN FARM MAxNAGEMENT 
 
 who have regard for appearances in their farming, 
 as for instance by planting their orchards and olive 
 yards in orderly array, often add not only to the pro- 
 ductiveness of the farm but as well to its saleability, 
 and so doubly increase the value of their estate. For 
 of two things of equal usefulness, who would not 
 prefer to buy the better looking? 
 
 The farm which is healthiest is the most valuable, 
 for there the profit is certain. On the other hand, on 
 an unhealthy farm, however fertile it may be, mis- 
 fortune dogs the steps of the farmer. For where the 
 struggle is against Death, there not only is the profit 
 uncertain, but one's very existence is constantly at 
 risk: and so agriculture becomes a gamble in which 
 the farmer hazards both his life and his fortune. 
 And yet this risk can be diminished by forethought, 
 for, when health depends upon climate, we can do 
 much to control nature and by diligence improve 
 evil conditions. If the farm is unhealthy by reason 
 of the plight of the land itself, or of the water supply, 
 or is exposed to the miasma which breeds in some 
 localities, or if the farm is too hot on account of the 
 climate, or is exposed to mischievous winds, these 
 discomforts can be mitigated by one who knows what 
 
 treatise, being entirely free from mere literary tradition, is now 
 available to the modern reader in a translation, from the orig- 
 inal barbarous English law French, by Elizabeth Lamond, 
 made for the Royal Historical Society in 1890. 
 
 175) 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 to do and is willing to spend some money. What is 
 of the greatest importance in this respect is the situa- 
 tion of the farm buildings, their plan and convenience, 
 and what is the aspect of their doors and gates and 
 windows. During the great plague, Hippocrates the 
 physician saved not merely one farm but many cities 
 because he knew this. But why should I summon 
 him as a witness : for when the army and the fleet lay 
 at Corcyra • and all the houses were crowded with 
 the sick and dying, did not our Varro here contrive 
 to open new windows to the healthy North wind and 
 close those which gave entrance to the infected 
 breezes of the South, to change doors and to do other 
 such things, and so succeed in restoring his comrades 
 safe and sound to their native land? 
 
 The fourfold division of the study of agriculture 
 
 V. I have rehearsed the elements and the purposes 
 of agriculture, it now remains to consider in how many 
 divisions this science is to be studied." 
 
 "I have supposed these to be without number," 
 said Agrius, "when I have read the many books 
 which Theophrastus wrote on The History of Plants 
 and The Causes of Vegetation. 
 
 ^ This was just before Pharsalia, and the army was that of 
 Pompey which Varro had joined after surrendering to Caesar 
 in Spain. 
 
 I 76] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 "These books," said Stolo, "have always seemed to 
 me to be fitter for use in the schools of the philosophers 
 than in the hands of a practical farmer. I do not 
 mean to say that they do not contain many things 
 which are both useful and practical. However that 
 may be, do you rather explain to us the divisions in 
 which agriculture should be studied." 
 
 "There are four chapters for the study of agricul- 
 ture, of the highest practical importance," resumed 
 Scrofa, "namely: 
 
 1° What are the physical characteristics of the land 
 to be cultivated, including the constitution of the 
 soil; 
 
 2° What labour and equipment are necessary for 
 such cultivation; 
 
 3° What system of farming is to be practised; 
 
 4° What are the seasons at which the several farm- 
 ing operations are to be carried out. 
 
 Each of these four chapters may be divided in 
 at least two subdivisions : 
 
 The first into (a) a study of the soil, and (b) a 
 survey of the buildings and stabling. 
 
 The second into an enquiry as to (c), the men who 
 will carry on the farming operations, and (d) the 
 implements they will require. 
 
 The third into {e) the kind of work to be planned, 
 and (/) where that work is to be done. 
 
 l77] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 The fourth into what relates (g) to the annual 
 revolution of the sun, and (A) the monthly revolution 
 of the moon. 
 
 I will speak of the four principal parts first, and 
 then in detail of the eight subdivisions 
 
 1° CONCERNING THE FARM ITSELF 
 
 How conformation of the land affects agriculture 
 
 VI. Four things must be considered in respect of 
 the physical characteristics of the farm: its conforma- 
 tion, the quality of the soil, its extent, and whether 
 it is naturally protected. The conformation is either 
 natural, or artificial as the result of cultivation, and 
 may be good or bad in either case. I will speak first 
 of natural conformation, of which there are three 
 kinds: plain, hill and mountain — although there is a 
 fourth kind made up of a combination of any two or 
 all three of those mentioned, as may be seen in many 
 places. A different system of cultivation is required 
 for each of these three kinds of farms, for without 
 doubt that which is suited for the hot plain would 
 not suit the windy mountain, while a hill farm en- 
 joys a more temperate climate than either of the 
 other two kinds and so demands its own system of 
 cultivation. These distinctions are most apparent 
 
 [78] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 when the several characteristic conformations are of 
 large extent, as for example the heat and the humidity 
 are greater in a broad plain, like that of Apulia, 
 while on a mountain like Vesuvius the climate is 
 usually fresher and so more healthy. Those who 
 cultivate the lowlands feel the effects of their climate 
 most in summer, but they are able to do their planting 
 earlier in the spring, while those who dwell in the 
 mountains suffer most from their climate in winter, 
 and both sow and reap at later seasons. Frequently 
 the winter is more propitious to those who dwell in 
 the plains because then the pastures are fresh there 
 and the trees may be pruned more readily. On the 
 other hand the summer is more kindly in the moun- 
 tains for then the upland grass is rich when the pas- 
 tures of the plains are burnt, and it is more com- 
 fortable to cultivate the trees in a keen air. 
 
 A lowland farm is best when it is gently sloping 
 rather than absolutely flat, because on a flat farm 
 water cannot run off and so forms swampy places. 
 But it is a disadvantage to have the surface too roll- 
 ing because that causes the water to collect and form 
 ponds. 
 
 Certain trees, like the fir and the pine, flourish 
 most in the mountains on account of the eager air, 
 while in this region where it is more temperate the 
 poplars and the willows thrive best. Again the arbute 
 
 [79] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 and the oak prefer the more fertile lands, while the 
 almond and the fig trees love the lowlands.* The 
 growth on the low hills takes on more of the character 
 of the plains, on the high hills that of the mountains. 
 For these reasons the kind of crops to be planted 
 must be suited to the physical characteristics of the 
 
 ^ In this enumeration of trees Varro does not include the 
 chestnut which is now one of the features of the Italian moun- 
 tain landscape and furnishes support for a considerable part of 
 the Italian population, who subsist on necci, those indigestible 
 chestnut flour cakes, just as the Irish peasants do on potatoes. 
 The chestnut was late in getting a foothold in Italy but it was 
 there in Varro's day. He mentions the nuts as part of the diet 
 of dormice (III, 15). 
 
 By the thirteenth century chestnuts had become an estab- 
 lished article of human food in Italy. Pietro Crescenzi (1230- 
 1307) describes two varieties, the cultivated and the wild, and 
 quotes the Arabian physician Avicenna to the effect that chest- 
 nuts are "di tarda digestione ma di buono nuttimento." It is 
 perhaps for this very reason that chestnut bread is acceptable 
 to those engaged in heavy labor. Fynes Moryson says in his 
 Itinerary (1617) that maslln bread made of a mixture of rye 
 and wheat flour was used by labourers in England because it 
 "abode longer in the stomach and was not so soon digested with 
 their labour." 
 
 Crescenzi, who was a lawyer and a judge, says in his preface 
 that he had left his native Bologna because of the civil strifes, 
 had taken foreign service in several parts of Italy, and so had 
 opportunity to see the world. He wrote his book on agriculture 
 because, as he says, of all the things he learned on his travels 
 there was nothing "piu a bondevole, niuna piu dolce, et niuna 
 piu degna de I'huomo libero," a sentiment which Socrates had 
 expressed sixteen hundred years earlier and which was echoed 
 six hundred years later by another far-sighted Italian, the states- 
 man Cavour. 
 
 [80] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 farm, as grain for the plains, vines for the hills and 
 forests for the mountains. 
 
 All these considerations should be weighed sepa- 
 rately with reference to each of the three kinds of con- 
 formation." 
 
 VII. "It seems to me," said Stolo, "that, so far 
 as concerns the natural situation of a farm, Cato's 
 opinion is just. He wrote, you will recall, that the 
 best farm was one which lay at the foot of a moun- 
 tain looking to the South." 
 
 Scrofa resumed: "So far as concerns the laying 
 out of the farm, I maintain that the more appear- 
 ances are considered the greater will be the profit, as, 
 for instance, orchards should be planted in straight 
 lines arranged in quincunxes and at a reasonable 
 distance apart. It is a fact that, because of their 
 unintelligent plan of planting, our ancestors made 
 less wine and com to the acre than we do. The 
 point is that if each plant is set with due reference to 
 the others they occupy less land and are less likely 
 to screen from one another the influence of the sun 
 and the moon and the air. This may be illustrated 
 by an experiment: you can press a parcel of nuts with 
 their shells on into a measure having only two thirds 
 of the capacity of what is required to contain them 
 after they have been cracked, because the shells 
 keep them naturally compacted. When trees are 
 
 [8il 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 planted in rows the sun and the moon have access 
 to them equally from all sides, with the result that 
 more raisins and olives are developed and then ma- 
 ture more quickly, a double result with the double 
 consequence of a larger crop of must and oil and a 
 greater profit. 
 
 How character of soil affects agriculture 
 
 We will now take up the second consideration in 
 respect of the physical characteristics of a farm, 
 namely: the quality of the soil, which partly, if not 
 entirely, determines whether it is considered a good 
 or a bad farm: for on this depends what crops can be 
 planted and harvested and how they should be cul- 
 tivated, as it is not possible to plant everything suc- 
 cessfully on the same soil. For one soil is suitable 
 for vines, another for corn, and others for other things. 
 In the island of Crete, near Cortynia, there is said 
 to be a plane tree which does not lose its leaves even 
 in winter — a phenomenon due doubtless to the quality 
 of the soil. There is another of the same kind in 
 Cyprus, according to Theophrastus. Likewise within 
 sight of the city of Sybaris (which is now called 
 Thurii) stands an oak having the same characteristic. 
 Again at Elephantine neither the vines nor the fig 
 trees lose their leaves, something that never hap- 
 pens with us. For the same reason many trees bear 
 
 182] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 fruit twice a year, as do the vines near the sea at 
 Smyrna, and the apples in the fields of Consentinium. 
 The effect of soil appears also from the fact that 
 those plants which bear most profusely in wild places 
 produce better fruit under cultivation. The same 
 explanation applies to those plants which cannot 
 live except in a marshy place, or indeed in the very 
 water: they are even nice about the kind of water, 
 some grow in ponds like the reeds at Reate, others in 
 streams like the alders in Epirus, some even in the 
 sea like the palms and the squills of which Theophras- 
 tus writes. When I was in the army, I saw in Transal- 
 pine Gaul, near the Rhine, lands where neither the 
 vine, nor the olive, nor the pear tree grew, where they 
 manured their fields with a white chalk which they 
 dug out of the ground:^ where they had no salt, 
 
 * The white chalk which Scrofa saw used as manure in Trans- 
 alpine Gaul, when he was serving in the army under Julius 
 Qesar, was undoubtedly marl, the use of which in that region 
 as in Britain was subsequently noted by Pliny (H. N. XVII, 4). 
 
 There were no deposits of marl in Italy, and so the Romans 
 knew nothing of its use, from experience, but Pliny's treatment 
 of the subject shows a sound source of information. In England, 
 where several kinds of marl are found in quantities, its use was 
 probably never discontinued after the Roman times. Walter 
 of Henley discusses its use in the thirteenth century, and Sir 
 Anthony Fitzherbert continues the discussion in the sixteenth 
 century. In connection with the history of the use of marl in 
 agriculture may be cited the tender tribute which Arthur Young 
 recorded on the tombstone of his wife in Bradfield Church. The 
 lady's chief virtue appears to have been, in the memory of her 
 
 [83] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 either mineral or marine, but used in place of it the 
 salty ashes obtained from burning a certain kind of 
 wood." 
 
 Stolo here interrupted. "You will recall," he said, 
 "that Cato in comparing the different kinds of soil, 
 ranked them by their merit in nine classes according 
 to what they would produce, of which the first was 
 that on which the vine would grow a plentiful sup- 
 ply of good wine; the second that fit for an irrigated 
 garden; the third for an osier bed; the fourth for an 
 olive yard; the fifth for a meadow; the sixth for a corn 
 field; the seventh for a wood lot; the eighth for a 
 cultivated orchard, and the ninth for a mast grove." 
 
 "I know he wrote that," replied Scrofa, "but every 
 one does not agree with him. There are some who 
 put a good pasture first, and I am among them. 
 
 husband, that she was "the great-grand-daughter of John Allen, 
 esq. of Lyng House in the County of Norfolk, the first person 
 according to the Comte de Boulainvilliers, who there used 
 marl." 
 
 The Romans did not have the fight against sour land which 
 is the heritage of the modem farmer after years of continuous 
 application to his land of phosphoric and sulphuric acid in the 
 form of mineral fertilizers. What sour land the Romans had 
 they corrected with humus making barnyard manure, or the 
 rich compost which Cato and Columella recommend. They 
 had, however, a test for sourness of land which is still prac- 
 tised even where the convenient litmus paper is available. Virgil 
 {Georgic II, 241) gives the formula: "Fill a basket with soil, and 
 strain fresh water through it. The taste of water strained 
 through sour soil will twist awry the taster's face." 
 
 [84] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 Our ancestors were wont to call them not prata, as 
 we do, but parata (because they are always ready for 
 use). The aedile Caesar Vopicus, in pleading a cause 
 before the Censors, once said that the prairie of 
 Rosea was the nurse of Italy, because if one left his 
 surveying instruments there on the ground over night 
 they were lost next day in the growth of the grass. • 
 
 {A digression on the maintenance of vineyards) 
 
 VIII. There be those who assert that the cost of 
 maintaining a vineyard eats up the profit. What 
 
 * This sounds like the boast of the modem proprietor of an 
 old blue grass sod in Northern Virginia or Kentucky. On the 
 general question of pasture vs. arable land, cf. Hartlib's Lega^ 
 cie: "It is a misfortune that pasture lands are not more im- 
 proved. England abounds in pasturage more than any other 
 country, and is, therefore, richer. In France, acre for acre, the 
 land is not comparable to ours: and, therefore, Fortescue, chan- 
 cellor to Henry VI, observes that we get more in England by 
 standing still (alluding to our meadows) than the French do by 
 working (that is, cultivating their vineyards and com lands)." 
 
 We may permit Montesquieu {Esprit its Lois II, 23, 14) to 
 voice the French side of this question. "Les pais de paturage 
 sont peu peuples. Les terres a bled occupent plus d'hommes et 
 les vignobles infiniment d'avantage. En Angleterre on s'est 
 souvent plaint que I'augmentation des paturage diminuoit les 
 habitans." 
 
 In the introduction to his Book Two (post, p. 179) Varro 
 states the sound conclusion, that the two kinds of husbandry 
 should be combined on the same land. Sir Anthony Fitz- 
 herbert knew this: "An housbande can not well thryue by his 
 come without he haue other cattell, nor by his cattell without 
 come. For els he shall be a byer, a borrower or a beggar." 
 
 [85] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 kind of vineyard? I ask. For there are several: 
 in one the vines grow on the ground without props, 
 as in Spain; in another, which is the kind common 
 in Italy, the vines climb and are trained either 
 separately on props or one with another on a trellis, 
 which last is what is called marrying the vine. There 
 are four kinds of trellis in use — made out of poles, 
 of reeds, of ropes and of vines themselves, which 
 are in use respectively in Falerum, in Arpinum, in 
 Brundisium and in Mediolanum. There are two 
 methods of training the vine on trellises, one upright, 
 as is done in the country of Canusium; the other 
 crossed and interwoven, as is the practice generally 
 throughout Italy. If one obtains the material for 
 his trellises from his own land, the expense of main- 
 taining that kind of vineyard is negligible, nor is it 
 burdensome if the material is procured from the 
 neighbourhood. Such trellis material, as has been 
 described, can be grown at home by planting willows, 
 reeds and rushes, or some thing of that kind; but if 
 you propose to rely on the vines to form their own 
 trellis, then you must plant an arhustum where the 
 vines can be trained on trees, such as maples, which 
 the inhabitants of Mediolanum use for that purpose; 
 or fig trees, on which the people of Canusium train 
 their vines. Likewise there are four kinds of props 
 used for the cultivation of unwedded vines; first, 
 
 [86] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 the planted post, which is called ridicum and is best 
 when fashioned out of oak or juniper; second, poles 
 cut in the swamp, and the more seasoned they are 
 the longer they will last, but it is the practice to reset 
 them upside down when they rot out in the ground; 
 third, for lack of some thing better, a bundle of reeds 
 tied together and thrust into a pointed tube of baked 
 clay, which is then planted in the ground and serves 
 to preserve the reeds from water rot; the fourth is 
 what may be called the natural prop, when vines are 
 swung from tree to tree. Vines should be trained to 
 the height of a man and the interval between the 
 props should be sufficient to give room for a yoke of 
 oxen to plough. The least expensive kind of a vine- 
 yard is that which brings wine to the jug without the 
 aid of any sort of prop. There are two of this kind, 
 one in which the earth serves as a bed for the grapes, 
 as in many places in Asia, and where usually the 
 foxes share the crop with man;* or, if mice appear, 
 it is they who make the vintage, unless you put a 
 mouse trap in every vine, as they do on the island of 
 
 * This is the explanation of why ^sop's fox found the grapes 
 to be sour which grew on a trellis, for he had expected to find 
 them of easy access on the ground, ^sop was a Phrygian, and, 
 while Bentley has proved that ^sop never wrote the existing 
 fables which go by that name, yet it is recognized that they are 
 of Oriental origin and it is evident that that of the Fox and the 
 Grapes came out of Asia, where, as Varro says, the grapes were 
 usually allowed to grow on the ground. 
 
 [871 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 Pandataria. The other kind of vineyard, is that 
 where each shoot which promises to bear grapes is 
 lifted from the earth and supported about two feet 
 off the ground by a forked stick: by this means the 
 grapes, as they form, learn to hang as it were from a 
 branch and do not have to be taught after the vintage ; 
 they are held in place with a bit of cord or by that 
 kind of tie which the ancients called a cestus. As soon 
 as the farmer sees the vintagers turn their backs he 
 carries these props under cover for the winter so that 
 he may use them another year without expense for 
 that account. In Italy the people of Reate practise 
 this custom. 
 
 Thus there are as many methods of cultivating 
 the vine as there are kinds of soil. For where the 
 land is wet the vine must be trained high because 
 when wine is being made and matured on the vine, 
 it needs sun, not water — as when it is in the cup! 
 For this reason it was, I think, that first the vine 
 was made to grow on trees. 
 
 Of the different kinds of soil 
 
 IX. It is expedient then, as I was saying, to study 
 each kind of soil to determine for what it is, and for 
 what it is not, suitable. The word terra is used in 
 three senses: general, particular and mixed. It is a 
 general designation when we speak of the orb of the 
 
 [88] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 earth, the land of Italy or any other country. In 
 this designation is included rock and sand and other 
 such things. In the second place, terra is referred to 
 particularly when it is spoken of without qualifica- 
 tion or epithet. In the third place, which is the 
 mixed sense, when one speaks of terra as soil — ^that 
 in which seeds are sown and developed; as for ex- 
 ample, clay soil or rocky soil or others. In this sense 
 there are as many kinds of earth as there are when 
 one speaks of it in the general sense, on account of 
 the mixtures of substances in it in varying quantities 
 which make it of different heart and strength, such 
 as rock, marble, sand, loam, clay, red ochre, dust, 
 chalk, gravel, carbuncle (which is a condition of soil 
 formed by the burning of roots in the intense heat 
 of the sun) ; from which each kind of soil is called by 
 a particular name, in accordance with the substances 
 of which it is composed, as a chalky soil, a gravelly 
 soil, or what ever else may be its distinguishing qual- 
 ity. And as there are different varieties of soil so 
 each variety may be subdivided according to its 
 quality, as, for example, a rocky soil is either very 
 rocky, moderately rocky or hardly rocky at all. So 
 three grades may be made of other mixed soils. In 
 turn each of these three grades has three qualities: 
 some are very wet, some very dry, some moderate. 
 These distinctions are of the greatest importance 
 
 [89] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 in respect of the crops, for the skilled husbandman 
 plants spelt rather than wheat in wet land, and on 
 dry land barley rather than spelt, in medium land 
 both. Furthermore there are still more subtle dis- 
 tinctions to be made in respect of all these kinds of 
 soil, as for example it must be considered in respect 
 of loam, whether it is white loam or red loam, because 
 white loam is unfit for nursery beds, while red loam 
 is what they require. But the three great distinc- 
 tions of quality of soil are whether it is lean or fat, 
 or medium. Fat soils are apparent from the heavy 
 growth of their vegetation, and the lean lie bare; as 
 witness the territory of Pupinia (in Latium), where 
 all the foliage is meagre and the vines look starved, 
 where the scant straw never stools, nor the fig tree 
 blooms, while for the most part the trees are as cov- 
 ered with moss as are the arid pastures. On the 
 other hand, a rich soil like that of Etruria reveals 
 itself heavy with grain and forage crops and its 
 umbrageous trees are clean of moss. Soil of medium 
 strength, like that near Tibur, which one might 
 say is rather hungry than starvied, repays cultiva- 
 tion in proportion as it takes on the quality of rich 
 land." 
 
 "Diophanes of Bithynia," said Stolo, "was very 
 much to the point when he wrote that the best indi- 
 cation of the suitability of soil for cultivation can be 
 
 [90] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 had either from the soil itself or from what grows 
 in it: so one should ascertain whether it is white or 
 black, if it is light and friable when it is dug, whether 
 its consistency is ashy, or too heavy: or it can be 
 tested by evidence that the wild growth upon it is 
 heavy and fruitful after its kind.^ 
 
 But proceed and tell us of your third division, which 
 relates to the measurement and laying out of the 
 farm." 
 
 * One is tempted to include here Pliny's observations upon 
 the tests of good soil if only for the sake of his description of one 
 of the sweetest sensations of the fanner every where, the aroma 
 of new ploughed fertile land: — 
 
 "Those unguents which have a taste of earth are better," 
 says Cicero, "than those which smack of saflFron," it seeming to 
 him more to the purpose to express himself by the word taste 
 than smell. "And such is the fact no doubt, that soil is the best 
 which has the savour of a perfume. If the question should be 
 put to us, what is this odour of the earth that is held in such 
 estimation; our answer is that it is the same that is often to be 
 recognized at the moment of sunset without the necessity even 
 of turning up the ground, at the spots where the extremities of 
 the rainbow have been observed to meet the earth: as also, when 
 after long continued drought, the rain has soaked the ground. 
 Then it is that the earth exhales the divine odour ^at is so 
 peculiarly its own, and to which, imparted to it by the sun, 
 there is no perfume however sweet that can possibly be com- 
 pared. It is this odour which the earth, when turned up, ought 
 to emit, and which, when once found, can never deceive any 
 person: and this will be found the best criterion for judging 
 of the quality of the soil. Such, too, is the odour that is usually 
 perceived in land newly cleared when an ancient forest has been 
 just cut down; its excellence is a thing that is universally ad- 
 mitted. 
 
 [91] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 Of the units of area used in measuring land 
 
 X. Scrofa resumed: "Every country has its own 
 system for measuring land. In Further Spain the 
 unit of area is the jugum, in Campania the versus, 
 here in the Roman country and among the Latins 
 it is the jugerum. They call a jugum the area which 
 a pair of oxen can plough in a day. The versus is one 
 hundred feet square: the jugerum is the area contain- 
 ing two square actus: the actus quadratus or acnua, 
 as it is called by the Latins, measuring 120 feet in 
 width and as much in length.^ The smallest fraction 
 of a jugerum is called a scripulum and is ten feet 
 square. From this base the surveyors some times 
 call the butts of land which exceed a jugerum uncice 
 (twelfths) or sextantes (seventy seconds) or some other 
 such duodecimal division, for the jugerum contains 
 288 scripula, like the ancient pound weight which 
 was in use before the Punic wars. Two jugera, which 
 Romulus first made the headright and which thus 
 became the unit of inheritance, are called an hesre- 
 
 ' The actus was the head land or as much land as a yoke of 
 oxen could plough at a single spell without stopping, and meas- 
 ured 120 feet in length and four feet in width. Cf. Pliny, H. N. 
 XVIII, 3. Hence the square of the head land became the basis 
 of the Roman land measure. With the derivation of the actus 
 may be compared that of the English furlong (furrow-long) and 
 the French arpent (literally, head land). 
 
 [92] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 dium: ^ later one hundred haeredia were called a 
 centuria, which is 2,400 uncies square. Four centurise 
 adjoining, so that there are two on each side, are 
 called a saltus in the distribution of the public lands. 
 
 Of the considerations on building a steading 
 a. Size 
 
 XI. As the result of faulty surveys of the farm it 
 often happens that the steading is constructed either 
 too small or too large for the farm, a mistake which in 
 either case is of prejudice both to the property and 
 its revenue. If one builds too large or too many 
 buildings he is eaten up by the expense of mainte- 
 nance, while if one builds less than the farm requires 
 the harvest is lost, for there is no doubt that the larg- 
 est wine cellar must be provided for that farm on 
 which the vintages are largest, or granary, if it is a 
 grain farm. 
 
 b. Water supply 
 
 If possible, the steading should be so built that it 
 shall have water within the walls, or certainly near 
 at hand: it is preferable that this should be derived 
 from a spring, or, if not, then from an unfailing 
 
 ^ On the socialistic principle of Strepsiades in Aristophanes' 
 Clouds that the use of geometry is to divide the land into equal 
 parts. 
 
 [93] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 stream. If no running water is available a cistern 
 should be constructed within doors, and a pond in 
 the open, the one for the use of the men, the other for 
 the use of the cattle. 
 
 c. Location, with regard to health 
 
 XII. When you plan to build, try your best to 
 locate the steading at the foot of a wooded hill where 
 the pastures are rich, and turn it so as to catch the 
 healthiest prevailing breeze. The best situation is 
 facing the east so to secure shade in summer and sun 
 in winter. But if you must build on the bank of a 
 river, take care that you do not let the steading face 
 the river, for it will be very cold in winter and un- 
 healthy in summer. Like precautions must be taken 
 against swampy places for the same reasons and par- 
 ticularly because as they dry, swamps breed certain 
 animalculae which cannot be seen with the eyes and 
 which we breathe through the nose and mouth into 
 the body where they cause grave maladies." ^ 
 
 ^ As it is dififtcult to appreciate that the Roman Campagna 
 was formerly populous with villas, when one contemplates its 
 green solitudes today, so when one faces the dread malaria which 
 there breeds, one wonders how the Romans of the Republic 
 maintained so long their hardy constitutions. It is now agreed 
 that there was no malaria in the Land of Saturn so long as the 
 volcanos in the Alban hills were active, because their gases 
 purified the air and kept down the mosquitoes, and geology tells 
 us that Monte Pila was in eruption for two or three centuries 
 
 [94] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 "But," said Fundanius, "suppose I inherited a 
 farm like that, what should I do to avoid the malady 
 you describe?" 
 
 "The answer to that question is easy," said Agrius. 
 "You should sell the farm for what you can get for it: 
 and if you can't sell it, give it away." 
 
 Scrofa resumed: "Take care to avoid having the 
 steading face the direction from which disagreeable 
 winds blow, yet you should not build in a hollow. 
 High ground is the best location for a steading: for 
 by ventilation all noxious gases are dissipated, and 
 the steading is healthier if exposed to the sun all day: 
 with the further advantage that any insects which 
 may be bred in or brought upon the premises are 
 either blown away or quickly perish where there is 
 no damp. Sudden rains and overflowed streams are 
 
 after the foundation of Rome. By the beginning of the second 
 century B. C. the fever seems to have become endemic. Plautus 
 and Terence both mention it and Cato (CLVII) describes its 
 symptoms unmistakably. In his book on the effect of malaria 
 in history, W. H. Jones expresses the opinion that the malady 
 was brought into Italy from Africa by Hannibal's soldiers, but 
 it is more probable that it was always there. See the discussion 
 in Lanciani's Wanderings in the Roman Campagna. In Varro's 
 time the Roman fever had begun to sap the vitality of the 
 Roman people, and the "animalia minuta" in this passage sug- 
 gests that Varro had a curious appreciation of what we call the 
 modem science of the subject. Columella (I, 5, 6) indeed 
 specifically mentions mosquitoes (infestis aculeis armata ani- 
 malia) as one of the risks incident to living near a swamp. 
 
 [95] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 dangerous to those who have their steadings in low 
 or hollow places, and they are more at the hazard of 
 the ruthless hand of the robber because he is able to 
 take advantage of those who are unprepared. Against 
 either of these risks the higher places are safer. 
 
 d. Arrangement 
 
 XIII. In arranging the steading, see that the cattle 
 are put where they will be warm in winter. Such 
 crops as wine and oil should be housed below ground 
 in cellars, or rather in jars placed in such cellars, 
 while dry crops like beans, and hay, are best stored on 
 high board floors. A rest room should be provided 
 for the comfort of the hands where they can gather 
 after the day's work or for protection from cold or 
 heat and there recruit themselves in quiet. The room 
 of the overseer should be near the entrance to the 
 farm house so that he may know who comes in and 
 who goes out during the night, and what they bring 
 in or out, especially if there is no gate-keeper. The 
 kitchen also should be near the overseer's room be- 
 cause there in winter is great activity before day- 
 light when food is being prepared and eaten. Good 
 sized sheds should be built in the bam yard for the 
 wagons and other implements which might be dam- 
 aged by the rain. For while they may be kept safe 
 from the thief within the gates, yet if they are exposed 
 
 [96] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 to the weather they will be lost nevertheless. It is 
 
 better to have two barn yards for a large farm. The 
 
 inner court should contain a cistern like a little fish 
 
 pond into which the drainage from the eaves may 
 
 collect: as here the cattle and swine and geese can 
 
 drink and bathe in summer when they are driven in 
 
 from work or pasture. In the. outer court there 
 
 should be another pond where you can handle lupines 
 
 and such other things as must be soaked in water. 
 
 This exterior court yard should be strewn thick with 
 
 straw and chaff, which, by being trampled under 
 
 the feet of the cattle, becomes the handmaid of the 
 
 farm by reason of the service it renders when it is 
 
 hauled out. Every farm should have two manure 
 
 pits, or one divided into two parts; into one division 
 
 should be put the new manure from the bam, in the 
 
 other the old manure which is ready for use on the 
 
 farm: for new manure is not as good as that which 
 
 is well rotted.^ The manure pit is more serviceable 
 
 ^ In the thirteenth century Ibn-al-Awam, a learned Moor, 
 wrote at Seville his Kitab al-felahah, or Book of Agriculture, 
 which has preserved for us not only the wisdom of the Moorish 
 practice in agriculture and gardening which made Spain an 
 enchanted paradise, but also the tradition of the Arabs in such 
 matters, purporting to go back, through the Nabataeans to the 
 Chaldaean books, which recorded the agricultural methods that 
 obtained "by the waters of Babylon." Ibn-al-Awam's book 
 has, therefore, a double interest for us, and we are fortunate in 
 having it available in an admirable French translation from the 
 Arabic by J. J. Clement-Mullet (Paris, Librairie A. Franck, 
 
 [97] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 when its sides and top are protected from the sun by- 
 leaves and branches, for the sun draws out from the 
 manure those elements which the land requires; for 
 this reason experienced farmers sprinkle water on their 
 manure pits, and so largely preserve its quality : here 
 too some establish the privies for the slaves. One 
 should build a barracks (what we call a nubilarium 
 because it affords protection from the weather) and 
 it should be large enough to contain under its roof 
 the entire crop of the farm: this should be placed 
 near the threshing floor and left open only on the 
 side of the threshing floor, so that while threshing 
 you may conveniently throw out the com and if it 
 begins to cloud up then quickly throw it back again 
 under shelter. There should be windows in this 
 barracks on the side most fitted for ventilation." 
 
 "A farm would be more of a farm," said Fundanius, 
 "if the buildings were constructed with reference to 
 
 1864). Not the least profitable chapters in this book are those 
 devoted to the preparation of manure in composts, to be ripened 
 in pits as Varro advises in the text. They show a thoroughness, 
 a care and an art in the mixing of the various animal dungs, 
 with straw, woodsearth and cinders, which few modern gar- 
 deners could equal. German scholarship has questioned the 
 Chaldaean origin of the authorities quoted, but there is internal 
 evidence which smacks of an oriental despotism that might well 
 be Babylonian. In a recipe for a rich compost suitable for 
 small garden plants, we are advised (I, 2, I, p. 95), without a 
 quiver, to mix in blood — that of the camel or the sheep if 
 necessary — but human blood is to be preferredl 
 
 [98] 
 
ROiMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 the diligence of our ancestors rather than the luxury 
 of their descendants. For they built for use, while 
 we build to gratify an unbridled luxury. Their bams 
 were bigger than their houses, but the contrary is 
 often the case today. Then a house was praised if 
 it had a good kitchen, roomy stables and a cellar for 
 wine and oil fitted, according to the custom of the 
 country, with a floor draining into a reservoir, into 
 which the wine can flow when, as often happens after 
 the new wine has been laid by, the fermentation of the 
 must bursts both Spanish butts and our own Italian 
 tuns. In like manner our ancestors equipped a coun- 
 try house with whatever other things were necessary 
 to agriculture, but now on the contrary it is the effort 
 to make such a house as vast and as elegant as pos- 
 sible, and we vie with those palaces which men like 
 Metellus and LucuUus have built, to the detriment 
 of the very state itself: in them the effort is to con- 
 trive summer dining rooms fronting the cool east, 
 and those designed for use in winter facing the west- 
 em sun, rather than, as the ancients did, to adjust 
 their windows with regard chiefly to the cellars, since 
 wine in casks keeps best when it is cool, while oil 
 craves warmth. For this reason also it would seem 
 that the best place to put a house is on a hill, if noth- 
 ing obstructs it." 
 
 [^] LIBRARY 
 
 SEP 12 1949 
 
 DEPT. OF 
 AORIC ECON. 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 Of the protection of farm boundaries 
 a. Fences 
 
 XIV. "Now," resumed Scrofa, "I will speak of 
 fences, which are constructed for the protection of the 
 •farm or for dividing the fields. There are four kinds 
 of such barriers: natural, dead wood, military and ma- 
 sonry. The first is the natural fence of live hedge, 
 consisting of planted shrubs or thorns, and, as it has 
 roots, runs no risk from the flaming torch of the pass- 
 ing traveller who may be inclined to mischief. The 
 second kind is built of the wood of the country, but 
 is not alive. It is made either of palings placed close 
 together and wattled with twigs, or posts placed at 
 some distance apart and pierced to receive the ends 
 of rails, which are generally built two or three to the 
 panel, or else of trunks of trees laid on the ground 
 and joined in line. The third, or military fence, 
 consists of a ditch and a mound: but such a ditch 
 should be so constructed to collect all the rain water, 
 or it should be graded to drain the surface water off 
 the farm. The mound is best when constructed close 
 adjoining the ditch, or else it should be steep so that 
 it will be difficult to scale. It is customary to con- 
 struct this kind of fence along the public roads or 
 along streams. In the district of Crustumeria one 
 can see in many places along the via Salaria ditches 
 
 [loo] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 and mounds constructed as dikes against damage 
 by the river (Tiber). ^ Mounds are some times built 
 without ditches and are called walls, as in the country 
 around Reate. The fourth and last kind of fence is 
 of built up masonry. There are usually four varie- 
 ties: those of cut stone, as in the country around 
 Tusculum; those of burned brick, as in Gaul; those of 
 unbumed brick as in the Sabine country; those of 
 gravel concrete,* as in Spain and about Tarentum. 
 
 ^ What Varro describes as the military fence of ditch and 
 bank was doubtless the typical Herefordshire fence of modern 
 England which Arthur Young, in The Farmers* Letters, recom- 
 mends so highly as at once most eifective and most economical. 
 The bank is topped with a plashed hedge of white thorn in 
 which sallow, ash, hazel and beech are planted for "firing." 
 The fencing practice of the American farmer has followed the 
 line of least resistance and is founded on the lowest first cost: 
 the original "snake" fences of split rails, upon the making of 
 which a former generation of pioneer American boys qualified 
 themselves for Presidential campaigns, being followed by woven 
 wire "made by a trust" and not the most enduring achieve- 
 ment of Big Business. The practical farmer, as well as the 
 lover of rural scenery, has cause for regret that American agri- 
 cultural practice has not yet had the patience to enclose the 
 land within live hedges and ditches. 
 
 ^The kind of fence which Varro here describes as "ex terra 
 et lapillis compositis in formis" is also described by Pliny (H. N. 
 XXXV, 169), as formaceos or moulded, and he adds, "sevis 
 durant." It would thus clearly appear to have been of gravel 
 concrete, the use of which the manufacturers of cement are 
 now telling us, is the badge of the modem progressive farmer. 
 Cato (XXXVIII) told how to burn lime on the farm, and these 
 concrete fences were, of course, formed with lime as the matrix. 
 
 [lOl] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 b. Monuments 
 
 XV. Lacking fences, the more discreet establish 
 the boundaries of their property, or of their sowings, 
 by blazed trees, and so prevent neighbourhood quar- 
 rels and la wing about comers. Some plant pines 
 around their boundaries, as my wife did on her 
 Sabine farm, or cypresses, as I have on my property 
 on Vesuvius.^ Others plant elms, as many have done 
 in the district of Crustumeria: indeed, for planting 
 in plains where it flourishes there is no tree which 
 can be set out with such satisfaction or with more 
 profit than the elm, for it supports the vine and so 
 fills many a basket with grapes, yields its leaves to 
 be a most agreeable forage for flocks and herds, and 
 
 When only a few years ago, Portland cement was first pro- 
 duced in America at a cost and in a quantity to stimulate the 
 development of concrete construction, engineers began with 
 rough broken stone and sand as the constituents of what they 
 call the aggregate, but some one soon " discovered " that the use 
 of smooth natural gravel made more compact concrete and 
 " gravel concrete" became the last word in engineering practice. 
 But it was older even than Varro. A Chicago business man 
 visiting Mycens picked up and brought home a bit of rubbish 
 from Schliemann's excavations of the ancient masonry: lying 
 on his office desk it attracted the attention of an engineering 
 friend who exclaimed, "That is one of the best samples of the 
 new gravel concrete I have seen. Did it come out of the Illi- 
 nois tunnel?" "No," replied the returned traveller, "it came 
 out of the tomb of Agameninon!" 
 
 ' Varro here seems to forget the unities. He speaks in his 
 own person, when Scrofa has the floor. 
 
 [ 102] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 supplies rails for fences and wood for hearth and 
 oven. 
 
 And now," said Scrofa, "I have expounded my four 
 points upon the physical characteristics of a farm, 
 which were, its conformation, the quality of the soil, its 
 extent and layout, its boundaries and their protection. 
 
 Of the considerations of neighbourhood 
 
 XVI. It remains to discuss the conditions outside 
 the farm itself, for the character of the neighbour- 
 hood is of the utmost importance to agriculture on 
 account of the necessary relations with it. There 
 are four considerations in this respect also, namely: 
 whether the neighbourhood bears a bad reputation; 
 whether it aflFords a market to which our products 
 can be taken and whence we can bring back what 
 we may require at home; whether there is a road 
 or a river leading to that market, and, if so, whether 
 it is fit for use; and fourth whether there is in our 
 immediate vicinity any thing which may be to our 
 advantage or disadvantage. Of these four considera- 
 sions the most important is whether the neighbour- 
 hood bears a bad reputation: for there are many farms 
 which are fit for cultivation but not expedient to 
 undertake on account of the brigandage in the neigh- 
 bourhood, as in Sardinia those farms which adjoin 
 CElium, and in Spain those on the borders of Lusitania. 
 
 [ 103 ] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 On the second point those farms are the most 
 profitable which have opportunities in the vicinity 
 for marketing what they raise and buying what they 
 must consume: for there are many farms which must 
 buy corn or wine or what ever else they lack, and not 
 a few which have a surplus of these commodities for 
 sale. So in the suburbs of a city it is fitting to cul- 
 tivate gardens on a large scale, and to grow violets 
 and roses and many other such things which a city 
 consumes, while it would be folly to undertake this 
 on a distant farm with no facilities for reaching the 
 market. So, again, if there is nearby a town or a 
 village or even the well furnished estate of a rich man 
 where you can buy cheap what you require on the 
 farm, and where you can trade your surplus of such 
 things as props and poles and reeds, your farm will 
 be more profitable than if you had to buy at a dis- 
 tance; nay, more profitable even than if you were 
 able to produce all you require at home: because in 
 this situation you can make annual arrangements 
 with your neighbours to furnish on hire the services 
 of physicians, fullers and blacksmiths to better ad- 
 vantage than if they were your own: for the death 
 of a single such skilled slave wipes out the entire 
 profit of a farm. In carrying on the operation of a 
 vast estate, the rich can afford to provide such serv- 
 ants for every department of the work: for if towns 
 
 [104] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 and villages are far distant from the farm, they sup- 
 ply blacksmiths and all other necessary craftsmen 
 and keep them on the place, in order to prevent the 
 hands from leaving the farm and spending working 
 days in going leisurely to and from the shop when 
 they might more profitably be engaged on what 
 should be done in the fields. So Saserna's book lays 
 down the rule that "No one may leave the farm 
 except the overseer, the butler, or such a one as the 
 overseer sends on an errand. If any one disobeys this 
 rule, he shall be punished for it, but if he disobeys a 
 second time the overseer shall be punished." This 
 rule may be better stated that no one should leave 
 the farm without the approval of the overseer, and, 
 without the consent of the master, not even the 
 overseer, for more than a day at a time, but in no 
 event more frequently than the business of the farm 
 requires. 
 
 On the third point, conveniences of transportation 
 make a farm more profitable, and these are whether 
 the roads are in such condition that wagons can use 
 them smoothly, or whether there are rivers nearby 
 which can be navigated. We know that each of 
 these means of transportation is available to many 
 farms. 
 
 The fourth point, which is concerned with how 
 your neighbour has planted his land, also relates to 
 
 [losl 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 your profits: because if he has an oak forest near 
 your boundary, you cannot profitably plant olives 
 in that vicinity, for the oak is so perverse in its effect 
 upon the olive that not only will your trees bear less 
 but they will even avoid the oaks and bend away 
 from them until they are prostrate on the ground, 
 as the vine is wont to do when planted near vege- 
 tables. Like the oak, a grove of thickly planted full 
 grown walnut trees renders sterile all the surround- 
 ing land. 
 
 2° CONCERNING THE EQUIPMENT OF A FARM 
 
 XVII. I have spoken of the four points of hus- 
 bandry which relate to the land to be cultivated and 
 also of those other four points which have to do with 
 the outside relations of that land: now I will speak of 
 those things which pertain to the cultivation of the 
 land. Some divide this subject into two parts, men 
 and those assistants to men without which agricul- 
 ture cannot be carried on. Others divide it into 
 three parts, the instruments of agriculture which are 
 articulate, inarticulate and mute: the articulate 
 being the servants,^ the inarticulate the draught 
 animals, and the mute being the wagons and other 
 such implements. 
 
 ' It will be recalled that Aristotle described slaves as living 
 tools. In Roman law a slave was not a persona but a res. Cf . 
 Gains II, i;. 
 
 [io6] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 Of agricultural labourers 
 
 All men carry on agriculture by means of slaves or 
 freemen or both. The freemen who cultivate the 
 land do so either on their own account, as do many 
 poor people with the aid of their own children, or for 
 wages,' as when the heaviest farm operations, like 
 the vintage and the harvest, are accomplished with 
 the aid of hired freemen: in which class may be in- 
 cluded those bond servants whom our ancestors 
 called obarati, a class which may still be found in 
 Asia, in Egypt and in lUyricum. With respect to 
 the use of freemen in agriculture, my own opinion 
 is that it is more profitable to use hired hands than 
 one's own slaves in cultivating unhealthy lands, and, 
 even where the country is salubrious, they are to be 
 preferred for the heaviest kind of farm work, such 
 as harvesting and storing grapes and corn. Cassius 
 has this to say on the subject: 'Select for farm hands 
 those who are fitted for heavy labour, who are not 
 less than twenty-two years of age and have some 
 aptitude for agriculture, which can be ascertained 
 
 ^ One of the most interesting of these freemen labourers of 
 whom we know is that Ofellus whom Horace (Satire II, 2) tells 
 us was working with cheerful philosophy as a hired hand upon 
 his own ancestral property from which he had been turned out 
 in the confiscations following the battle of Philippi. This might 
 have been the fate of Virgil also had he not chanced to have 
 powerful friends. 
 
 [107] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 by trying them on several tasks and by enquiring as 
 to what they did for their former master.' Slaves 
 should be neither timid nor overconfident. The 
 foreman should have some little education, a good 
 disposition and economical habits, and it is better 
 that they should be some what older than the hands, 
 for then they will be listened to with more respect 
 than if they were boys. It is most important to 
 choose as foremen those who are experienced in 
 agricultural work, for they should not merely give 
 orders but lend a hand at the work, so that the la- 
 bourers may learn by imitation and may also appre- 
 ciate that it is greater knowledge and skill which 
 entitles the foreman to command. The foreman 
 should never be authorized to enforce his discipline 
 with the whip if he can accomplish his result with 
 words. 
 
 Avoid having many slaves of the same nation, for 
 this gives rise to domestic rows. 
 
 The foremen will work more cheerfully if rewards 
 are offered them, and particularly pains must be 
 taken to see that they have some property of their 
 own, and that they marry wives among their fellow 
 servants, who may bear them children, some thing 
 which will make them more steady and attach them 
 to the place. 1 On account of such relationships 
 
 ' "Mais lorsque, malgre le degout de la chaine domestique, 
 
 [108] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 families of Epirote slaves are esteemed the best and 
 command the highest prices. 
 
 Marks of consideration by the master will go far 
 in giving happiness to your hands: as, for instance, 
 by asking the opinion of those of them who have 
 done good work, as to how the work ought to be 
 done, which has the eflFect of making them think 
 less that they are looked down upon, and encourages 
 them to believe that they are held in some estimation 
 by the master. 
 
 Those slaves who are most attentive to their work 
 should be treated more liberally either in respect 
 
 nous voyons naitre entre les males et les femelles ces sentiments 
 que la nature a partout fondes sur un libre choix: lorsque I'amour 
 a commence a unir ces couples captifs, alors leur esdavage, 
 devenu pour eux aussi doux que la douce liberte, leur fait oublier 
 peu a peu leur droits de franchise naturelle et les prerogatives 
 de leur etat sauvage; et ces lieux des premiers plaisirs, des 
 premieres amours, ces lieux si chers a tout etre sensible, devien- 
 nent leur demeure de predilection et leur habitation de choix: 
 I'education de la famille rend encore cette affection plus pro- 
 fonde et la communique en meme temps aux petits, qui s'etant 
 trouves citoyens par naissance d'un sejour adopte par leur 
 parents, ne cherchent point a en changer: car ne pouvant avoir 
 que peu ou point d'idee d'un etat different ni d'un autre sejour 
 ils s'attachent au lieu ou ils sont nes comme a leur patrie; et 
 Ton sait que la terre natale est chere a ceux meme qui I'habitent 
 en esclaves." 
 
 One might assume that this eloquent and comfortable essay 
 on contentment in slavery had been written to illustrate Varro's 
 text at this point, but, as a matter of fact, it is Buffon's observa- 
 tion (VIII, 460) on the domestication of wild ducks! 
 
 [109] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 of food or clothes, or in holidays, or by giving them 
 permission to graze some cattle of their own on the 
 place, or some thing of that kind. Such liberality 
 tempers the effect of a harsh order or a heavy punish- 
 ment, and restores the slaves' good will and kindly 
 feeling towards their master. 
 
 XVIII. On the subject of .the number of slaves 
 one will require for operating a farm, Cato lays down 
 the two measures of the extent of the farm and the 
 kind of farming to be carried on. Writing about the 
 cultivation of olives and vines he gives these formulas, 
 viz.: 
 
 For carrying on an olive farm of two hundred and 
 forty jugera, thirteen slaves are necessary, to-wit: an 
 overseer, a housekeeper, five labourers, three team- 
 sters, an ass driver, a swineherd and a shepherd: for 
 carrying on a vineyard of one hundred jugera, fifteen 
 slaves are necessary, to-wit: an overseer, a house- 
 keeper, ten labourers, a teamster, an ass driver and a 
 swineherd. 
 
 On the other hand Sasema says that one man is 
 enough for every eight jugera,^ as a man should 
 
 * Saserna's rule would be the equivalent of one hand to every 
 five acres cultivated. With slave labour, certainly with negro 
 slave labour, the experience of American cotton planters in the 
 nineteenth century very nearly confirmed this requirement, but 
 one of the economic advantages of the abolition of slavery is il- 
 lustrated by this very point. In Latimer's First Sermon preached 
 
 [no] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 cultivate that much land in forty-five days : for while 
 one man can cultivate a jugenim in four days, yet 
 he allows thirteen days extra for the entire eight 
 jugera to piovide against the chance of bad weather, 
 the illness or idleness of the labourer and the indul- 
 gence of the master." ^ 
 
 before King Edward VI ^ animadverting on the advance in farm 
 rents in his day, he says that his father, a typical substantial 
 English yeoman of the time of the discovery of America, was 
 able to employ profitably six labourers in cultivating 120 acres, 
 or, say, one hand for each twenty acres, which was precisely 
 what Arthur Young recommended as necessary for high farming 
 at the end of the eighteenth century. At the beginning of the 
 twentieth century the American farmer seldom employs more 
 than one hand for every eighty acres cultivated, but this is 
 partly due to the use of improved machinery and partly to the 
 fact that his land is not thoroughly cultivated. 
 
 ^This example of Roman cost accounting is matched by 
 Walter of Henley in thirteenth century England. 
 
 "Some men will tell you that a plough cannot work eight 
 score or nine score acres yearly, but I will show you that it can. 
 You know well that a furlong ought to be forty perches long 
 and four wide, and the King's perch is sixteen feet and a half: 
 then an acre is sixty-six feet in width. Now in ploughing go 
 thirty-six times round to make the ridge narrower, and when 
 the acre is ploughed then you have made seventy-two furlongs, 
 which are six leagues, for be it known that twelve furlongs 
 are a league. And the horse or ox must be very poor that can- 
 not from the morning go easily in pace three leagues in length 
 from his starting place and return by three o'clock. And I 
 will show you by another reason that it can do as much. You 
 know that there are in the year fifty-two weeks. Now take 
 away eight weeks for holy days and other hindrances, then are 
 there forty-four working weeks left. And in all that time the 
 plough shall only have to plough for fallow or for spring or 
 
 [III] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 At this Licinius Stolo put in. 
 
 " Neither of these writers has given us an adequate 
 rule," he said. "For if Cato intended, as he doubtless 
 did, that we should add to or subtract from what he 
 prescribes in proportion as our farm is of greater or 
 less extent than that he describes, he should have 
 excluded the overseer and the housekeeper from his 
 enumeration. If you cultivate less than two hun- 
 dred and forty jugera of olives you cannot get along 
 with less than one overseer, while if you cultivate 
 twice or more as much land you will not require two 
 or three overseers. It is the number of labourers and 
 teamsters only which must be added to or diminished 
 in proportion to the size of the farm: and this applies 
 only if the land is all of the same character, for if 
 part of it is of a kind which cannot be ploughed, as 
 for example very rocky, or on a steep hillside, there 
 is that much less necessity for teams and teamsters. 
 I pass over the fact that Cato's example of a farm of 
 two hundred and forty jugera is neither a fair nor a 
 comparable unit.^ The true unit for comparison of 
 
 winter sowing three roods and a half daily, and for second 
 fallowing an acre. Now see if a plough were properly kept and 
 followed, if it could not do as much daily." 
 
 ^ Stolo is quibbling. Cato's unit of 240 jugera was based on 
 the duodecimal system of weights and measures which the 
 Romans had originally derived from Babylon but afterwards 
 modified by the use of a decimal system. The enlightened and 
 progressive nations of the modern world who have followed the 
 
 [112] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 farms is a centuria, which contains two hundred 
 jugera, but if one deducts forty jugera, or one-sixth, 
 from Cato's two hundred and forty jugera, I do not 
 see how in applying this rule one can deduct also 
 one-sixth of his thirteen slaves; or, even if we leave 
 out the overseer and the housekeeper, how one can 
 deduct one-sixth of eleven slaves. Again, Cato says 
 that one should have fifteen slaves for one hundred 
 jugera of vineyard, but suppose one had a centuria 
 half in vines and half in olives, then, according to 
 Cato's rule, one would require two overseers and two 
 housekeepers, which is absurd. Wherefore it is neces- 
 sary to find another measure than Cato's for deter- 
 mining the number of slaves, and I myself think bet- 
 ter of Saserna's rule, which is that for each jugerum 
 it suffices to provide four days work of one hand. 
 Yet, if this was a good rule on Saserna's farm in Gaul, 
 it might not apply on a mountain farm in Liguria. 
 In fine you will best determine what number of slaves 
 and what other equipment you will require if you dili- 
 gently consider three things, that is to say, what kind 
 of farms are there in your neighbourhood, how large 
 are they, and how many hands are engaged in culti- 
 vating them, and you should add to or subtract from 
 
 Romans in adopting a decimal system may perhaps approve 
 Stolo's remarks, but it behooves those of us who still cling to 
 the duodecimal system to defend Cato, if only to keep up our 
 own courage. 
 
 [113] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 that number in proportion as you take up more or 
 less work. For nature gave us two schools of agricul- 
 ture, which are experience and imitation. The most 
 ancient farmers established many principles by exper- 
 iment and their descendants for the most part have 
 simply imitated them. We should do doth these 
 things : imitate others and on our own account make 
 experiments, following always some principle, not 
 chance: ^ thus we might work our trees deeper or not 
 so deep as others do to see what the effect would be. 
 It was with such intelligent curiosity that some 
 farmers first cultivated their vines a second and a 
 third time, and deferred grafting the figs from spring 
 to summer. 
 
 Of draught animals 
 
 XIX. In respect of those instruments of agricul- 
 ture which are called inarticulate, Sasema says that 
 two yokes of oxen will be enough for two hundred 
 
 ' Here, in a few words, is the whole doctrine of intelligent 
 agriculture. Cf. Donaldson's Agricultural Bigoraphy, tit. Jethro 
 TuU. "The name of TuU will ever descend to posterity as one 
 of the greatest luminaries, if not the very greatest benefactor, 
 that British agriculture has the pride to acknowledge. His 
 example furnishes the vast advantages of educated men directing 
 their attention to the cultivation of the soil, as they bring en- 
 lightened minds to bear upon its practice and look at the object 
 in a naked point of view, being divested of the dogmas and 
 trammels of the craft with which the practitioners of routine 
 are inexpugnably provided and entrenched." 
 
 I114] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 jugera of arable land, while Cato prescribes three 
 yokes for two hundred and forty jugera in olives: 
 thus if Sasema is correct, one yoke of oxen is required 
 for every hundred jugera, but if Cato is correct a 
 yoke is needed for every eighty jugera. My opinion 
 is that neither of these standards is appropriate for 
 all kinds of land, but each for some kind: for some 
 land is easy and some difficult to plough, and oxen 
 are unable to break up some land except by great 
 effort and often they leave the ploughshare in the 
 furrow broken from the beam: wherefore in this re- 
 spect we should observe a triple rule on every farm, 
 when we are new to it, namely: find out the practice 
 of the last owner; that of the neighbours, and make 
 some experiments of our own." 
 
 "Cato adds," resumed Scrofa, "that on his olive 
 farm there are required three asses to haul out the 
 manure and one to turn the mill, and on his hundred 
 jugera vineyard a yoke of oxen and a pair of asses for 
 the manure, and an ass for the wine press. 
 
 In respect of cattle kept for all these purposes, 
 which it is customary to feed in the bam yard, it 
 should be added that you should keep as many and 
 only as many as you need for carrying on the work of 
 the farm, so that more easily you can secure diligent 
 care of them from the servants whose chief care is of 
 themselves. In this connection the keeping of sheep 
 
 liiSl 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 is preferable to hogs not only by those who have 
 pastures but also by those who have none, for you 
 should keep them not merely because you have pas- 
 ture, but for the sake of the manure. 
 
 Watch dogs should be kept in any event for the 
 safety of the farm. 
 
 XX. The most important consideration with re- 
 spect to barn yard cattle is that the draft oxen should 
 be fit for their work: when bought unbroken they 
 should not be less than three years old nor more than 
 four, strong, but well matched, lest the stronger wear 
 out the weaker: with large horns, black rather than 
 any other color, broad foreheads, flat noses, deep 
 chests and heavy quarters. Old steers which have 
 worked in the plains cannot be trained to service in 
 rough and mountain land; a rule as applicable when 
 reversed. In breaking young steers it is best to begin 
 by fastening a fork shaped yoke on their necks and 
 leaving it there even when they are fed; in a few days 
 they will become used to it and disposed to be docile. 
 Then they should be broken to work gradually until 
 they are accustomed to it, as may be done by yoking 
 a young ox with an old one, so that he may learn 
 what is expected of him by imitation. It is best to 
 work them first on level ground without a plough, 
 then with a light plough, so that their first lessons 
 may be easy and in sand and mellow soil. 
 
 [ii6] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 Oxen intended for the wagon should be broken in 
 the same way, at first by drawing an empty cart, if 
 possible through the streets of a village or a town, 
 where they may become quickly inured to sudden 
 noises and strange sights. You should not work an 
 ox always on the same side of the team, for an occa- 
 sional change from right to left relieves the strain 
 of the work. 
 
 Where the land is light, as in Campania, they do 
 not plough with heavy steers but with cows or asses, 
 as they can be driven more easily to a light plough. 
 For turning the mill and for carrying about the farm 
 some use asses, some cows and others mules : a choice 
 determined by the supply of provender. For an ass 
 is cheaper to feed than a cow, though a cow is more 
 profitable.^ 
 
 In the choice of the kind of draft animals he is to 
 keep, a farmer should always take into consideration 
 the characteristics of his soil: thus on rocky and 
 difficult land the prime requirement is doubtless 
 strength, but his purpose should be to keep that kind 
 of stock which under his conditions yields the largest 
 measure of profit and still do all the necessary work. 
 
 * Pliny quotes Cato: "What ever can be done by the help of 
 the ass costs the least money," which is the philosophy of modem 
 power machinery on the farm, as elsewhere. It is largely a 
 question of the cost of fuel, as Varro says. 
 
 I"7l 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 Cy watch dogs 
 
 XXI. It is more desirable to keep a few dogs and 
 fierce ones than a pack of curs. They should be 
 trained to watch by night and to sleep by day chained 
 in the kennel [so that they may be the more alert 
 when set loose.] 
 
 It remains to speak elsewhere of unyoked cattle, 
 like the flocks, but if there are meadows on the farm 
 and the owner keeps no live stock, it is the business 
 of a good farmer after he has sold his hay to graze 
 and feed another's cattle on his land. 
 
 Of farming implements 
 
 XXII. Concerning the instruments of agriculture 
 which are called mute, in which are included baskets, 
 wine jars and such things, this may be said: Those 
 utensils which can be produced on the farm or made 
 by the servants should never be bought, among which 
 are what ever may be made out of osiers or other 
 wood of the country, such as hampers, fruit baskets, 
 threshing sledges, mauls and mattocks, or what ever 
 is made out of the fibre plants like hemp, flax, rushes, 
 palm leaves and nettles, namely: rope, twine and 
 riiats. Those implements which cannot be manufac- 
 tured on the farm should be bought more with refer- 
 ence to their utility than their appearance that they 
 
 [118] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 may not diminish your profit by useless expense, a 
 result which may be best secured by buying where 
 the things you need may be found at once of good 
 quality, near at hand and cheap. The requirement 
 of the kind and number of such implements is meas- 
 ured by the extent of the farm because the further 
 your boundaries lie apart the more work there is 
 to do." 
 
 "In this connection," put in Stolo, "given the size 
 of the farm, Cato recommends^ with respect to im- 
 plements as follows: he who cultivates 240 jugera 
 in olives should have five sets of oil making imple- 
 ments, which he enumerates severally, such as the 
 copper utensils, including kettles, pots, ewers with 
 three spouts, etc. ; the implements made out of wood 
 and iron, including three large wagons, six ploughs 
 with their shares, four manure carriers, etc. So of 
 the iron tools, what they are and how many are 
 needed, he speaks in great detail, as eight iron pitch 
 forks, as many hoes and half as many shovels, etc. 
 
 In like manner he lays down another formula of 
 implements for a vineyard, viz.: if you cultivate 100 
 jugera you should have three sets of implements 
 for the wine press and also covered storage vats of a 
 capacity of eight hundred cullei, as well as twenty 
 harvesting hampers for grapes and as many for com, 
 and other things in like proportion. 
 
 [119] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 Other writers advise a smaller quantity of such 
 conveniences, but I believe Cato prescribed so great 
 a capacity in order that one might not be compelled 
 to sell his wine every year, for old wine sells better 
 than new, and the same quality sells better at one 
 time than another. Cato writes further in great de- 
 tail of the kind and number of iron tools which are 
 required for a vineyard, such as the falx or pruning 
 hook, spades, hoes. So also several of these instru- 
 ments are of many varieties, as for instance the falx, 
 of which this author says that there must be pro- 
 vided forty of the kind suitable for use in a vine- 
 yard, five for cutting rushes, three for pruning trees 
 and ten for cutting briers." 
 
 So far Stolo, when Scrofa began again. "The 
 owner should have an inventory of all the farm im- 
 plements and equipment, with a copy on file both at 
 the house and at the steading, and it should be the 
 duty of the overseer to see that everything is checked 
 against this inventory and is assigned its appropriate 
 keeping place in the barn. What cannot be kept 
 under lock and key should be kept in plain sight, and 
 this is particularly necessary in respect of the utensils 
 which are used only at intervals, as at harvest time, 
 like the grape baskets and such things, for what 
 ever one sees daily is in the least danger from the 
 thief." 
 
 [120] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 3 CONCERNING THE OPERATION OF A FARM 
 
 XXIII. "And now," interposed Agrasius, "as we 
 have discussed the two first parts of the four-fold 
 division of agriculture, namely: concerning the farm 
 itself and the implements with which it is worked, 
 proceed with the third part." 
 
 Of planting field crops 
 
 "As I hold," said Scrofa, "that the profit of a farm 
 is that only which comes from sowing the land, there 
 are two considerations which remain for discussion, 
 what one should sow and where it is most expedient 
 to sow it, for some lands are best suited for hay, 
 some for corn, some for wine and some for oil. So 
 also should be considered the forage crops like basil, 
 mixed fodder, vetch, alfalfa, snail clover and lupines. 
 All things should not be sown in rich land, nor should 
 thin land be left unsown, for it is better to sow in 
 light soil those things which do not require much 
 nourishment, such as snail clover and the legumes, 
 except always chick peas (for this also is a legume 
 like the other plants which are not reaped but from 
 which the grain is plucked) because those things 
 which it is the custom to pluck (legere) are called 
 legumes. In rich land should be sown what ever 
 require much nourishment, such as cabbage, spring 
 
 [121] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 and winter, wheat and flax. Certain plants are cul- 
 tivated not so much for their immediate yield as 
 with forethought for the coming year, because cut 
 and left lying they improve the land. So, if land 
 is too thin it is the practice to plough in for manure, 
 lupines not yet podded, and likewise the field bean, 
 if it has not yet ripened so that it is fitting to harvest 
 the beans. ^ 
 
 Not less should you make provision for cultivating 
 what yields you profit in mere pleasure, like arbours 
 and flower gardens: and those plantations which do 
 not serve either for the support of man or the delight 
 of the senses, but are not the less useful in the econ- 
 omy of the farm. Thus suitable places must be set 
 aside for growing willows and reeds and other such 
 things which affect wet places. On the other hand, 
 you should sow field beans as much as possible in 
 your com land. There are other plants which seek 
 dry places, and still others demand shade, like as- 
 paragus, both when wild and cultivated: while violets 
 and garden flowers, which flourish in the sun should 
 be set out in the open. 
 
 __J^reen manuring is one of the oldest, as it is one of the best, 
 of agricultural practices. Long before Varro, Theophrastus 
 (H. P. 9, i) had recorded what the agricultural colleges teach 
 today — that beans are valuable for this purpose because they 
 rot readily, and, he adds, in Macedonia and Thessaly it has 
 always been the custom to turn them under when they bloom. 
 
 [122] 
 
ROMAN FARiM MANAGEMENT 
 
 So other things demand other planting conditions, 
 like the osiers from which you derive your material 
 for making basket ware, for wagon frames, winnow- 
 ing baskets and grape hampers. Elsewhere you 
 might plant and cultivate a forest for cut wood and 
 a spinney for fowling. 
 
 So you should reserve ground for planting hemp, 
 flax, rush and Spanish broom (spartum) which serve 
 to make shoes for the cattle, thread, cord and rope. 
 Other situations are suitable for still other kinds of 
 planting, as, for example, some plant garden truck 
 and some plant other things, in a nursery, or between 
 the rows of a young orchard before the roots of the 
 trees have spread far out, but this should never be 
 done when the trees have grown lest the roots be 
 injured." 
 
 "In this respect," said Stolo, "what Cato says 
 about planting is in point, that a field which is rich 
 and in good heart and without shade should be 
 planted in com, while a low lying field should be set 
 in turnips, radishes, millet and panic grass." 
 
 Oj planting olives 
 
 XXIV. Scrofa resumed: "The varieties of olives 
 to plant in rich and warm land are the preserving 
 olive radius major, the olive of Sallentina, the round 
 orchis, the bitter posea, the Sergian, the Colminian, 
 
 [123] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 and the waxy albicera: which ever of these does best 
 in your locality, plant that most extensively. An 
 olive yard is not worth cultivating unless it looks to 
 the west wind and is exposed to the sun; if the soil is 
 cold and thin there you should plant the Licinian 
 olive, for if you set out this variety in a rich and warm 
 soil it will never make a hostus and the tree will ex- 
 haust itself in bearing and will become infected with 
 red moss. {Hostus is the country name for the yield 
 of oil from a single tree at each f actus or pressing: 
 some claim this should amount to i6o modii, while 
 others reduce it to 120 modii, and even less in propor- 
 tion to the size and number of their storage vats.) 
 
 Cato advises you to plant elms and poplars around 
 the farm so as to obtain from them leaves to feed the 
 sheep and cattle as well as a supply of lumber: while 
 this is not necessary on all farms, nor in some for 
 the forage alone, it may be done with advantage 
 as a wind break against the north where the trees 
 will not shut out the sun." 
 
 Stolo added the following advice from the same 
 author: *If you have a piece of wet ground there 
 plant cuttings of poplars, and also reeds which are 
 set out as follows: having turned the sod with a hoe 
 plant the scions of reed three feet one from the other. 
 Wild asparagus (from which you may cultivate gar- 
 den asparagus) should also be set out in such a place 
 
 [124] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 because the same kind of cultivation is suitable for it 
 as for reeds. You should set out Greek willows around 
 the reed bed to supply ties for your vines.' 
 
 Oj planting vines 
 
 XXV. "In respect of planting vines," resumed 
 Scrofa, "it should be observed that the varieties 
 fitted for the best land and exposure to the sun are 
 the little Aminean, the twin Eugeneam and the little 
 yellow kind: while on rich or wet land the best 
 varieties are the large Aminean, the Murgentine, the 
 Apician and the Lucanian. Other vines, and es- 
 pecially the mixed varieties, do well in any kind of 
 land. 
 
 XXVI. In all vineyards care is taken that the prop 
 should shelter the vine against the north wind. And 
 if live cypresses are used as props they are planted 
 in alternate rows and are not allowed to grow higher 
 than is necessary for use as a prop. Cabbages are 
 never planted near vines because they do each other 
 damage." 
 
 "I fear," said Agrius, turning to Fundanius, "that 
 the Sacristan may get back before we have reached 
 the fourth head of our subject, that of the vintage, 
 for I am looking forward thirstily to the vintage." 
 
 "Be of good cheer," said Scrofa, "and prepare the 
 grape baskets and the ewer. 
 
 [I2S] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 .0 
 
 4 CONCERNING THE AGRICULTURAL SEASONS 
 
 XXVII. We have two standards of time, the first 
 that of the revolution of the year, because in it the 
 sun completes his circuit, the other the measure of 
 the month, because it includes the waxing and the 
 waning of the moon. 
 
 0} the solar measure of the year 
 
 First I will speak of the sun, whose recurring jour- 
 ney is divided with reference to the pursuits of agri- 
 culture into four seasons of three months each, or 
 more accurately into eight seasons of a month and a 
 half each. The four seasons are Spring, Summer, 
 Autumn and Winter. In Spring certain crops are 
 sown and the sod fields are broken up,^ so that the 
 weeds in them may be destroyed before they have 
 seeded themselves again,, and the clods, by drying 
 out in the sun, may become more accessible to the 
 
 ' Although Varro advises the first ploughing in the spring, 
 the ancients were not unmindful of the advantages of winter 
 ploughing of stiff and heavy clay. Theophrastus, who died in 
 B. C. 287, advises it "that the earth may feel the cold." Indeed, 
 he was fully alive to the reasons urged by the modem professors 
 of agronomy for intensive cultivation. " For the soil," he says 
 (C. P. Ill, 25), "often inverted becomes free, light and clear of 
 weeds, so that it can most easily afford nourishment." 
 
 King Solomon gives the same advice, "The sluggard will not 
 plough by reason of the winter, therefore shall he begin harvest 
 and have nothing." Proverbs, XX, 4. 
 
 [126] 
 
ROiMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 rain and when broken down by its action easier to 
 cultivate. Such land should be ploughed not less 
 than twice, but three times is better.^ The Summer 
 
 ' The Romans understood the advantages of thorough culti- 
 vation of the soil. As appears from the text, they habitually 
 broke up a sod in the spring, ploughed it again at midsummer, 
 and once more in September before seeding. Pliny prescribes 
 that the first ploughing should be nine inches deep, and says 
 that the Etruscans some times ploughed their stiff clay as many 
 as nine times. The accepted Roman reason for this was the 
 eradication of weeds, but it also accomplished in some measure 
 the purpose of " dry farming" — the conservation of the moisture 
 content of the soil, as that had been practised for countless 
 generations in the sandy Valley of Mesopotamia. Varro makes 
 no exception to this rule, but Virgil was here, as in other in- 
 stances, induced to depart from Varro's wisdom, with the result 
 that he imposed upon Roman agriculture several thoroughly bad 
 practices. Thus, while he applies Varro ploughing rules to rich 
 land and bids the farmer "exercetque frequens tellurem atque 
 imperat arvis," he says (Geo. I, 62) that it will suffice to give 
 sandy land a single shallow ploughing in September immediately 
 before seeding, for fear, forsooth, fliat the summer suns will 
 evaporate whatever moisture there is in it! Again, Virgil recom- 
 mends, what Varro does not, cross-ploughing and burning the 
 stubble and Virgil's advice was generally followed. 
 
 In William Benson's edition (1725) of the Georgics "with 
 notes critical and rustick," it is stated that "the husbandry of 
 England in general is Virgilian, which is shown by paring and 
 burning the surface: by raftering and cross-ploughing, and that 
 in those parts of England where the Romans principally in- 
 habited all along the Southern coast Latin words remain to this 
 hour among shepherds and ploughmen in their rustick affairs: 
 and what will seem more strange at first sight to affirm though 
 in fact really true, there is more of Virgil's husbandry put in 
 practice in England at this instant than in Italy itself." That 
 this was the fact in the thirteenth century is clear from the 
 
 [127] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 IS the season of the grain harvest; the Autumn, when 
 the weather is dry, that of the vintage: and it is also 
 the fit time for thinning out the woods, when the 
 trees to be removed should be cut down close to the 
 ground and the roots should be dug up before the 
 first rains to prevent them from stooling. In Winter 
 the trees may be pruned, provided this is done at a 
 time when the bark is free from frost and rain and ice. 
 XXVIII. Spring begins when the sun is in Aqua- 
 rius, Summer when it is in Taurus, Autumn when 
 it is in Leo, and Winter when it is in Scorpio. Since 
 the beginning of each of the four seasons is the twenty- 
 third day after the entrance of the sun in these signs 
 respectively, it follows that Spring has ninety-one 
 days, Summer ninety-four. Autumn ninety-one and 
 Winter eighty-nine: which, reduced to the dates of 
 our present official calendar,* makes the beginning 
 of Spring on the seventh day before the Ides of 
 February (February 7), of Summer on the seventh 
 day before the Ides of May (May 9), of Autumn on 
 
 quotations we have made from Walter of Henley's Diu ie Hose- 
 hondrie. Cf. also Sir Anthony Fitzherbert and the account of 
 the manorial system of farming in England in Prothero's 
 English Farming Past and Present. 
 
 It remained for Jethro Tull of the Horseshoeing Husbandry 
 to unloose in England the long spell of the magic of Virgil's 
 poetry upon practical agriculture. 
 
 * The Julian calendar, which took effect on January i, B. C. 
 45, had been in use only eight years when Varro was writing. 
 
 [128] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 the third day before the Ides of August( August ii), 
 and of Winter on the fourth day before the Ides of 
 November (November lo). 
 
 A CALENDAR OF AGRICULTURAL OPERATIONS 
 
 By a more exact definition of the seasons, the year 
 is divided into eight parts, the first of forty-five days 
 from the date of the rising of the west wind (Feb- 
 ruary 7) to the date of the vernal equinox (March 24), 
 the second of the ensuing forty-four days to the ris- 
 ing of the Pleiades (May 7), the third of forty-eight 
 days to the summer solstice (June 24), the fourth of 
 twenty-seven days to the rising of the Dog Star 
 (July 21), the fifth of sixty-seven days to the Autumn 
 equinox (September 26), the sixth of thirty-two days 
 to the setting of the Pleiades (October 28), the 
 seventh of fifty-seven days to the winter solstice 
 (December 24), and the eighth of forty-five days to 
 the beginning of the first. ^ 
 
 I** February y-March 24 
 XXIX. These are the things to be done during the 
 
 ^ Schneider and others have attempted to emend the enumera- 
 tion of the days in this succession of seasons, but Keil justly 
 observes: "As we do not know what principle Varro followed in 
 establishing these divisions of the year, it is safer to set them 
 down as they are written in the codex than to be tempted by 
 unceruin emendation." I have accordingly followed Keil here. 
 
 [129] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 first of the seasons so enumerated : All kinds of nurs- 
 eries should be set out, the vines should be first 
 pruned, then dug, and the roots which have pro- 
 truded from the ground should be cut out, the mead- 
 ows should be cleaned, willows planted and the 
 corn hoed. We call that corn land (seges) which 
 has been ploughed and sowed as distinguished from 
 plough land (arva) which has been ploughed but 
 not yet sowed, while that land which was formerly- 
 sowed and lies awaiting a new ploughing is called 
 stubble (novalis). When land is ploughed for the 
 first time it is said to be broken up (proscindere), and 
 at the second ploughing to be broken down (pffringere) 
 because at the first ploughing large clods are turned 
 up and at the second ploughing these are reduced. 
 The third cultivation, after the seed has been sown, 
 is called ridging (lirare), that is, when by fastening 
 mould boards on the plough, the sown seed is cov- 
 ered up in ridges ^ and at the same time furrows 
 
 * The practice of ridging land seeded to grain was necessary 
 before the invention of the modern drill. Dickson, in his Hus- 
 bandry of the Ancients, XXIV, argues that, while wasteful of 
 land, it had the advantage of preventing the grain from lodging. 
 Walter of Henley, who followed the Roman methods by tradi- 
 tion without knowing it, advises with them that to be success- 
 ful in this kind of seeding the furrow at the last ploughing of the 
 fallow should be so narrow as to be indistinguishable. "At 
 sowing do not plough large furrows," he says, "but little and 
 well laid together that the seed may fall evenly: if you plough 
 a large furrow to be quick you will do harm. How? I will tell 
 
 [130] 
 
ROxMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 are cut by means of which the surface water may 
 drain off. Some farmers who cultivate small farms, 
 as in Apulia, are wont to harrow their land after it is 
 ridged, if perchance any large clods have been left 
 in the seed bed. The hollow channel left by the 
 share of the plough is called the furrow, the raised 
 land between two furrows is called the ridge {porca,) 
 because there the seed is as it were laid upon an altar 
 (porricere) to secure a crop, for when the entrails are 
 offered to the gods this word porricere is used to de- 
 scribe the oblation. 
 
 2** March 24-May 7 
 
 XXX. These are the things to be done during the 
 
 second season between the vernal equinox and the 
 
 rising of the Pleiades. Weed the com land, break 
 
 up old sod, cut the willows, close the pastures (to the 
 
 stock) and complete any thing left undone in the 
 
 preceding season. Plant trees before the buds shoot 
 
 you. When the ground is sown then the harrow will come and 
 pull the com into the hollow which is between the two ridges 
 and the large ridge shall be uncovered, then no corn shall grow 
 there. And will you see this? When the com is above ground 
 go to the end of the ridge and you will see that I tell you truly. 
 And if the land must be sown below the ridge see that it is 
 ploughed with small furrows and the earth raised as much as 
 you are able. And see that the ridge which is between the two 
 furrows is narrow. And let the earth, which lies like a crest in 
 the furrow under the left foot after the plough, be over-tumed, 
 and then shall the furrow be narrow enough." 
 
 [131] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 and they begin to blossom, for deciduous trees are 
 not fit to transplant after they put forth leaves. 
 Plant and prune your olives. 
 
 3° May 7- June 24. 
 
 XXXI. These are the things to be done during 
 the third season between the rising of the Pleiades 
 and the summer solstice. Dig the young vines or 
 plough them, and afterwards put the land in good 
 order; that is to say, fine the soil so that no clods 
 shall remain. This is called fining the soil {pccare) 
 because it breaks down {pccidare) the clods. Thin 
 out the vines, but let it be done by one who knows 
 how, for this operation which is considered of great 
 importance is performed only on vines and not on 
 the orchard. To thin a vine is to select and reserve 
 the one, two and some times even three best new 
 tendrils sprung from the stem of the vine, cutting off 
 all the others, lest the stem may be unable to furnish 
 nourishment for those which have been reserved. 
 So in a nursery it is the custom to cut it back at first 
 so that the vine may grow with a stronger stem and 
 may have greater strength to produce fruitful tend- 
 rils: for a stem which grows slender like a rush is 
 sterile through weakness and cannot throw out 
 tendrils. Thus it is the custom to call a weak stem 
 a flag, and a strong stem, which bears grapes, a palm. 
 
 [132I 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 The name Jlagellum, indicating something as unstable 
 as a breeze, is derived from flatus, by the change of 
 a letter, just as in the case of the word flabellum, 
 which means fly fan. The name palma, which is 
 given to those vine shoots which are fruitful in grapes, 
 was it seems, at first, parilema, derived from parire 
 (to produce), whence by a change of letters, such as 
 we find in many instances, it came to be called palma. 
 
 From another part of the vine springs the cap-' 
 reolus, which is a little spiral tendril, like a curled 
 hair, by means of which the vine holds on while it 
 creeps towards the place of which it would take pos- 
 session, from which quality of taking hold of things 
 (capere) it is called capreolus. 
 
 All forage crops should be saved at this season; 
 first, basil, then mixed fodder (JarragoY and vetch, 
 and last of all the hay. Our name for basil is ocinum, 
 which is derived from the Greek word a>xc<us and 
 signifies that it comes quickly, like the pot herb of 
 the same name. It has this name also because it 
 quickens the action of the bowels of cattle and so is 
 fed to them as a purgative. It is cut green from a 
 bean field before the pods are formed. On the other 
 hand that forage which is cut with a sickle from a 
 
 * Farrago was a mixture of refuse far, or spelt, with vetch, 
 sown thick and cut green to be fed to cattle in the process now 
 called soiling. The English word "forage" comes from this 
 Latin original. 
 
 [»33] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 field in which barley and vetch and other legumes 
 have been sown in mixture for forage, is called far- 
 rago from the instrument {ferro) with which it is cut, 
 or perhaps because it was first sown in the stubble 
 of a field of corn {far). It is fed to horses and other 
 cattle in the spring to purge and to fatten them. 
 
 Vetch (vicia) is so called from its quality of con- 
 quering {vincire) because this plant, like the vine, 
 has tendrils by means of which it creeps twisting 
 upward on the stalks of lupines or other plants where 
 it clings until it over-tops its host. 
 
 If you have irrigated meadows, proceed to water 
 them at this season, as soon as you have saved the hay. 
 
 During droughts water your grafted fruit trees 
 every evening. They probably derive their name, 
 (p07»a), from their appetite for drink (potus). 
 
 4* June 24- July 21 
 
 XXXII. During the fourth season between the 
 summer solstice and the rising of the Dog Star most 
 farmers make their harvest, because it is claimed that 
 to mature properly corn should be allowed fifteen 
 days to germinate and shoot, fifteen days to bloom 
 and fifteen days to ripen. 
 
 Finish your ploughing: it will be more profitable 
 in proportion as the earth is ploughed warm, when 
 the land is broken up, fine it, that is, work it again 
 
 [134] 
 
ROMAxM FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 in order that all the clods may be reduced, for at 
 the first ploughing large clods are always turned up. 
 This is the time also to sow vetch, lentils, the small 
 variety of chick peas, pulse (ervilia) and the other 
 things which we call legumes, but which others, as 
 for example the Gauls, call legarica, both of which 
 names come from the practice of picking their fruit 
 (legere) because they are not cut but gathered. 
 
 Work the old vines a second time and the young 
 ones thrice, especially if there are any clods left. 
 
 5* July 2i-September 26 
 
 XXXIII. During the fifth season between the 
 rising of the Dog Star and the autumn equinox thresh 
 your straw and rick it, continue the harrowing 
 of your fallow land, prune your fruit trees, and mow 
 your irrigated meadow the second time. 
 
 6° September 26-October 28 
 
 XXXIV. The authorities advise you to begin to 
 sow at the commencement of the sixth season im- 
 mediately after the autumn equinox and to keep it 
 up for the following 91 days, but not to attempt to 
 sow any thing after the winter solstice, unless it is 
 absolutely necessary, because seed sown before the 
 winter solstice germinates in seven days, while that 
 sown later hardly ever sprouts for 40 days. 
 
 [135] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 In like manner the authorities say that you should 
 not begin your sowing before the equinox, lest con- 
 tinued rains cause the seed to rot in the ground. 
 The best time to plant beans is at the setting of the 
 Pleiades, but gather the grapes and make the vint- 
 age between the equinox and the setting of the 
 Pleiades. Immediately afterward begin to prune the 
 vines, to propagate them and plant fruit trees, but 
 in those regions where the frost comes early it is 
 better to postpone these operations until the follow- 
 ing spring. 
 
 7** October 28-Decemher 24 
 
 XXXV. These are the things to do during the 
 seventh season between the setting of the Pleiades 
 and the winter solstice. Plant lilies and crocuses 
 and propagate roses, which may be done by making 
 cuttings about three inches in length from a stem 
 already rooted, set these out and later, after they 
 have formed their own roots, transplant them. The 
 cultivation of violets has no place on a farm be- 
 cause they require elevated beds for which the soil 
 is scraped up and these are damaged or even washed 
 away by heavy rains, thus wasting the fertility of 
 the land. At any time of the year between the rising 
 of the west wind and the rising of Arcturus (February 
 -September) it is proper to transplant from the seed 
 
 [136] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 beds thyme, an herb, which owes its name, serpyllum, 
 to its creeping habit {quod serpit). This is the season 
 also to dig new ditches, clean the old ones, and to 
 prune the trees in the arbustum and the vines which 
 are married to them, but be careful that you suspend 
 most of your work during the fifteen days before and 
 after the winter solstice: it is fitting, however, to 
 set out some trees during this period, as, for example, 
 elms. 
 
 8" December 24.-February 7 
 
 XXXVI. These are the things to do during the 
 eighth season between the winter solstice and the 
 rising of the west wind. Drain the fields, if any 
 water is standing on them, but if they are dry and 
 the land is friable, harrow them. Prune the vines 
 and the orchard. When it is not fitting to work in 
 the fields then those things should be done which 
 can be done under cover during the winter twilight. 
 
 All these rules should be written out and posted in 
 the farmstead and the overseer especially should 
 have them at the tip of his tongue. 
 
 Of the influence of the moon on agriculture 
 
 XXXVII. The lunar seasons also must be consid- 
 ered. They are divided into two terms, that from 
 the new moon to the full, and that from the full 
 
 [137I 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 moon to the next moon, or until that day which we 
 call intermenstruus, or the last and the first of a 
 moon, whence at Athens this day is called arq koX via 
 (the old and the new), though the other Greeks call 
 it TpiaKo.^ the thirtieth day. Some agricultural op- 
 erations may be undertaken with more advantage 
 during the increase of the moon, others during the 
 decrease,* as, for example, the harvest or cutting of 
 wood." 
 
 "I observe a practice which I learned from my 
 father," said Agrasius, "not only never to shear my 
 sheep, but not even to have my own hair cut on the 
 decrease of the moon, for fear that I might become 
 bald." 
 
 "What are the quarters of the moon," said Agrius, 
 "and what bearing have they on agriculture?" 
 
 "Have you never heard in the country," said 
 
 Tremelius, "the lore about the influence of Jana 
 
 (Diana) on the eighth day before her waxing, and 
 
 ' The rural confidence in the influence of the moon upon the 
 life of a farm still persists vigorously: thus as Pliny (H. N. XVIII, 
 75) counselled that one wean a colt only when the moon is 
 on the wane, so it will be found that the moon is consulted be- 
 fore a colt is weaned on most American farms today: for that 
 may be safely done, says the rural oracle, only when the moon's 
 sign, as given in the almanack, corresponds with a part of the 
 almanack's "moon's man" or "anatomie" at or below the 
 knees, i. e., when the moon is in one or the other of the signs 
 Pisces, Capricornus or Aquarius: but never at a time of day 
 when the moon is in its "Southing." 
 
 [138] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 again on the eighth day before her waning; how cer- 
 tain things which ought to be done during the in- 
 crease can be done to better advantage in the second 
 quarter than the first, and that what ever is fitting 
 to do on the wane of the moon can be better done 
 when her light is less? This is all I know about the 
 eflFect of the four quarters of the moon upon agricul- 
 ture." 
 
 ANOTHER CALENDAR OF SIX AGRICULTURAL SEASONS 
 
 "There is another division of the year," said Stolo, 
 "which takes account of both the sun and the moon, 
 namely: into six seasons, because almost all the cul- 
 tivated fruits of the earth come to maturity and 
 reach the vat or the granary after five successive 
 agricultural operations and are put to use by a sixth, 
 and these are, first, the preparing {preeparandum) ; 
 second, the planting {serendum); third, the cultivat- 
 ing of the growing crop (nutricandum); fourth, the 
 ingathering {legendum); fifth, the storing {conden- 
 dum), and sixth, the consuming (promendum). 
 
 1° PREPARING TIME 
 
 Of tillage 
 
 In the matter of preparation there are different 
 things to be done for different crops, as, if you wish 
 
 [139I 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 to make an orchard or an arbustum, you trench and 
 grub and plough; if you plant grain, you plough and 
 harrow; while, if you cultivate trees, you mulch their 
 roots by breaking the earth with a mattock, more or 
 less according to the nature of the tree, for some 
 trees, like the cypress, have a small, and others like 
 the plane tree have a large, root system (for example, 
 that in the Lyceum at Athens described by Theo- 
 phastus, which, when it was still a young tree, had a 
 spread of roots to the extent of 33 cubits). If you 
 break the ground with a plough and cattle, it is well 
 to work the land a second time before you sow your 
 seed. So, if you are making a meadow the prepara- 
 tion is to close it to the stock, and this is usually done 
 when the pear tree is in bloom: if it is an irrigated 
 meadow the preparation is to turn in the water at 
 the proper time. 
 
 Of manuring 
 
 XXXVIII. As part of this same operation should 
 be considered what places in a field need manure and 
 what kind of manure you can use to the greatest 
 advantage, for the several kinds have different quali- 
 ties. Cassius says that the best manure is that of 
 birds, except swamp and sea birds,* but the best of 
 
 * Modern agricultural chemistry has contradicted this judg- 
 ment of Cassius, for the manure of sea birds, especially that 
 brought from the South American islands in the Pacific, known 
 
 [140] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 all is, he claims, the manure of pigeons because it is 
 the hottest and causes the land to ferment. This 
 ought to be sown on the land like seed, not distrib- 
 uted in heaps like the dung of cattle. I myself 
 think the best manure is that from aviaries in which 
 thrushes and blackbirds are kept, because it is not 
 only good for the land but serves as a fattening food 
 for cattle and hogs : for which reason those who farm 
 aviaries pay less rent when the owner stipulates 
 that the manure is to be used on the farm, than those 
 to whom it is a perquisite. Cassius advises that the 
 manure next in value to that of doves is human 
 feces, and third that of goats and sheep and asses. 
 The manure of horses is of the least value on corn 
 land, but on meadows it is the best, because, like the 
 manure of other draught animals fed on barley, it 
 brings a heavy stand of grass. The manure pit 
 should be near the bam in order that it may be avail- 
 able with the least labour. If you plant a stake of 
 oak wood in the manure pit it will not harbour ser- 
 pents. 
 
 2® PLANTING TIME 
 
 Of the four methods of propagating plants 
 
 XXXIX. The second operation, namely that of 
 
 commercially as Peruvian guano, is found on analysis to be 
 high in the elements which are most beneficial to plant life. 
 
 [141] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 propagating, must be considered in relation to the 
 proper time for sowing each kind of seed, for this 
 concerns the aspect of the field you are to sow and 
 the season fitting for what you are to plant. Do we 
 not see some things grow best in the spring, others 
 in summer, some in autumn, and others again in 
 winter? For each plant is sowed or propagated 
 or harvested in season according to its nature: so 
 while most trees are grafted most successfully in 
 spring, rather than the autumn, yet figs may be 
 grafted at the summer solstice, and cherries even in 
 winter. 
 
 And since there are four methods of propagation of 
 plants, by nature and by the several processes of 
 art, namely: transplanting from one place to another, 
 as is done in layering vines, what is called cuttage or 
 propagating quick sets cut from trees, and graftage, 
 which consists in transferring scions from one tree to 
 another, let us consider at what season and in what 
 locality you should do each of these things. 
 
 a. Seeding, and here of seed selection 
 
 XL. In the first place, the seed, which is the prin- 
 ciple of all germination, is of two kinds, that which 
 is not appreciable by our senses and that which is. 
 Seed is hidden from us when it is disseminated in the 
 air, as the physicist Anaxagoras holds, or is distrib- 
 
 [142] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 uted over the land by the surface water, as Theo- 
 phrastus maintains. The seeds which the farmer 
 can see should be studied with the greatest care. 
 There are some varieties, like that of the cypress, 
 which are so small as to be almost invisible, for those 
 nuts which the cypress bears, that look like little 
 balls covered with bark, are not the seed but contain 
 it. Nature gave the principle of germination to seed, 
 the rest of agriculture was left for the experience of 
 man to discover, for in the beginning before the inter- 
 ference of man plants were generated before they were 
 sown, afterwards those seeds which were collected 
 by man from the original plants did not generate 
 until after they had been sown. 
 
 Seed should be examined to ascertain that it is 
 not sterile by age, that it is clean, particularly that 
 it is not adulterated with other varieties of similar 
 appearances: for age has such effect upon seed as in 
 some respects to change its very nature, thus it is 
 said that rape will grow from old cabbage seed, and 
 vice versa.^ 
 
 * Seed selection, which is now preached so earnestly by the 
 Agricultural Department of the United States as one of the 
 things necessary to increase the yield of wheat and com, has 
 ever been good practice. Following Varro Virgil {Georgic I, 
 197) insists upon it: "I have seen those seeds on whose selection 
 much time and labour had been spent, nevertheless degenerate 
 if men did not every year rigorously separate by hand all the 
 largest specimens." 
 
 [143] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 b. Transplanting 
 
 In respect of transplanting, care should be taken 
 that it is done neither too soon nor too late. The fit 
 time, according to Theophrastus, is spring and au- 
 tumn and midsummer, but the same rule will not 
 apply in all places and to all kinds of plants: for in 
 dry and thin clay soil, which has little natural mois- 
 ture, the wet spring is the time, but in a rich and fat 
 soil it is safe to transplant in autumn. Some limit 
 the practice of transplanting to a period of thirty 
 days. 
 
 c. Cuttage 
 
 In respect of cuttage, which consists in planting 
 in the ground a live cutting from a tree, it behooves 
 you especially to see that this is done at the proper 
 time, which is before the tree has begun to bud or 
 bloom: that you take off the cutting carefully rather 
 than break it from the parent tree, because the 
 cutting will be more firmly established in proportion 
 as it has a broad footing which can readily put out 
 roots: and that it is planted promptly before the sap 
 dries out of it. 
 
 In propagating olives select a truncheon of new 
 grown wood about a foot in length and the same size 
 at each end: some call these clavola and others call 
 them talea. 
 
 [144I 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 d. Graftage 
 
 In respect of graftage, which consists in transfer- 
 ring growing wood from one tree to another, care 
 must be taken in selecting the tree from which the 
 scion is taken, the tree on which it is grafted, and the 
 time and the manner in which it is done: for the 
 pear cannot be grafted on an oak, even though it 
 may upon the apple. In this operation many men 
 who have great faith in the sayings of the soothsayers 
 give heed to their warning that as many kinds of 
 grafts there may be on a tree so many bolts of light- 
 ning will strike it, because a bolt of lightning is gen- 
 erated by each graft iictu).^ 
 
 If you graft a cultivated pear upon a wild pear 
 tree no matter how good it may be, the result will 
 not be as fortunate as if you had grafted on another 
 cultivated pear. Having regard for the result, on 
 what ever kind of tree you graft, if it is of exactly the 
 same kind, as, for instance, apple on apple, you 
 should take care that the scion comes from a better 
 tree than that on which it is grafted. 
 
 * Cicero (de Div. II, 24) records a mot of Cato's that he won- 
 dered that an haruspez did not laugh when he saw another— 
 "qui mirari se aiebat, quod non rideret aruspex, aruspicem 
 quum vidisset." 
 
 [HSl 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 e. A " new " method — inarching 
 
 There is another operation recently suggested,' for 
 propagating one tree from another, when the trees 
 are neighbours. From the tree from which you wish 
 to take a scion a branch is trained to that on which 
 you wish to make the graft and the scion is bound 
 upon an incision in a branch of the stock. The place 
 of contact of both scion and stock is cut away with 
 a knife so that the bark of one joins evenly with the 
 bark of the other at the point of exposure to the 
 weather. Care should be taken that the growing 
 top of the scion is pointed straight upwards. The 
 following year when the graft has knitted, the scion 
 may be cut from its parent tree. 
 
 Oj when to use these different methods 
 
 XLI. The most important consideration in prop- 
 agating is, however, the time at which you do it: 
 thus things which formerly were propagated in the 
 spring now are propagated in summer, like the fig, 
 whose wood is not heavy and so craves heat, as a 
 
 ' This process of propagation which Varro describes as "new" 
 is still practised by curious orchardists under the name "in- 
 arching." The free end of a growing twig is introduced into a 
 limb of its own tree, back of a specimen fruit, thus pushing its 
 development by means of the supplemental feeding so provided. 
 Cf. Cyc. Am. Hort. II, 664. 
 
 [146] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 consequence of which quality figs cannot be grown in 
 cold climates. For the same reason water is dan- 
 gerous to a new fig graft because its soft wood rots 
 easily. For these reasons it is now considered that 
 midsummer is the best season to propagate figs. On 
 the other hand it is the custom to tie a pot of water 
 above a graft of hard wood trees so that it may drip 
 on the graft and prevent the scion from drying up 
 before it has been incorporated with the stock. Care 
 must be taken that the bark of the scion is kept in- 
 tact, and to that end it should be sharpened but so 
 that the pith {medulla) is not exposed. To prevent 
 the rain or the heat from injuring it from without, 
 it should be smeared with clay and bound with bark. 
 It is customary to take oflF the scion of a vine three 
 days before it is to be grafted so that the superfluity 
 of moisture may drain out before the scion is in- 
 serted, or, if the graft is already in place, an incision 
 is made in the stock a little below the graft from 
 which the adventitious moisture may drain off: but 
 this is not done with figs and pomegranates, for in 
 all trees of a comparatively dry nature the graft is 
 made immediately. Indeed, some trees, like the fig, 
 are best grafted when the scion is in bud. 
 
 Of the four kinds of propagation which I have 
 discussed, that of graftage is preferred in respect of 
 those trees which, like the fig, are slow in developing: 
 
 [147] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 for the natural seeds of the fig are those grains seen 
 in the fruit we eat and are so small as scarcely to be 
 capable of sprouting the slenderest shoots. For all 
 seeds which are small and hard are slow in germinat- 
 ing, while those which are soft are more spontaneous, 
 just as girls grow faster than boys. Thus by reason 
 of their feminine tenderness the fig, the pomegranate 
 and the vine are quicker to mature than the palm, 
 the cypress and the olive, which are rather dry than 
 humid by nature. Wherefore we some times prop- 
 agate figs in nurseries from cuttings rather than 
 attempt to raise them from seed: unless there is no 
 other way to secure them, as happens when one 
 wishes to send or receive seed across the sea. For 
 this purpose the ripe figs which we eat are strung 
 together and when they have dried out are packed 
 and shipped wheresoever we wish, and thereafter 
 being planted in a nursery they germinate. In this 
 way the Chian, the Chalcidian, the Lydian, the 
 African and other foreign varieties of figs were im- 
 ported into Italy. 
 
 For the same reason olives are usually propagated 
 in nurseries from truncheons such as I have described, 
 rather than from its seed, which is hard like a nut and 
 slow to germinate. 
 
 [148] 
 
ROxMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 Of seeding alfalfa 
 
 XLII. You should take care not to plant alfalfa ^ 
 
 ' Alfalfa is the Moorish name which the Spaniards brought 
 to America with the forage plant Medicago Sativa, Linn., which 
 all over Southern Europe is known by the French name lucerne. 
 It is proper to honour the Moors by continuing in use their name 
 for this interesting plant, because undoubtedly they preserved 
 it for the use of the modem world, just as undoubtedly they 
 bequeathed to us that fine sentiment known as personal honour. 
 
 Alfalfa was one of the standbys of ancient agriculture. Accord- 
 ing to Pliny, it was introduced into Italy from Greece, whence ■ 
 it had been brought from Asia during the Persian wars, and 
 so derived its Greek and Roman name Medica. As Cato does 
 not mention it with the other legumes he used, it is probable 
 that the Romans had not yet adopted it in Cato's day, but by 
 the time of Varro and Virgil it was well established in Italy. In 
 Columella's day it was already a feature of the agriculture of 
 Andalousia, and there the Moors, who loved plants, kept it 
 alive, as it were a Vestal fire, while it died out of Italy during 
 the Dark Ages: from Spain it spread again all over Southern 
 Europe, and with America it was a fair exchange for tobacco. 
 Alfalfa has always been the subject of high praise wherever it 
 has been known. The Greek Amphilochus devoted a whole 
 book to it, as have the English Walter Harte in the middle of 
 the eighteenth century and the American Coburn at the begin- 
 ning of the twentieth century, but none of them is more instruc- 
 tive on the subject of its culture than is Columella in a few 
 paragraphs. Because of the difficulty of getting a stand of it 
 in many soils, it is important to realize the pains which the 
 Romans took with the seed bed, for it is on this point that most 
 American farmers fail. Says Columella (II, lo) : 
 
 " But of all the legumes, alfalfa is the best, because, when once 
 it is sown, it lasts ten years: because it can be mowed four times, 
 and even six times, a year: because it improves the soil: be- 
 cause all lean cattle grow fat by feeding upon it: because it is 
 a remedy for sick beasts: because a jugerum (two-thirds of an 
 
 [149] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 in soil which is neither too dry or half wet,' but in 
 good order. The authorities say that if the soil is in 
 proper condition a modius (peck) and a half of alfalfa 
 seed will suffice to sow a jugerum of land. This seed 
 is sowed broad-cast on the land like grass and grain; 
 
 acre) of it will feed three horses plentifully for a year. We will 
 teach you the manner of cultivating it, as follows: The land 
 which you wish to set in alfalfa the following spring should 
 be broken up about the Kalends of October, so that it may 
 mellow through the entire winter. About the Kalends of Feb- 
 ruary harrow it thoroughly, remove all the stones and break 
 up the clods. Later, about the month of March, harrow it 
 for the third time. When you have so got the land in good 
 order, lay it off after the manner of a garden, in beds ten feet 
 wide and fifty feet long, so that it may be possible to let in water 
 by the paths, and access on every side may be had by the weeders. 
 Then cover the beds with well rotted manure. At last, about 
 the end of April, sow plentifully so that a single measure (cyan- 
 thus) of seed will cover a space ten feet long and five wide. 
 When you have done this brush in the seed with wooden rakes: 
 this is most important for otherwise the sprouts will be withered 
 by the sun. After the sowing no iron tool should touch the 
 beds; but, as I have said, they should be cultivated with wooden 
 rakes, and in the same manner they should be weeded so that 
 no foreign grass can choke out the young alfalfa. The first cut- 
 ting should be late, when the seed begins to fall: afterwards, when 
 it is well rooted, you can cut it as young as you wish to feed to 
 the stock. Feed it at first sparingly, until the stock becomes 
 accustomed to it, for it causes bloat and excess of blood. After 
 cutting, irrigate the beds frequently, and after a few days, when 
 the roots begin to sprout, weed out all other kinds of grass. Cul- 
 tivated in this way alfalfa can be mowed six times a year, and 
 it will last for ten years." 
 
 ' See the explanation of what the Romans meant by terra 
 varia in the note on Cato V. ante, p. 40. 
 
 [ISO] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGKMENT 
 
 Oj seeding clover and cabbage 
 
 XLIII. Snail clover {cytisus) and cabbage is sowed 
 in beds well prepared and is transplanted from them 
 and set out so that the plants are a foot and a half 
 apart, also cuttings are taken from the stronger plants 
 and set out like those which were raised from seed. 
 
 Of seeding grain 
 
 XLIV. The quantity of seed required for one 
 jugerum is, of beans, four modii, of wheat five modii, 
 of barley six modii, and of spelt ten modii: in some 
 places a little more or a little less; if the soil is rich, 
 more; if it is thin, less. Wherefore you should ob- 
 serve how much it is the custom to sow in your 
 locality in order that you may do what the region 
 and the quality of the soil demands, which is the more 
 necessary as the same amount of seed will yield in 
 some localities ten for one, and in others fifteen for 
 one, as in Etruria. In Italy also, in the region of 
 Sybaris it is said that seed yields as much as one 
 hundred for one, and as much is claimed for the soil 
 of Syria at Gadara, and in Africa at Byzacium.* 
 
 ^ It is interesting to note from the statements in the text that 
 in Varro's time the Roman fanner in Italy both sowed and 
 reaped substantially the same amount of wheat as does the 
 American farmer today. Varro says that the Romans sowed 
 five modii of wheat to the jugerum and reaped on the maximum 
 fifteen for one. As the modius was nearly the equivalent of 
 
 [151] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 It is also important to consider whether you will 
 sow in land which is cropped every year which we 
 
 our peck, the Roman allowance for sowing corresponds to the 
 present American practice of sowing seven pecks of wheat to 
 the acre: and on this basis a yield of 26 bushels to the acre, which 
 is not uncommon in the United States, is the equivalent of the 
 Roman harvest of fifteen for one. 
 
 It is fair to the average Italian farmer of the present day who 
 is held up by the economists to scorn because he does not pro- 
 duce more than eleven bushels of wheat to the acre, to record 
 that in Columella's time, when agriculture had declined as com- 
 pared with Varro's experience, the average yield of grain in 
 many parts of Italy did not exceed four for one (Columella, 
 III, 3), or say seven and a half bushels to the acre. 
 
 Varro's statement that at Byzacium in Africa wheat yielded 
 100 for one, which Pliny (H. N. XVIII, 23) increases to 150 for 
 one, means from 175 to 260 bushels per acre, seems incredible 
 to us, but is confirmed by the testimony of agricultural practice 
 in Palestine. Isaac claimed to reap an hundred fold, and the 
 parable of the Sower alludes to yields of 30, 60 and 100 fold. 
 
 Harte Essays on Husbandry, 91, says that the average yield 
 in England in the middle of the eighteenth century was seven 
 for one, though he records the case of an award by the Dublin 
 Society in 1763 to an Irish gentleman who raised 50 bushels 
 of wheat from a single peck of seed! Harte was a parson, but 
 apparently he did not bring the same unction into his agricul- 
 ture as did the Rev. Robert Herrick to the husbandry of his 
 Devonshire glebe, a century earlier. In Herrick's Thanksgiving 
 to God for his House he sings: 
 
 " Lord, 'tis thy plenty dropping hand 
 That soils my land 
 
 And giv'st me for my bushel sown 
 Twice ten for one. 
 
 Thou makst my teeming hen to lay 
 Her egg each day: 
 
 Besides my healthful ewes to bear 
 Me twins each year." 
 
 [152] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 call restibilis, or in fallow land (vervactum)^ which is 
 [ploughed in the spring and so] allowed an interval 
 of rest." 
 
 "In Olynthia," ^id Agnus, "they are said to crop 
 the land every year but to get a greater yield every 
 third year." 
 
 "A field ought to lie fallow every other year," said 
 Stolo, "or at least be planted with some crop which 
 makes less demand upon the soil." 
 
 3® CULTIVATING TIME 
 
 "Tell us," said Agnus, "about the third opera- 
 tion which relates to the cultivation and the nourish- 
 ment of the crops." 
 
 Of the conditions of plant growth 
 
 "All things which germinate in the soil," replied 
 Licinius, "in the soil also are nourished, come to 
 maturity, conceive, are pregnant and in due time 
 bear fruit or ear, so each fruit after its kind yields 
 seed similar to that from which it is sprung. Thus 
 if you pluck a blossom or a green pear from a pear 
 tree, or the like from any other tree, nothing will 
 grow again in that place during the same year, be- 
 cause a tree cannot have two periods of fruition in 
 the same season. They produce only as women bear 
 children, when their time has come. 
 
 1 153) 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 XLV. Barley usually sprouts in seven days after 
 it has been sowed, and wheat not much later, while 
 the legumes almost always sprout in four or five 
 days, except the bean, which is somewhat later. 
 Millet and sesame and the other similar grains sprout 
 in the same time unless some thing in the nature of 
 the soil or the weather retards them. If the locality 
 is cold, those plants which are propagated in the 
 nursery and are tender by nature ought to be pro- 
 tected from the frosts by coverings of leaves or straw, 
 and, if rains follow, care should be taken that water 
 is not permitted to stand any where about them, for 
 ice is a poison to tender roots under ground, as to 
 sprouts above, and prevents them from developing 
 normally. In autumn and winter the roots develop 
 more than does the leaf of the plant because they 
 are nourished by the warmth of the roof of earth, 
 while the leaf above is cut down by the frosty air. 
 We can learn this by observation of the wild vegeta- 
 tion which grows without the intervention of man, 
 for the roots grow more rapidly than that which 
 springs from them, but only so far as they are actu- 
 ated by the rays of the sun. There are two causes of 
 the growth of roots, the vitality of the root itself by 
 which nature drives it forward, and the quality of 
 the soil which yields a passage more easily in some 
 conditions than in others. 
 
 [iS4l 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 0/ the mechanical action of plants 
 
 XLVI. In their effect upon plants such natural 
 forces as I have mentioned produce some curious 
 mechanical results. Thus it is possible to determine 
 the time of the year from the motion of the leaves of 
 certain trees like the olive, the white poplar and the 
 willow, for when the summer solstice has arrived their 
 leaves turn over. Not less curious is the habit of 
 that flower which is called the heliotrope, which in 
 the morning looks upon the rising sun and, following 
 its journey to its setting, never turns away its face. 
 
 Of the protection of nurseries and meadows 
 
 XLVII. Those plants, which, like olives and figs, 
 are grown in the nursery from cuttings and are of a 
 tender nature, should be protected by sheds built 
 of two planks fastened at each end: moreover they 
 should be weeded, and this should be done while 
 the weeds are still young, for after they have be- 
 come dry they oflFer resistance, and more readily 
 break off in your hand than yield to your pull. On 
 the other hand the grass which springs in the mead- 
 ows and gives you hope of forage not only should 
 not be rooted out while it is growing, but should not 
 even be walked upon; hence both the flock and the 
 herd should be excluded from the liieadow at this 
 
 [155] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 time and even man himself should keep away, for 
 grass disappears under the foot and the track soon 
 becomes a path. 
 
 Oj the structure of a wheat plant 
 
 XL VIII. A com plant consists of a culm bearing 
 at its head a spike, which, when it is not mutilated, 
 has, as in barley and wheat, three parts, namely: 
 the grain, the glume and the beard, not to speak of 
 the sheath which contains the spike while it is being 
 formed. The grain is that solid interior part of the 
 spike, the glume is its hull and the beard those long 
 thin needles which grow out of the glume. Thus as 
 the glume is the pontifical robe of the grain, the 
 beard is its apex. The beard and the grain are well 
 known to almost every one, but the glume to very 
 few: indeed I know only one book in which it is men- 
 tioned, the translation which Ennius made of the 
 verses of Evhemerus. The etymology of the word 
 gluma seems to be from glubere, to strip, because the 
 grain must be stripped from this hull: and by a like 
 derivation the hull of the fig which we eat is called a 
 glume. The beard we call arista because it is the first 
 part of the com to dry (arescere), while we call the 
 grain granum from the fact that it is produced (gerere), 
 for we plant corn to produce grain, not glumes or 
 beards, just as vines are planted to produce grapes, 
 
 [156] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 not tendrils. The spike, which, by tradition, the 
 country people call s-peca, seems to get its name from 
 speSf hope. For men plant with hope of the harvest. 
 A spike which has no beard is called polled (muticus), 
 for, when the spike is first forming, the beard, like 
 the horns of a young animal, is not apparent but 
 lies hid like a sword in its scabbard under a wrapping 
 of foliage which hence is called the sheath. When 
 the spike is mature its taper end above the grain is 
 called the frit, while that below, where the spike 
 joins the straw culm, is called the urruncum.'' 
 
 XLIX. When Stolo drew breath, no one asked 
 any questions, and so, believing that enough had been 
 said on the subject of the care of the growing crops, 
 he resumed. 
 
 4° HARVEST TIME 
 
 " I will now speak about the gathering of the crops. 
 
 Of the hay harvest 
 
 And first of the meadows: when the grass ceases 
 to grow and begins to dry out with the heat, then it 
 should be cut with scythes and, as it begins to cure, 
 turned with forks. When it is cured it should be tied 
 in bales and hauled into the steading; then what hay 
 was left lying should be raked together and stacked, 
 and, finally, when this has all been done, the meadow 
 
 [157] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 should be gleaned, that is, gone over with the sickle 
 to save what ever grass escaped the mowing, such as 
 that left standing on tussocks. From this act of 
 cutting {sectare) I think that the word sicilire (to 
 glean with a sickle) is derived. 
 
 Of the wheat harvest 
 
 L. The word harvest imessis) is properly used with 
 respect to the ingathering of those crops which are 
 reaped, and from this action (metere) its name is de- 
 rived, but it is mostly used in respect of corn. There 
 are three methods of harvesting com, one as in Um- 
 bria, where they cradle the straw close to the earth 
 and shock up the sheaves as they are cut: when a 
 sufficient number of shocks has been made, they go 
 over them again and cut each sheaf between the 
 spikes and the straw, the spikes being thrown into 
 baskets and sent off to the threshing floor, while 
 the straw is left in the field and stacked. A second 
 method of harvesting is practised in Picenum, where 
 they have a curved wooden header ^ on the edge of 
 
 ' As the Gallic header here described by Varro is the direct 
 ancestor of our modern marvellous self-binding harvester, it is 
 of interest to rehearse the other ancient references to it. 
 
 Pliny (H. N. XVIII, 72) says: 
 
 " In the vast domains of the provinces of Gaul a large hollow 
 frame armed with teeth and supported on two wheels is driven 
 through the standing corn, the beasts being yoked behind it, 
 
 [158] 
 
ROxMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 which is fixed an iron saw: when this instrument 
 
 engages the spikes of grain it cuts them oflF, leaving 
 
 the result being that the ears are torn ofiF and fall within the 
 frame." 
 
 Palladius (VII, 2) goes more into detail: 
 
 "The people of the more level regions of Gaul have devised 
 a method of harvesting quickly and with a minimum of human 
 labour, for thereby a single ox is made to bear the burden of the 
 entire harvest. A cart is constructed on two low wheels and is 
 furnished with a square body, of which the side boards are ad- 
 justed to slope upward and outward to make greater capacity. 
 The front of the body is left open and there across the width of 
 the cart are set a series of lance shaped teeth spaced to the 
 distance between the grain stalks and curved upward. Behind 
 the cart two short shafts are fashioned, like those of a litter, 
 where the ox is yoked and harnessed with his head towards the 
 cart: for this purpose it is well to use a well broken and sensible 
 ox, which will not push ahead of his driver. When this machine 
 is driven through the standing grain all the heads are stripped 
 by the teeth and are thrown back and collected in the body of 
 the cart, the straw being left standing. The machine is so con- 
 trived that the driver can adjust its height to that of the grain. 
 ' Thus with little going and coming and in a few short hours the 
 entire harvest is made. This method is available in level or prairie 
 countries and to those who do not need to save the straw." 
 
 That ingenious Dutchman Conrad Heresbach refers, in his 
 Husbandry, to Palladius' description of the Gallic header with 
 small respect, which indicates that in the sixteenth century it 
 was no longer in use. I quote from Bamaby Googe's translation 
 of Heresbach (the book which served Izaak Walton as the model 
 for his CompUat Angler) : "This tricke might be used in levell and 
 champion countries, but with us it would make but ill-favoured 
 worke." 
 
 Dondlinger, in his excellent Book of Wheat (1908), which 
 should be in the hands of every grain farmer, gives a picture 
 reproducing the Gallic header and says: 
 
 "After being used during hundreds of years the Gallic header 
 
 [159] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 the straw standing in the field, where it is afterwards 
 cut. A third method of harvesting, which is used 
 in the vicinity of Rome and in most places, is to cut 
 the straw in the middle and take away the upper 
 part with the left hand (whence the word to reap 
 (metere) is, I think, derived from the word medium — 
 connoting a cutting in the middle). The lower part 
 of the straw which remains standing is cut later,' 
 
 disappeared, and it seems to have been completely forgotten for 
 several centuries. Only through literature did it escape the fate 
 of permanent oblivion and become a heritage for the modem 
 world. The published description of the machine by Pliny and 
 Palladius furnished the impulse in which modern harvesting 
 inventions originated. Its distinctive features are retained in 
 several modem inventions of this class, machines which have 
 a practical use and value under conditions similar to those 
 which existed on the plains of Gaul. Toward the close of the 
 eighteenth century, the social, economic and agricultural con- 
 ditions in England, on account of increasing competition and 
 the higher value of labour, were ripe for the movement of in- 
 vention that was heralded by the printed account of the Gallic 
 header. The first header was constructed by William Pitt in 
 1786. It was an attempted improvement on the ancient ma- 
 chine in that the stripping teeth were placed in a cylinder which 
 was revolved by power transmitted from the wheels. This 
 'rippling cylinder' carried the heads of the wheat into the box 
 of the machine, and gradually evolved into the present day reel." 
 
 It may be added that the William Pitt mentioned was not 
 the statesman, but a contemporary agricultural writer of the 
 same name. 
 
 ' According to Sir Anthony Fitzherbert it was the custom in 
 England to shear wheat and rye and to leave the straw standing 
 after the third method described by Varro, the purpose being to 
 preserve the straw to be cut later for thatching, as threshing 
 
 [160] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 while the rest, which goes with the grain, is hauled off 
 in baskets to the threshing floor and there in an airy- 
 place is winnowed with a shovel (pala) from which 
 perhaps the chaff (palea) takes its name. Some 
 derive the name of straw (stramentum) from the fact 
 that it stands (stare), as they think the word stamen 
 is also derived, while others derive it from the fact 
 that it is spread (strare), because straw is used as 
 litter for cattle. 
 
 The grain should be harvested when it is ripe: it is 
 considered that under normal conditions and in an 
 easy field one man should reap almost a jugerum a 
 day and still have time to carry the grain in baskets 
 to the threshing floor. 
 
 The threshing floor 
 
 LI. The threshing floor should be on high ground 
 so that the wind can blow upon it from all directions. 
 It should be constructed of a size proportioned to 
 your crops, preferably round and with the centre 
 slightly raised so that if it rains the water may not 
 stand on it but drain off as quickly as possible, and 
 there is no shorter distance from the centre to the 
 circumference of a circle than a radius : ^ it should be 
 
 It would necessarily destroy its value for thatching. It was the 
 custom in England, however, to mow barley and oats. 
 
 * Pliny advises that the grain which collects on the circum- 
 
 [i6i] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 paved with well packed earth, best of all of clay, so 
 that it may not crack in the sun and open honey- 
 combs in which the grain can hide itself, and water 
 collect and give vent to the burrows of mice and ants. 
 It is the practice to anoint the threshing floor with 
 amurca,' for that is an enemy of grass and a poison 
 to ants and to moles. Some build up and even pave 
 their threshing floor with rock to make it permanent, 
 and some, like the people of Bagiennae, even roof it 
 over because in that country storms are prevalent 
 at the threshing season. In a hot country where the 
 threshing floor is uncovered it is desirable to build a 
 shelter near by where the hands can resort in the 
 heat of the day. 
 
 Threshing and toinnozving 
 
 LIT. The heaviest and best of the sheaves should 
 be selected on the threshing floor and the spikes laid 
 aside for seed. The grain is threshed from the spikes 
 on the threshing floor, an operation which some per- 
 form by means of a sledge drawn by a yoke of oxen : 
 this sledge consisting of a wooden platform, studded 
 underneath with flints or iron spikes, on which either 
 
 ference of a threshing floor of this description be saved for seed 
 because it is evidently the heaviest. 
 
 ^ In the Apennines today the threshing floor, or aja, is anointed 
 with cow dung smeared smooth with water, doubtless for the 
 same reason that the Romans so used amurca. 
 
 [162] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 the driver rides or some heavj' weight is imposed in 
 order, as it is drawn around, to separate the grain 
 from the chaff: others use for this purpose what is 
 called the punic cart, consisting of a series of axle 
 trees, equipped with toothed rollers, on which some 
 one sits and drives the cattle which draw it, as they 
 do in hither Spain and other places. Others cause 
 the grain to be trodden out under the hoofs of a herd 
 of driven cattle, which are kept moving by goading 
 them with long poles. 
 
 When the grain has been threshed it should be 
 tossed from the ground by means of a winnowing 
 basket or a winnowing shovel when the wind is blow- 
 ing gently, and this is done in such way that the 
 lightest part, which is called the chaff, is blown away 
 beyond the threshing floor, while the heavy part, 
 which is the com, comes clean into the basket.^ 
 
 Gleaning 
 
 LIII. After the harvest is over the grain fields 
 should be gleaned of shattered grain, and the straw 
 left in the field should be gathered and housed, but 
 if there is little to be gained by such work, and the 
 
 1 Between harvests the winnowing basket is quite generally 
 used in Italy today for a cradle, as it was from the beginning 
 of time, for there is an ancient gem representing the infant 
 Bacchus asleep in a winnowing basket. 
 
 1 163] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 expense is disproportionate, the stubble should be 
 grazed: for in farming it is of the greatest importance 
 that the expense of an operation shall not exceed the 
 return from it. 
 
 Of the vintage 
 
 LIV. In vineyards the vintage should begin when 
 the grape is ripe, but care must be taken with what 
 kind of grapes and in what part of the vineyard 
 you begin: for the early grapes and the mixed variety, 
 which is called black, ripen some time before the 
 others and should be gathered first, like the fruit 
 grown on the side of the arbustum, or of the vine- 
 yard, which is exposed to the sun. During the gather- 
 ing those grapes from which you expect to make 
 wine should be separated from those reserved for the 
 table: the choicer being carried to the wine press and 
 collected in empty jars, while those reserved to eat 
 are collected in separate baskets, transferred to 
 little pots and stored in jars packed with marc, though 
 some are immersed in the pond in jars daubed with 
 pitch and some raised to a shelf in the store room. 
 
 The stems and the skins of the grapes which have 
 been trodden out should be put under the press so 
 that any must left in them may be added to the 
 supply in the vat. When this marc ceases to yield 
 a flow, it is chopped with a knife and pressed again, 
 
 [164] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 and the must expressed by this final operation is 
 hence called circumcisitum ^ and is kept by itself 
 because it smacks of the knife. The marc finally 
 remaining is thrown into jars, to which water is 
 added, thus preparing a drink which is called after- 
 wine or grape juice, and is given to the hands in the 
 winter instead of wine. 
 
 0} the olive harvest 
 
 IN. And now of the harvest of the olive yard." 
 You should pick by hand, rather than beat from the 
 tree, all the olives which can be reached from the 
 ground or from a ladder, because this fruit becomes 
 arid when it has been struck and does not yield so 
 much oil: and in picking by hand it is better to do so 
 with the bare fingers rather than with a tool because 
 the texture of a tool not only injures the berry but 
 barks the branches and leaves them exposed to the 
 frost. So it is better to use a reed than a pole to 
 strike down the fruit which cannot be reached by 
 
 • What the French call, from the same practice, vin de rognure. 
 
 ^ Varro does not mention the season of the olive harvest, but 
 Virgil tells us (G. II, 519) that in their day as now it was winter. 
 Cato (XX-XXII) described the construction and operation of 
 the trafetus in detail. It can still be seen in operation in Italy, 
 turned by a patient donkey and flowing with the new oil of an 
 intense blue-green colour. It is always flanked by an array of 
 vast storage jars (Cato's dolii now called orci), which make one 
 realize the story of AH Baba and the Forty Thieves. 
 
 [165] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 hand, for (as the proverb is) the heavier the blow 
 the more need there is for a surgeon. He who beats 
 his trees should beware of doing injury, for often an 
 olive when it is struck away brings down with it 
 from the branch a twig, and when this happens the 
 fruit of the following year is lost: and this is not the 
 least reason why it is said that the olive bears fruit, 
 or much fruit, only every other year. 
 
 Like the grape, the olive serves a two-fold function 
 after it is gathered. Some are set aside to be eaten 
 and the rest are made into oil, which comforts the 
 body of man not only within but without, for it fol- 
 lows us into the bath and the gymnasium. Those 
 berries from which it is proposed to make oil are 
 usually stored in heaps on tables for several days 
 where they may mellow a little. Each heap in turn 
 is carried in crates to the oil jars and to the trapetus, 
 or pressing mill, which is equipped with both hard 
 and rough stones. If the olives are left too long in 
 the heap they heat and spoil and the oil is rancid, so 
 if you are unable to grind promptly the heaps of 
 olives should be ventilated by moving them. The 
 yield of the olive is of two kinds, oil which is well 
 known and amurca, of the use of which many are so 
 ignorant that one can often see it streaming from 
 the mill and wasting upon the ground where it not 
 only discolours the soil, but in places where it collects 
 
 [i66] 
 
ROiMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 even makes it sterile: while if applied intelligently 
 it has many uses of the greatest importance to agri- 
 culture, as, for instance, by pouring it around the 
 roots of trees, chiefly the olive itself, or wherever it is 
 desired to destroy weeds." ' 
 
 S° HOUSING TIME 
 
 LVI. "Up to this moment," cried Agrius, "I have 
 been sitting in the barn with the keys in my hands 
 waiting for you, Stolo, to bring in the harvest." 
 
 "Lo, I am here at the threshold," replied Stolo. 
 "Open the gates for me. 
 
 Of storing hay 
 In the first place, it is better to house your hay than 
 to leave it stacked in the field, for thus it makes more 
 palatable provender, as may be proven by putting 
 both kinds before the cattle. 
 
 Of storing grain 
 
 LVII. But com should be stored in an elevated 
 granary, exposed to the winds from the east and the 
 
 ^ The Roman waste of amurca, through ignorance of its value, 
 was like the American waste of the cotton seed, which for many 
 years was thrown out from the gin to rot upon the ground, even 
 its fertilizing use being neglected. Now cotton seed has a 
 market value equivalent to nearly 20 per cent of that of the 
 staple. It is used for cattle feed and also is made into lard and 
 " pure olive oil," being exported in bulk and imported again in 
 bottles with Italian labels. 
 
 [167I 
 
ROMAN FARM xMANAGEMENT 
 
 north, and where no damp air may reach it from 
 places near at hand. The walls and the floors should 
 be plastered with a stucco of marble dust or at least 
 with a mixture of clay and chaff and amurca, for^ 
 amurca will serve to keep out mice and weevil and^ 
 will make the grain solid and heavy. Some men 
 even sprinkle their grain with amurca in the propor- 
 tion of a quadrantal to every thousand modii of 
 grain : others crumble or scatter over it, for the same 
 purpose, other vermifuges like Chalcidian or Carian 
 chalk or wormwood, and other things of that kind. 
 Some farmers have their granaries under ground, 
 like caverns, which they call silos, as in Cappadocia 
 and Thrace, while in hither Spain, in the vicinity of 
 Carthage, and at Osca pits are used for this purpose, 
 the bottoms of which are covered with straw: and 
 they take care that neither moisture nor air has ac- 
 cess to them, except when they are opened for use, 
 a wise precaution because where the air does not 
 move the weevil will not hatch. Corn stored in this 
 way is preserved for fifty years, and millet, indeed, 
 for more than a century. 
 
 On the other hand again, in hither Spain and in 
 certain parts of Apulia they build elevated granaries 
 above ground, which the winds keep cool, not only 
 by windows at the sides but also from underneath 
 the floor. 
 
 [i68] 
 
ROMAN FARM xMANAGKxVIENT 
 
 Oj storing legumes 
 
 LVIII. Beans and other legumes keep safe a long 
 time in oil jars covered with ashes. Cato says the 
 little Aminnean grape, as well as the large variety 
 and that called Apician, keep very well when buried 
 in earthen pots: or they may be preserved quite as 
 well in boiled new wine, or in fresh after-wine. The 
 varieties which keep best when hung up are the hard 
 grapes and those known as the Aminnean Scantian. 
 
 Oj storing pome fruits 
 
 LIX. The pome fruits, like the preserving sparrow 
 apples, quinces and the varieties of apples known as 
 Scantian, and 'little rounds' (orbiculata) and those 
 which formerly were called winesap (mustea), and 
 now are called honey apples (melimela), can all be 
 kept safely in a cold and dry place when laid on straw, 
 and so those who build fruit houses take care to have 
 the windows give upon the north wind and that it 
 may blow through them: but they should not be left 
 without shutters for fear that the fruits should lose 
 their moisture and become shrivelled by the effect 
 of the continuous wind. 
 
 The vaults, the walls and the pavements of these 
 f ruiteries are usually laid in stucco to keep them cool : 
 thus rendering them such pleasant resorts that some 
 
 [169] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 men even spread there their dining couches: as well 
 they may, for if the pursuit of luxury impels some 
 of us to turn our dining rooms into picture galleries 
 in order to regale even our eyes with works of art 
 [while we eat], should we not find still greater grati- 
 fication in contemplating the works of nature dis- 
 played in a savory array of beautiful fruits, especially 
 if this was not procured, as has been done, by setting 
 up in your fruitery on the occasion of a party a sup- 
 ply of fruit purchased for the purpose in town? 
 
 Some think best to dispose their apples in the 
 fruitery on concrete tables, others on beds of straw, 
 and some even on flocks of wool. 
 
 Pomegranates are preserved by sticking their twigs 
 in jars of sand, quinces and sparrow apples are 
 strung together and hung up, but the late maturing 
 Anician pears are best preserved in boiled must. 
 Sorbs and pears also are some times cut up and dried 
 in the sun, though the sorb may be easily preserved 
 intact by keeping them in a dry place: turnips are 
 cut up and preserved in mustard, while walnuts keep 
 well in sand, as I have explained with respect to ripe 
 pomegranates. There is a similar way of ripening 
 pomegranates: put the fruit, while it is still green 
 and attached to its branch, in a pot without a bottom, 
 bury this in the earth and scrape the soil around the 
 protruding branch so as to keep out the air, and 
 
 [170] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 when the pomegranates are dug up they will be found 
 to be not only intact but larger than if they had hung 
 all the time on the tree. 
 
 Of storing olives 
 
 LX. With respect to preserving olives, Cato advises 
 that table olives, both the round and the bitter berried 
 kinds, keep best in brine both when they are dry 
 and when they are green, but if they are bruised it 
 is well to put them in mastich oil. Round olives 
 will retain their black colour if they are packed in 
 salt for five days, and then, the salt having been 
 brushed away, are exposed for two days in the sun: 
 or they may be preserved in must boiled down to 
 one-third, without the use of salt. 
 
 Of storing amurca 
 
 LXI. Experienced farmers do well to save their 
 amuTca as they do their oil and their wine. The 
 method of preserving it is this: immediately after 
 the oil has been pressed out, draw off the amurca 
 and boil it down to one-third and, when it has cooled, 
 store it in vats. There are other methods also, as 
 that in which must is mingled with the amurca. 
 
 6" CONSUMING TIME 
 
 LXII. Since no one stores his crops except to bring 
 them out again, it remains to make a few observa- 
 
 [171] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 tions upon the sixth and last operation in our round 
 of agriculture. 
 
 Crops which have been stored are brought out 
 either to care for them, to consume them or to sell 
 them, and as all crops are not alike there are different 
 times for caring for them and for consuming them. 
 
 Of cleaning grain 
 
 LXIII. Grain is taken out of store to be cleaned, 
 when the weevil begins to damage it. When this is 
 apparent the grain should be laid out in the sun and 
 bowls of water placed nearby and the weevil will 
 swarm on this water and drown themselves. Those 
 who store their grain in the pits which are called silos 
 should not attempt to bring out the grain for some 
 time after the silo has been opened because there is 
 danger of suffocation in entering a recently opened 
 silo. The corn which, during the harvest time, you 
 stored in the ear and which you contemplate using 
 for food, should be brought out during the winter to 
 be crushed and ground in the grist mill. 
 
 Of condensing amurca 
 
 LXIV. When it flows from the oil mill, amurca is 
 a watery fluid full of dregs. It is the custom to store 
 it in this state in earthen jars and fifteen days later 
 to skim off the scum from the top and transfer this 
 
 [172] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 to other jars, an operation which is repeated at 
 regular intervals twelve times during the following 
 six months, taking care that the last skimming is 
 done on the wane of the moon. Then it is boiled in a 
 copper kettle over a slow fire until it is reduced two- 
 thirds, when it may be drawn off for use. 
 
 0/ racking wine 
 
 LXV. When the must is stored in the vat to make 
 wine, it should not be racked off while it is fermenting 
 nor until this process has advanced so far that the 
 wine may be considered to be made. If you wish 
 to drink old wine, it is not made until a year is com- 
 pleted; when it is a year old, then draw it out. But 
 if your vineyard contains that kind of grape which 
 turns sour early, you should eat the fruit, or sell it 
 before the succeeding vintage. There are kinds of 
 wine, like that of Falemum, which improve the 
 longer you keep them. 
 
 Of preserved olives 
 
 LXVI. If you attempt to eat white olives immedi- 
 ately after you have put them up and before they 
 are cured your palate will reject them on account 
 of their bitterness (and the same is true of the black 
 olive) unless you dip them in salt to make them 
 palatable. 
 
 1 173] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 Of nuts, dates and figs 
 
 LXVII. The scxjner you use nuts, dates and figs 
 after they have been stored, the more palatable they 
 will be, for by keeping figs lose their flavour, dates rot 
 and nuts dry up. 
 
 Of stored fruits 
 
 LXVIII. Fruits which are strung, such as grapes, 
 apples and sorbs show by their appearance when 
 they may be taken down for use, for by their change 
 of colour and shrinking they reveal themselves as 
 destined to the garbage pile unless they are eaten in 
 time. Sorbs which have been laid by when they are 
 already dead-ripe should be used promptly, but those 
 which were picked green are slower to decay: for green 
 fruit in the store house must there go through the 
 process of ripening which was denied it on the tree. 
 
 Of marketing grain 
 
 LXIX. The spelt which you wish to have prepared 
 for food should be taken out in the winter to be 
 ground in the mill : but your seed corn should not be 
 taken out until the fields are ready to receive 1%, a. 
 rule which obtains in respect of all kinds of seed./ 
 What you have for sale should be taken out at the 
 appropriate time also, for some things which cannot 
 be kept long without spoiling should be taken out 
 
 [174] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 and sold promptly, while others which keep should 
 be retained so that you may. sell when the price is 
 high, for often commodities which are kept on hand 
 a long time, will, if put on the market at the proper 
 time, not only yield interest for the time you held 
 them but even a double profit." 
 
 As Stolo was speaking, the freedman of the Sacris- 
 tan ran up to us with his eyes full of tears and, beg- 
 ging our pardon for having kept us waiting so long, 
 invited us to come to the funeral on the following 
 day. We all sprang up and cried out together "What ? 
 To the funeral? Whose funeral? What has hap- 
 pened?" 
 
 The freedman, weeping, told us that his master 
 had been struck down by a blow with a knife, but 
 who did it he had been unable to discover by reason 
 of the crowd, all that he heard being an exclamation 
 that a mistake had been made. He added that when 
 he had carried his master home and had sent the serv- 
 ants to call a doctor, whom they brought back with 
 them quickly, he trusted that it might seem reason- 
 able to us that he had waited to attend upon the doc- 
 tor rather than come to notify us at once, and while 
 he had not been able to be of any service to his mas- 
 ter, who had given up the ghost in a few minutes, yet 
 he hoped we might approve his conduct. 
 
 [175] 
 
ROMAN FARxM MANAGEMENT 
 
 Accepting these excuses as amply justified, we 
 descended from the temple bewildered more by the 
 hazard of human life than surprised that such a fate 
 should be possible at Rome: ^ and so we went our 
 several ways. 
 
 ^ Cf. Fowler, Social Life at Rome in the Age of Cicero. "Let 
 us consider that in a large city today the person and property 
 of all, rich or poor, are adequately protected by a sound system 
 of police and by courts of first instance which are sitting every 
 day. Assault and murder, theft and burglary are exceptional. 
 It might be going too far to say that at Rome they were the 
 rule: but it is the fact that in what we may call the slums of 
 Rome there was no machinery for checking them. ... It is 
 the great merit of Augustus that he made Rome not only a city 
 of marble but one in which the persons and property of all 
 citizens were fairly secure." 
 
 There are several contemporary references to the crowded 
 and dangerous condition of the streets of Rome at the end of 
 the Republic. Cicero {Plancius, 7) tells how he was pushed 
 against the arch of Fabius while struggling through the press 
 of the Via Sacra, and exonerates from blame the man who was 
 the immediate cause of his inconvenience, holding that the one 
 next beyond was more responsible: in which judgment Cicero 
 was of the opinion of Mr. Justice Blackstone in the famous 
 leading case of Scott v. Shepherd (i Smith's L. C, 480), where 
 the question was who was liable for the damage eventually done 
 by the burning squib which was passed about the market house 
 by successive hands. The majority of the court held, however, 
 against Blackstone and Cicero, and established the doctrine of 
 proximate cause. 
 
 [176] 
 
BOOK II 
 
 THE HUSBANDRY OF LIVE STOCK 
 
 Introduction: the decay of country life 
 
 T 
 
 DSE great men our ancestors did 
 well to esteem the Romans who lived 
 in the country above those who dwelt 
 in town. For as our peasants today- 
 contemn the tenant of a villa as an 
 idler in comparison with the busy life of an agricul- 
 tural labourer, so our ancestors regarded the sedentary 
 occupations of the town as waste of time from their 
 habitual rural pursuits: and in consequence they so 
 divided their time that they might have to devote 
 only one day of the week to their affairs in town, 
 reserving the remaining seven for country life.' 
 
 So long as they persisted in this practice they ac- 
 complished two things both that their farms were 
 
 * The Roman week {nundinum, or more properly inter nun- 
 dinum) was of eight days, the last being the market day on which 
 the citizens rested from agricultural labour and came into town 
 to sell and buy and talk politics. Cf. Pliny, XVIII, 3. This 
 custom which Varro regrets had fallen into desuetude so far 
 as Rome was concerned was in his day still practised in the 
 provinces. Thus the five tenants on Horace's Sabine farm were 
 wont to go every nundinum to the market town of Varia (the 
 modem Vicovara) to transact public business {Epist. I, 14, 2). 
 
 [177] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 fertile through good cultivation and that they them- 
 selves enjoyed the best of health: they felt no need 
 of those Greek gymnasia which now every one of us 
 must have in his town house, nor did they deem that 
 in order to enjoy a house in the country one must give 
 sounding Greek names to all its apartments, such as 
 irpoKOLTtiv (antechamber) naKaCarpa (exercising room) 
 diroSvn/pioi/ (dressing room) irepiarvXov (arcade) opvL- 
 6wv (poultry house) irepurrepetou (dove cote) ovtopoOijicq 
 (fruitery) and the like. 
 
 Since now forsooth most of our gentry crowd into 
 town, abandoning the sickle and the plough and prefer 
 to exercise their hands in the theatre and the circus 
 rather than in the com field and the vineyard, it has 
 resulted that we must fain buy the very corn that 
 'fills our bellies and have it hauled in for us, yea, out 
 |of Africa and Sardinia, while we bring home the 
 vintage in ships from the islands of Cos and Chios ! 
 
 And so it has happened that those lands which 
 the shepherds who founded the city taught their 
 children to cultivate are now, by their later descend- 
 ants, converted again from com fields back to pas- 
 tures, thus in their greed of gain violating even the 
 law, since they fail to distinguish the difference be- 
 tween agriculture and grazing.^ For a shepherd is 
 
 * Varro here refers to the great economic change which was 
 coming over lulian husbandry in the last days of the Republic, 
 
 [178] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 one thing and a ploughman another, nor for all that 
 he may feed his stock on farm land is a drover the 
 same as a teamster: herded cattle, indeed, do nothing 
 to create what grows in the land, but destroy it with 
 their teeth, while the yoked ox on the contrary con- 
 duces to the maturity of grain in the com fields and 
 forage in the fallow land. The practice and the art 
 of the farmer is one thing, I say; that of the shepherd 
 another; the farmer's object being that what ever 
 may be produced by cultivating the land should 
 yield a profit; that of the shepherd to make his profit 
 from the increase of his flock; and yet the relation 
 between them is intimate because it is much more 
 desirable for a farmer to feed his forage on the land 
 than to sell it, and a herd of cattle is the best source 
 of supply of that which is the most available food 
 of growing plants, namely, manure:' so it follows 
 that whoever has a farm ought to practise both arts, 
 that of agriculture and that of grazing cattle, indeed, 
 also that of feeding game, as is done at our country 
 
 the disappearance of the small farms, the "septem jugera" which 
 nurtured the early Roman heroes like Cincinnatus and Dentatus, 
 and even the larger, but still comparatively small, farms which 
 Cato describes, and the development of the latifundia given over 
 to grazing. 
 
 'The tradition is, says Pliny, that King Aiigeas was the 
 first in Greece to use manure, and that Hercules introduced the 
 practice into Italy. To the wise farmer the m}rth of the Augean 
 stables is the genesis of good agriculture. 
 
 [179] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 houses, since no little profit may be derived from 
 aviaries and rabbit warrens and fish ponds. And 
 since I have written a book concerning the first of 
 these occupations — that of the husbandry of agri- 
 culture — for my wife Fundania because of her in- 
 terest in that subject, now, my dear Turranius Niger, 
 I write this one on the husbandry of live stock for 
 you, who are so keen a stock fancier that you are 
 a frequent attendant at the cattle market at Macri 
 Campi, where, by your fortunate speculations, you 
 have found means to make provision for many crying 
 expenses. 
 
 I could do this on my own authority because I am 
 myself a considerable owner of live stock with my 
 flocks of sheep in Apulia and my stud of horses at 
 Reate, but I will run through the subject, briefly and 
 summarily rehearsing what I gathered from conversa- 
 tion with certain large stock feeders in Epirus at the 
 time when, being in command of the fleet in Greece 
 during the war with the pirates, I lay between Delos 
 and Sicily. 1 
 
 ' This was the "crowded hour" in Varro's life, and, as M. Bois- 
 sier has pointed out, he loved to dwell upon its episodes. It 
 will be recalled that Pompey divided the Mediterranean into 
 thirteen districts for the war with the Pirates and put a re- 
 sponsible lieutenant in command of each, thus enabling him by 
 concurrent action in all the districts to clear the seas in three 
 months. Appian gives the list of officers and the limits of their 
 commands, saying: "The coasts of Sicily and the Ionian sea 
 
 I180] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 Oj the origin, the importance and the economy of live 
 stock husbandry 
 
 I. ^ When Menates had gone, Cossinius said to me : 
 "We shall not let you go until you have explained 
 those three points which you began to discuss the 
 other day when we were interrupted." 
 
 "What three points," said Murrius. "Are they 
 those concerning feeding cattle, of which you spoke 
 to me yesterday? " 
 
 "Yes," replied Cossinius, "they are the considera- 
 tions of what was the origin, what the importance, 
 
 as far as Acamania were entrusted to Plotius and Varro." It 
 is difficult to understand Varro's own reference to Delos, but 
 Appian makes clear how it happened that Varro was stationed 
 on the coast of Epirus and so fell in with the company of "half 
 Greek shepherds" who are the dramatis persorue of the second 
 book. As the scene of the first book was laid in a temple of 
 Tellus, so this relating to live stock is cast in a temple of Pales, 
 the goddess of shepherds, on the occasion of the festival of the 
 Pariiia, and the names of the characters have a punning refer- 
 ence to live stock. 
 
 ^The codices here contain an interpolation of the words 
 "HIC INTERMISIMUS," to indicate that a part of the text 
 is missing, with which judgment of some early student of the 
 archetype Victorius, Scaliger and Ursinus, as well as their suc- 
 cessors among the commentators on Varro, have all agreed. 
 It is a pleasure to record the agreement on this point, because 
 it is believed to be unique: but many precedents for plunging 
 the reader in medias res, as does the surviving text, might be 
 found in the modem short story of the artist in style. As M. 
 Boissier points out Varro might have cited the beginning of the 
 Odyssey as a precedent for this. 
 
 [i8i] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 and what the economy of the husbandry of live stock. 
 Varro here had begun to discourse upon them while 
 we were calling on Petus during his illness, when the 
 arrival of the physician interrupted us." 
 
 "Of the three divisions of the urropiKov or inter- 
 pretation of this subject, which you have mentioned, 
 I will venture," said I, "to speak only of the first 
 two, of the origin and of the importance of this indus- 
 try. The third division, of how it should be prac- 
 tised, Scrofa shall undertake for us, as one, if I may 
 speak Greek to a company of half Greek shepherds 
 OS Trip fLov fl-oXXw aiieivav (who is better qualified 
 than I am),^ for Scrofa was the teacher of C. Lucilius 
 Hirrus, your son-in-law, whose flocks and herds in 
 Bruttii have such reputation." 
 
 "But," interrupted Scrofa, "you shall hear what 
 we have to say only on condition that you, who come 
 from Epirus and are masters of the art of feeding 
 cattle, shall recompense us and shall give public 
 testimony of what you know on the subject: for none 
 of us knows it all." 
 
 ' This is a paraphase of a favorite locution of Homer's heroes, 
 whose characteristic modesty does not, however, permit them 
 to apply it to themselves, as Varro does. Thus in Iliad, VII, 
 114, Agamemnon advises Menelaos not to venture against 
 Hector, whom "even Achilles dreadeth to meet in battle, 
 wherein is the warrior's glory, and Achilles is better far than 
 thou." 
 
 [182] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 Having thus assumed that my share of the discus- 
 sion should be the first or theoretical part of the 
 subject (which I did, although I have a stock farm 
 in Italy, because, as the proverb is, not every one 
 who owns a lyre is a musician), I began: 
 
 "Doubtless in the very order of nature both man 
 and cattle have existed since the beginning of time, 
 for whether we believe that there was a First Cause 
 of the generation of animals, as Thales of Miletus and 
 Zeno of Citium maintained, or that there was none 
 as was the opinion of Pythagoras of Samos and Aris- 
 totle of Stagira, it is, as Dicaearchus points out, a 
 necessity of human life to have descended gradually 
 from the earliest time to the present day: thus in 
 the beginning was the primitive age when man lived 
 on whatever the virgin soil produced spontaneously; 
 thence he descended to the second or pastoral age, 
 when, as he had formerly gathered for his use acorns,* 
 strawberries, mulberries and apples by picking them 
 from trees and bushes, so now, to satisfy a like need, 
 he captured in the woods such as he could of the wild 
 beasts of the field, and, having enclosed, began to 
 domesticate them. Among these it is considered 
 
 ^ Virgil (^«. VII, 3 14) made a fine line out of this tradition, 
 endowing the sturdy race of Fauns and Nymphs who inhabited 
 the land of Saturn before the Golden Age, with the qualities of 
 the trees on whose fruit they subsisted, " gensque virum truncis 
 et duro robore nata." 
 
 [183] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 not without reason that sheep were foremost, both 
 because of their utility and because of their docile 
 nature, for this animal is the gentlest of all and most 
 readily accommodated to the life of man, and supplies 
 him with milk and cheese for food, and skins and 
 wool to clothe his body. 
 
 Finally, by the third step, man descended from 
 the pastoral age to that of agriculture. In this there 
 have persisted many relics of the two preceding ages, 
 which, long remaining in their original state, are 
 found even in our day: for in many places may yet be 
 seen some kinds of our domestic cattle still in their 
 wild state, such as the large flocks of wild sheep in 
 Phrygia, and in Samothrace a species of wild goats 
 like those which are called "big horns" (platycerotes) 
 and abound in Italy on the mountains of Fiscellum 
 and Tetrica. Every body knows that there are wild 
 swine, unless you maintain that the wild boar is 
 not a true member of the swine family. 
 
 There are still many cattle running at large in 
 Dardania, Medica and Thrace, while there are wild 
 asses in Phrygia and Lycaonia, and wild horses in 
 certain regions of hither Spain. 
 
 I have now told you of the origin of the industry 
 of feeding cattle. As to its importance, I have this 
 to say: 
 
 The most important persons of antiquity were 
 
 [184] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGIlMENT 
 
 all keepers of live stock, as both the Greek and Latin 
 languages reveal, as well as the earliest poets, who 
 describe their heroes some as irokvappo^ (rich in 
 lambs), some as iro\vfirj\os (rich in sheep), and 
 others as ttoXu^Soutjjs (rich in herds), and tell of flocks 
 which on account of their value were said to have 
 golden fleeces, like that of Atreus in Argos which he 
 complained that Thyestes stole away from him: or 
 that ram which iEetes sacrificed at Colchis, whose 
 fleece was the quest of those princes known as the 
 Argonauts: or again like those so called golden apples 
 (mala) of the Hesperides that Hercules brought back 
 from Africa into Greece, which were, according to 
 the ancient tradition, in fact goats and sheep which 
 the Greeks, from the sound of their voice, called 
 ff^Xa: indeed, much in the same way our country 
 people, using a different letter (since the bleat of a 
 sheep seems to make more of the sound of bee than 
 of me) say that sheep "be = alare," whence by the eli- 
 sion of a letter as often happens, is derived the word 
 belare (or balare), to bleat. 
 
 If cattle had not been held in the highest esteem 
 among the ancients the astrologers would not have 
 called the signs of the zodiac by their names in 
 describing the heavens: and they not only did not 
 hesitate to place them there but many even begin 
 their enumeration of the twelve signs with these 
 
 [I8S] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 animal names, thus giving Aries and Taurus pre- 
 cedence over Apollo and Hercules, whose signs, very 
 gods as they are, are subordinated under the name of 
 Gemini: nor did they deem that a sixth of these 
 twelve signs was a sufficient proportion for the names 
 of cattle, but they must even add Capricomus and 
 make it a quarter. Furthermore, in naming the 
 constellations they selected other names of cattle, 
 as the goat, the kid, and the dog. And in like manner 
 have not certain parts both of the sea and of the 
 land taken their names from cattle, as witness the 
 iEgean Sea, which is called after the Greek name for 
 goat (aiyeos), and Mount Taurus in Syria after 
 the bull, and Mount Cantherius in the Sabine coun- 
 try after the horse, and the Thracian, as well as the 
 Cimmerian, Bosphorus, after the ox: and again many 
 place names on land like the town in Greece known 
 as tmrLov 'A/ayos, or horse breeding Argos. Yea, 
 Italy itself derives its name, according to Piso, from 
 vitula, our word for heifer. 
 
 Who can deny that the Roman people themselves 
 are sprung from a race of shepherds, for every one 
 knows that Faustulus, the foster father of Romulus 
 and Remus, who brought them up, was a shepherd. 
 Is it not proof that they were shepherds that they 
 chose the Parilia, or feast of the goddess of the shep- 
 herds, in preference to all other days, for the found- 
 
 [i86] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 ing of the city; that a penalty even to this day is 
 assessed in terms of cattle or sheep, according to the 
 ancient custom; that our most ancient money, the 
 as of cast copper, always bore the effigy of some 
 domestic animal; that whenever a town was founded 
 the limits of the walls and the gates were laid off with 
 a plough drawn by a bull and a cow yoked together; 
 that when the Roman people are purified it is done 
 by driving around them a boar, a ram and a bull, 
 whence the sacrifice is known as the Suovetaurilia; 
 that we have many family names among us derived 
 from both the great and small cattle: thus from small 
 cattle Porcius, Ovinius, Caprilius, and from great 
 cattle Equitius, Taurius, and some of our families 
 have received from cattle cognomens which signify 
 for what they are esteemed, as, for instance, the 
 Annius family are called Capra, the Statilius family 
 are called Taurus aud the Pomponius family are 
 called Vitulus, and so many others are derived from 
 cattle. 
 
 It remains now to discuss the art of animal hus- 
 bandry, and on this subject our friend Scrofa, to 
 whom this age has awarded the palm for excellence 
 in all branches of farm management, will say what 
 ever is to be said, as he is better qualified than am I." 
 
 When all eyes had been turned upon him, Scrofa 
 began: 
 
 [187I 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 " Doubtless the art of breeding and of feeding cattle 
 consists in getting the maximum profit out of those 
 things from which the very name of money is derived, 
 for our word for money {pecunia) comes from pecus, 
 cattle, which is the foundation of all wealth. 
 
 Our enquiry may be divided into nine subjects, 
 or three parts each with three subdivisions, namely: 
 (i) concerning small cattle, of which the three kinds 
 are sheep, goats and swine: (2) concerning large 
 cattle, which are likewise divided by nature into 
 three species, neat cattle, asses and horses: and (3) 
 concerning those instruments of animal husbandry 
 which are not kept for profit but for convenience, 
 namely: mules, dogs and shepherds. Each of these 
 nine subjects must be considered under nine heads: 
 (a) four relating to the acquisition of cattle, (b) four 
 to the care of them, and (c) one which has to do with 
 all the others. So there are at least eighty-one chap- 
 ters for discussion of the subject, all indispensable 
 and all of great importance. 
 
 Under the head (a) of acquisition, it is first of all 
 necessary, to enable you to buy good live stock, that 
 you should know at what age it is best to buy and 
 to keep each different kind. For instance, you may 
 buy neat cattle for less money before they are a year 
 old and after they are ten, because they begin to 
 breed at two or three years and leave off soon after the 
 
 [188] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 tenth year, the beginning and the end of the life of 
 all live stock being sterile. The second consideration 
 under this head is a knowledge of the conformation 
 of each kind of cattle and what it should be, for this 
 is of great importance in determining the value of 
 all animals. Thus experienced stockmen buy cattle 
 with black horns rather than white, large goats 
 rather than small, and swine with long bodies and 
 short heads. The third consideration under this 
 head is to make sure of the breeding. On this ac- 
 count the asses of Arcadia are celebrated in Greece, 
 as are those of Reate in Italy, so that I remember 
 an ass that brought sixty thousand sesterces, and a 
 four-in-hand team at Rome that was held at four 
 hundred thousand. The fourth consideration is of 
 the legal precautions to be observed in buying live 
 stock, for in order that title may pass from one to 
 another certain formalities must intervene, since 
 neither a contract nor even the payment of the pur- 
 chase money suffices in all cases to transfer a title: 
 thus in buying you some times stipulate that the 
 animal is in good health, some times that it comes 
 out of a healthy flock or herd, and some times no 
 stipulation at all is made. 
 
 Under the head (b) of the care of live stock, the 
 four considerations are what should be done, after 
 you have bought your cattle, in respect of feeding, 
 
 [189] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 of breeding, of raising them, and of maintaining their 
 health. In the matter of feeding, which is the first 
 of these considerations, the three things to be ob- 
 served are where and how much, when, and on what 
 your cattle will graze: thus it suits goats better to 
 graze on rough and mountain land than in fat pas- 
 tures, while the contrary is true of horses. Nor are 
 the same places fit for grazing for all kinds of cattle 
 both in summer and winter: thus flocks of sheep are 
 driven from Apulia a long distance into Samnium to 
 spend the summer, and are reported to the tax farmer 
 to be registered lest they violate the regulations of 
 the censor.^ 
 
 In the same way mules are driven in the summer 
 from the prairie of Rosea to the high mountains of 
 Gurgures. 
 
 The rules for feeding each kind of live stock in the 
 bam yard must also be studied, as, for instance, 
 that hay is fed to the horse and the ox, while it will 
 not do for swine which require mast, and that barley 
 and beans should at intervals be fed to some kinds 
 of stock, lupines to draft cattle and alfalfa and clover 
 to milch cows. Furthermore, it is desirable to feed 
 
 ' In the registers of the censors every thing from which the 
 public revenues were derived was set down under the head of 
 pascua, or "pasture lands," because for a long time the pasture 
 lands were the only source of such revenue. Cf. Pliny, H. N. 
 XVIII, 3 
 
 [190] 
 
ROMAN FARM xVIANAGEMENT 
 
 the ram and the bull more heavily for thirty days 
 before admitting them to the flock and the herd, the 
 purpose being to increase their strength, while on 
 the other hand the feed of the cows is cut down at 
 that time because it is deemed that they breed most 
 successfully when they are thin. 
 
 The next consideration is concerning breeding, 
 which I call the period between conception and birth, 
 for these are the beginning and the end of pregnancy. 
 First of all then we should consider the stinting and 
 the season at which this should be accomplished, 
 for as the season from the rising of the west wind 
 to the vernal equinox (February-March) is con- 
 sidered best for swine, so that from the setting of 
 Arcturus to the setting of Aquila (May- July) is best 
 for sheep. Furthermore, a rule should be made that 
 the male animals are kept apart from the females 
 for some time before they are bred, a period which 
 neatherds and shepherds usually fix at two months. 
 The next consideration is of the rules to be observed 
 while the animal is pregnant, because the periods of 
 gestation differ in the several domestic animals : thus 
 the mare goes twelve months, the cow ten, the ewe 
 and the goat five and the sow four. 
 
 In Spain is reported a phenomenon of breeding 
 which seems incredible, but is nevertheless true, 
 namely: that on Mount Tagnus on that part of the 
 
 [ 191 ] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 coast of Lusitania near the town of Olisippo, mares 
 are some times impregnated by the wind/ some thing 
 which often happens with respect to chickens, whence 
 their eggs are called wiji/e/xios (conceived by the 
 wind)," but the foals born of such mares never live 
 more than three years. 
 
 When lambs are born in due season, or what we 
 call chordi (that is to say those lambs which are born 
 late and have remained beyond their season in the 
 belly of the dam, the name chordi, being derived from 
 
 ^ Olisippo is the modern Lisbon. This tradition about the 
 mares of the region is repeated by Virgil (Geo. Ill, 272) by 
 Columella (VI, 27) and by Pliny (VIII, 67). Professor Ridge- 
 way in The Origin and Influence of the Thoroughbred Horse 
 describes it as "an aetiological myth to explain the swiftness 
 of horses" for the fleetest horses came out of the West; thus 
 Pegasus was born at the springs of the ocean, and there is the 
 passage in Homer {Iliad, XVI, 149) about the horses "that 
 flew as swift as the winds, the horses that the harpy Podarge 
 (Swift Foot) bare to the West Wind as she grazed on the mead- 
 ows by the stream of the Ocean." Hence we may conclude 
 that there was a race of swift horses in Portugal in the earliest 
 times, which Professor Ridgeway would doubtless like very 
 much to prove, in support of his interesting thesis, were derived 
 from Libya. 
 
 ' Hypenemia, or barren eggs, are described intelligently by 
 Aristotle (H. A. V. i, 4, VI. 2, 5), and, with Varro's confidence 
 in the country traditions, by Pliny, E. N. X, 80. 
 
 If he had known it, Varro might have here cited the fact that 
 the unfertilized queen bee is parthenogenetic, though producing 
 only male bees; i. e., drones: but it remained for a German 
 clergyman, Dzierzon, to discover this in the eighteenth century. 
 
 [192] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 Xopiov the Greek name for the membrane which is 
 called the after birth), care must be taken to clean 
 them aiid set them gently on their feet and to prevent 
 the dam from crushing them. 
 
 On the third consideration with respect to raising 
 young animals, you must consider for how long they 
 should be permitted to suck the dam and when and 
 where, and if the mother has an insufficient supply 
 of milk, how you may put the young one to nurse 
 at the udder of another: in which case they are called 
 subrumi, that is to say, under the udder, for I think 
 that rumis is an old word for udder. 
 
 Lambs are weaned usually at the end of four 
 months, kids in three, pigs in two. Weanling pigs, 
 from the fact that they are considered fit to be offered 
 for sacrifice at that age, were formerly called sacres, 
 as Plautus calls them when he says," What's the price 
 of sacred pigs?"^ In like manner stall fed cattle, 
 
 ' Cf. Plautus Menachmi, II, 2, 279. One of the two Me- 
 nxchmi is, on his arrival at Epidamnus, mistaken for his brother, 
 of whose existence he does not know, and much to his amaze- 
 ment is introduced into the brother's life and possessions. At 
 first he expostulates, accusing the slave of the brother, who has 
 mistaken his identity, of being crazy and offers to exorcise him 
 by a sacrifice of weanling pigs, wherefore he asks the question 
 quoted in the text. Varro was evidently fond of this passage, 
 as he quotes it again, post, p. 221. The Menachmi is one of the 
 immortal comedies and has survived in many forms on the 
 modem stage all over Europe. From it Shakespeare derived 
 the plot of the Comedy of Errors. 
 
 [193] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 which are being fattened for the public sacrifices, 
 are called opimi. 
 
 The fourth consideration relates to the health of 
 the cattle, a subject as important as it is complex, 
 for a single beast which may be sick or infected and 
 ailing often brings a great calamity on an entire herd. 
 There are two degrees of the healing art, one which 
 requires consultation with a surgeon, as for men: 
 the other which the skilful shepherd can himself 
 practise, and this consists of three parts, namely: 
 the consideration of what are the causes, the symp- 
 toms and the treatment which should be followed in 
 relation to each malady. The common causes of 
 disease in cattle are excess of heat or of cold, over- 
 work, or its opposite lack of exercise, or, if when they 
 have been worked, you give them food and drink at 
 once without an interval of rest. The symptoms of 
 fever due to heat or overwork are a gaping mouth, 
 heavy humid breath and a burning body. The cure 
 when such is the malady is this : bathe the animal with 
 water, rub it with a warm mixture of oil and wine, 
 put it on a nourishing diet, blanket it as protection 
 against chills and give it tepid water when it is 
 thirsty.* If this treatment does not suffice, let the 
 blood, chiefly from the head. 
 
 ' It is interesting to compare these sane therapeutics with 
 Cato's practice less than two hundred years previous (ante, 
 
 [194] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 So there are different causes and different symp- 
 toms of the maladies peculiar to each kind of cattle, 
 and the flock master should have them all written 
 down. 
 
 It remains to speak of the ninth head (c), which I 
 mentioned, and this relates to the number of cattle 
 to be kept and so concerns both of the other heads. 
 
 For whoever buys cattle must consider the number 
 of herds and how many in each herd he can feed on 
 his land, lest his pastures prove short or more than 
 he need, as so in either case the profit be lost. Further 
 more, one should know how many breeding ewes 
 there are in the flock, how many rams, how many 
 lambs of each sex, how many culls to be weeded out. 
 Thus, if a ewe has more lambs at a birth than she 
 can nourish, you should do what some shepherds 
 practise — ^take part of them away from her, which is 
 done to the end that those remaining may prosper." 
 
 "Beware!" put in Atticus, "that your generalisa- 
 tions do not lead you astray, and that your insistence 
 on the rule of nine does not contradict your own 
 definition of small and large cattle: for how can all 
 your principles be applied to mules and to shepherds, 
 since those with respect to breeding certainly cannot 
 be followed so far as they are concerned. As to dogs 
 
 p. 47), which was characteristic of the superstitious peasant 
 who in Italy still seeks the priest to bless his ailing live stock. 
 
 h9S] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 I can see their application. I admit even that men 
 may be included in them, because they have their 
 wives on the farm in winter, and indeed even in their 
 summer pasture camps, a concession which is deemed 
 beneficial because it attaches the shepherds to their 
 flocks, and by begetting children they increase the 
 establishment and with it the profit on your invest- 
 ment." 
 
 "If Scrofa's number cannot be measured with a 
 carpenter's rule," said I, "neither can many other 
 generalisations, as, for instance, when we say that a 
 thousand ships sailed against Troy, or that a certain 
 court of Rome consists of a hundred judges {centum- 
 vin). Leave out, if you wish, the two chapters relat- 
 ing to breeding in so far as mules are concerned." 
 
 "But why should we," exclaimed Vaccius, "for 
 it is related that on several occasions at Rome a mule 
 has had a foal." 
 
 To back up what Vaccius had said, I cited Mago 
 and Dionysius as writing that when mules and mares 
 conceive they bear in the twelfth month. "If," I 
 added, "it is considered a prodigy in Italy when a 
 mule has a foal, it is not necessarily so in all countries. 
 For is it not true that swallows and swans breed in 
 Italy, which do not lay in other lands, and don't you 
 know that the Syrian date palm, which bears fruit 
 in Judea, does not yield in Italy?" 
 
 [196] 
 
ROMAN FARM Mx\NAGI:MENT 
 
 "If you prefer," said Scrofa, "to make out the en- 
 tire eighty-one chapters without any on the care of 
 mules during the breeding season, there are subjects 
 with which you can fill this double vacancy by add- 
 ing those two kinds of extraordinary profit which is 
 derived from live stock. One of these is the fleece 
 which men shear or pull from sheep and goats, the 
 other, which is more widely practised, that ^rom milk 
 and cheese: the Greek writers indeed actually treat 
 this separately under the title Tvpoirouoy and have 
 written extensively about it. 
 
 Of sheep 
 
 II. And now, since I have completed my task 
 and the economy of live stock husbandry has been 
 defined, do you, men of Epirus, requite us by ex- 
 pounding the subject in detail, so that we may see 
 of what the shepherds of Pergamis and Maledos are 
 capable." 
 
 At this challenge, Atticus (who then was known 
 as T. Pomponius but now as Q. Csecilius retaining 
 the same cognomen) * began as follows: 
 
 * This Atticus was Cicero's intimate friend to whom he ad- 
 dressed so many of his charming letters. He changed his name 
 as stated in the text, the new name being that of an uncle who 
 adopted him, as we learn from his life by Nepos. As is well 
 known to all students of Cicero, Atticus had dwelt in Athens 
 
 [197] 
 
ROMAiN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 " I gather that I must make the beginning since you 
 seem to turn your eyes upon me: so I will speak of 
 those cattle which you, Varro, have called primitive, 
 for you say that sheep were the first of the wild beasts 
 of the field which were captured and domesticated 
 by man. 
 
 In the first place you should buy good sheep, and 
 they are so judged primarily in respect of their age, 
 that they are not what is known as aged nor yet 
 undeveloped lambs, because neither can yield you 
 any profit, the one no longer, the other not yet: but 
 you may deem that age which holds out a promise 
 preferable to that whose only future is death. So 
 far as concerns conformation, a sheep should have a 
 round barrel, wool thick and soft and with long fibre, 
 and, while heavy all over the body, it should be thick- 
 est on the back and neck, and yet the belly also 
 should be covered, for unless the belly was covered 
 our ancestors were wont to call a sheep apica and 
 throw it out. They should have short legs,* and, 
 
 many years and derived his income from estates in Epinis, which 
 is the point of Scrofa's jest. 
 
 * This requirement of short legs is the more remarkable be- 
 cause of the long journeys which Varro says the Roman sheep 
 were required to make between their summer and winter pas- 
 tures. A similar necessity and bad roads created in England, 
 before the eighteenth century, a demand for long legged sheep. 
 Prothero (English Farming Past and Present) quotes a descrip- 
 tion of the "true old Warwickshire ram" in 1789: "His frame 
 
 1 198] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 if they are of the Italian breed, long tails, or short 
 tails if they come from Syria. The most important 
 point to guard is that your flock is headed by a good 
 sire. The quality of a ram can usually be determined 
 from his conformation and from his get. So far as 
 concerns conformation, a ram should have a face 
 well covered with wool, horns twisted and converging 
 on the muzzle, tawny eyes, woolly ears, a deep chest, 
 wide shoulders and loin, a long and large tail. You 
 should see also whether he has a black or a spotted 
 tongue,^ for such rams usually get black or spotted 
 lambs. You may judge them by their get, if their 
 lambs are of good quality. In buying sheep we 
 practise the formalities which the law requires, 
 following them more or less strictly in particular 
 cases. Some men in fixing a price per head stipulate 
 that two late lambs or two toothless ewes shall be 
 counted as one. In other respects the traditional 
 formula is employed thus: the buyer says to the 
 
 large and remarkably loose. His bone throughout heavy. His 
 legs long and thick, terminating in large splaw feet." 
 
 One of the things which Bakewell accomplished was to shorten 
 the legs as well as to increase the mutton on his New Leicesters. 
 Of Bakewell, Mr. Prothero justly says, "By providing meat for 
 the million he contributed as much to the wealth of the country 
 as Arkwright or Watt." 
 
 ' Shepherds still look for the black or spotted tongue in the 
 mouth of the ram, for the reason given by Varro, but the warn- 
 ing is no longer put in the shepherds' manual. 
 
 [199] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 seller, "Do you sell me these sheep for so much?" 
 And the seller answers, "They are your sheep," 
 and states the price. Whereupon the buyer stipu- 
 lates according to the ancient formula: "Do you 
 guarantee that these sheep, for which we have bar- 
 gained, are in such good health as sheep should be; 
 that there is none among them one-eyed, deaf or bare- 
 bellied; that they do not come out of an infected flock 
 and that I will take them by good right and title?" 
 
 Even when this is done the title to the flock does 
 not pass until they have been counted, but, never- 
 theless, the purchaser can hold the seller to the bar- 
 gain if he does not make delivery, even though the 
 purchase money has not passed, and by a like right 
 the seller can hold the buyer if he does not pay up. 
 
 I will next speak about those other four subjects 
 which Scrofa outlined, namely: the feeding, breeding, 
 raising and physicking of sheep. In the first place, 
 one should see that provision is made for feeding the 
 flock throughout the entire year, as well indoors 
 as out. The stable should be in a suitable location, 
 protected against the wind, looking rather to the 
 East than the South, on cleared and sloping ground 
 so that it can be easily swept out and kept clean, for 
 moisture not only rots the wool of the sheep but 
 their hoofs as well and causes scab. When sheep 
 have stood for several days you should strew the 
 
 [200] 
 
ROMAN FARM jMANAGKMKNT 
 
 stable with new bedding, so that they may be more 
 comfortable and be kept cleaner, and thus eat with 
 more appetite. You should also contrive stalls 
 separated from the others in which you may segre- 
 gate the ewes about to yean, as well as any which 
 may be ailing. This precaution is practicable, how- 
 ever, only with sheep fed at the steading, but those 
 who graze their sheep in the mountain pastures and 
 far from cover, carry with them wicker hurdles or 
 nets, and other such conveniences with which they 
 contrive folds for such separation. Sheep indeed 
 are grazed far and wide so that often it happens that 
 their winter quarters are many miles from their 
 summer pastures." 
 
 "I know that to be true," said I, "for my flocks 
 winter in Apulia and spend the summer in the moun- 
 tains above Reate: thus the public cattle drifts be- 
 tween these two localities balance the separated 
 pastures, as a yoke balances two baskets." ' 
 
 ^ Varro would still feel at home in Apulia, for there the sheep 
 industrjr is carried on much as it was in his time, and thence the 
 ctUles publica, to which he refers, still lead to the summer pas- 
 tures in the Apennines. Cf. Beauderk Rural Italy, chap. V. 
 "The extensive pasturages of the 'TavoHere di Puglia* (Apulia) 
 are of great importance and have a history of their own. This 
 vast domain covers 750,000 acres: its origin belongs to the time 
 of the Roman Conquests and the protracted wars of the Re- 
 public, which were fought out in the plains, whence they be- 
 came deserted and uncultivated, fit only for public pastures in 
 
 [zoi] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 Atticus resumed: "When sheep are fed continu- 
 ally in the same locality distinction must be made in 
 the times of feeding them according to the seasons: 
 thus in summer they are driven out ^ to pasture at 
 day break because then the dewy grass is more 
 appetizing than at midday, when it is dry. At sun- 
 rise they are driven to water, to make them more 
 
 winter time . . . the periodical emigrations of the flocks con- 
 tinue as in the past times: they descend from the mountains 
 into the plains by a network of wide grassy roads which traverse 
 the region in every direction and are called tratiuri. These 
 lanes are over icx> yards in width and cover a total length of 
 940 miles. . . . Not less than 50,000 animals are pastured 
 on the Tavoliere, requiring over 1,500 square miles of land for 
 their subsistence. . . . Five thousand persons are employed 
 as shepherds. 
 
 * Varro quite uniformly uses words which indicate that he 
 was accustomed to see sheep driven {abigere, propellere, adpellere) 
 but we can see the flocks led in Italy today, as they were in 
 Palestine soon after Varro's death, according to the testimony 
 of that beautiful figure of the Good Shepherd {St. John, X, 4) : 
 "And when he putteth forth his own sheep he goeth before them, 
 and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice." R. Child, in 
 his "Large Letter" in Hartlib's Legacie, gives the explanation 
 of the difference in the custom: 
 
 "Our sheep do not follow their shepherds as they do in all 
 other countries: for the shepherd goeth before and the sheep 
 follow like a pack of dogs. This disobedience of our sheep doth 
 not happen to us, as the Papist Priests tell their simple flocks, 
 because we have left their great shepherd the Pope; but because 
 we let our sheep range night and day in our fields without a 
 shepherd: which other countries dare not for fear of wolves and 
 other ravenous beasts, but are compelled to guard them all day 
 with great dogs and to bring them home at night, or to watch 
 them in their folds. 
 
 [ 202] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 lickerish on their return. About noon and during 
 the heat of the day they are permitted to lie in the 
 shade of rocks or under broad spreading trees until 
 the fresher evening air invites them to feed again 
 until sunset.* A sheep should always graze with the 
 sun behind it, because its head is very sensitive to 
 heat. At sunset the flock should be given a short 
 rest and then driven again to water, and so brought 
 back to feed again until it is dark, for at that time 
 of day the grass has renewed its pleasant savour. 
 This routine is usually followed from the rising of the 
 Pleiades until the autumn equinox. 
 
 After the harvest it is of two-fold advantage to 
 turn the flock in on the stubble, as they will fatten 
 on the shattered grain and improve the land for next 
 year's planting by spreading their manure in the 
 trampled straw. 
 
 The rules for pasturing sheep in winter and spring 
 differ from the summer rules in this, that at those 
 seasons the flock is not driven to pasture until the 
 hoar frost has evaporated and they feed all day long, 
 one watering about noon being enough. 
 
 » Cf. Dante, Purg. XXVII, 79. 
 
 "Le capre 
 Tacite all' ombra mentre che'l sol ferve 
 Guardate dal pastor che'n su la verga 
 Poggiato s'e, e lor poggiato serve." 
 [203] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 This is about all there to say on the subject of 
 feeding sheep, so I pass to the consideration of breed- 
 ing. The rams which you are about to use for breed- 
 ing should be separated from the Hock for two months 
 before the season, and fed heavily by giving them a 
 ration of barley when they come into the stable from 
 the pasture: it will make them stronger for their 
 duty. 
 
 The best breeding season is from the setting of 
 Arcturus to the setting of Aquila, (May-July) be- 
 cause lambs begotten later are apt to be bom small 
 and weak. As a ewe is pregnant for one hundred 
 and fifty days, this arrangement causes her to drop 
 her lambs at the end of autumn when the tempera- 
 ture is mild and the grass is renewed by the first 
 rains. During the breeding season the flock should 
 drink only the same kind of water, since a change 
 not only makes spotted wool but injures the offspring. 
 When all the ewes have been stinted, the rams should 
 be separated from them again, because it injures 
 ewes to be teased while they are pregnant. Ewe 
 lambs should never be bred before they are two years 
 old, as they cannot earlier produce strong lamb.s, 
 but will themselves degenerate: indeed, it is better 
 to keep them until the third year. To this end some 
 shepherds protect their ewe lambs from the ram by 
 tying baskets made of rushes or something of that 
 
 [204] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 kind over their rumps, but it is better to feed them 
 apart from the flock. 
 
 I cx)me now to the consideration of how lambs 
 should be raised. 
 
 When the ewes begin to yean they are driven into 
 a stable which has stalls set apart for the purpose, 
 where the new bom lambs can be placed near a fire 
 to strengthen them, and there the ewes are kept 
 two or there days until the lambs know their dams 
 and are able to feed themselves. Thereafter the 
 lambs are still kept up but the ewes are driven out 
 to pasture with the flock, being brought back to them 
 in the evening to be suckled and then once more 
 separated, lest the lambs be trampled by the ewes 
 at night. In the morning before the ewes go out to 
 pasture they are given access to their young again 
 until the lambs are satisfied with milk. After about 
 ten days have elapsed the lambs are picketed out of 
 doors, being tethered with fibre or such other light 
 material, to stakes planted some distance apart so 
 that the little fellows may not injure themselves as 
 they frisk together all day. 
 
 If a lamb will not suck, it should be held up to the 
 teat and its lips greased with butter or suet, and so 
 made to smell at the milk. A few days later some 
 soft vetch or tender grass may be given them be- 
 fore they go out to pasture and after they come in. 
 
 [205] 
 
ROiMAN FARM iMANAGEMENT 
 
 And so they are nursed until they are four months 
 old. 
 
 There are some shepherds who do not milk the 
 ewes during the nursing period, but those who do 
 not milk them at all do better, as thus they bear more 
 wool and more lambs. 
 
 When the lambs are weaned great attention is 
 necessary to prevent them from wasting away in 
 their longing for the dam: they should be tempted 
 to eat by giving them appetizing food, and care should 
 be taken that they do not suffer from cold or heat. 
 When at last they have forgotten the taste of milk 
 and no longer yearn for the dam, they may be driven 
 out with the flock. 
 
 A ram lamb should not be altered until he is five 
 months old, nor yet in very hot or very cold weather. 
 Those which you wish to keep for rams should be 
 chosen as far as possible from dams who are in the 
 habit of having twin lambs. 
 
 Most of these recommendations apply equally to 
 those fine wool sheep which are called pelliue, because 
 they are jacketed with skins, as is done at Tarentum 
 and in Attica, to protect their wool from fouling, 
 for by this precaution the fleece is kept in better 
 plight for dyeing, washing or cleaning. Greater dili- 
 gence is required to keep clean the folds and stables 
 of such sheep than is necessary for the ordinary 
 
 [206] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 breeds : so they are paved with stone to the end that 
 no urine may stand anywhere in the stable. 
 
 Sheep eat whatever is put before them — ^fig leaves, 
 marc, even straw. Bran should be fed to them in 
 moderation, lest they eat either too much or too 
 little of it, in either of which cases it is bad for the 
 digestion, but clover and alfalfa agree with them 
 best and make both fat and milk with the utmost 
 facility. 
 
 So far as concerns the health of the flock, there 
 are many things I might add, but, as Scrofa has said, 
 the flock master keeps his prescriptions written down 
 in a book and carries with him what he needs in the 
 way of physic. 
 
 It remains to speak of the number of sheep in a 
 flock. Some make this more, some less, for there is 
 no natural limit. In Epirus almost all of us have a 
 rule not to allow more than one hundred short wool 
 sheep or fifty fine wool jacketed sheep to a shepherd." 
 
 Cy goats 
 
 III. As Atticus stopped, Cossinius took him up. 
 "Come, my dear Faustulus," he cried, "you have 
 bleated long enough. Take now from me, as from 
 a late bom Homeric Melanthius,* a small offering 
 
 ^ It will be recalled that when Odysseus, disguised as a beggar, 
 was making his way to his house in company with the faithful 
 
 [207] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 from my flock of goats, and at the same time learn 
 a lesson in brevity. He who wishes to form a flock 
 of goats should consider in choosing them: first of 
 all that they are of an age capable of breeding, and 
 that for some time to come, for a tiro is more useful 
 for that purpose than a veteran. As to conforma- 
 tion, see to it that they are strong and large, with a 
 smooth body and thick coat: but beware of the short 
 haired goat, for there are both kinds. The she goat 
 should have two excrescences, like little teats, hang- 
 ing under the muzzle: those which have them are 
 fecund : ^ the larger the udder the more milk and 
 butter fat she will yield. The qualities of a buck are 
 that his coat should be largely white: his crest and 
 neck short and his gullet long. You will have a 
 better flock if you buy at one time goats which have 
 been accustomed to run together, rather than by 
 putting together a lot of goats picked up here and 
 there. 
 
 Concerning breeding, I refer to what Atticus has 
 said about sheep, with this difference: that while 
 
 swineherd Eumxus, they met the goatherd Melanthius "lead- 
 ing his goats to feast the wooers, the best goats that were in 
 all the herds." {Odyssey, XVII, 216), and that subsequently 
 he sufiFered a terrible punishment for this unfaithfulness to his 
 master's interests. 
 
 * Pliny (VIII, 76) calls these excrescences lancinia, or folds, 
 and attributes them exclusively to the she goat, as Varro seems 
 to do also, but Columella (VII, 6) attributes them to the buck. 
 
 [208] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGKMENT 
 
 you select a breed of sheep which are slow of foot, 
 because they are of quieter disposition, all goats are 
 as excitable as they are agile. Of this last charac- 
 teristic Cato records in his book Origines: *In the 
 mountains of Socrate and Fiscellus there are wild 
 goats which leap from rock to rock a distance of 
 more than sixty feet.' For as the sheep which we 
 feed are sprung from wild sheep, so the goats which 
 we herd are sprung from wild goats: and it is from 
 them that the island of Caprasia, near the coast of 
 Italy, gets its name. 
 
 As it is recognized that the best breed of goats is 
 one which bears two kids at a birth, breeding bucks 
 are chosen from such a race whenever possible. Some 
 fanciers even take the trouble to import bucks from the 
 island of Melia, where are bred what are considered 
 the largest and most beautiful specimens of the race. 
 
 I hold that the formula for buying sheep cannot 
 altogether apply to goats because no sane man ever 
 guaranteed that goats are without malady, for the 
 fact is that they are forever in a fever. For this 
 reason the usual stipulation has had a few words 
 cut out of it for use in respect of goats, and, as Manil- 
 ius gives it in his treatise on the law of Sales, runs 
 as follows: 'Do you guarantee that these goats are 
 well today; that they are able to drink, and that I 
 will get good title to them?' 
 
 [209] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 There is a wonderful fact concerning goats which 
 has been stated by certain ingenious shepherds and 
 is even recorded in the book of Archelaus, namely, 
 that they do not breathe through their nostrils, like 
 other animals, but through their ears.^ 
 
 Upon Scrofa's four considerations which relate to 
 the care of goats I have this to say. The flock is 
 better stabled in the winter if its quarters look toward 
 the Southeast, because goats are very sensitive to 
 cold. So also, as for most cattle, the goat stable 
 should be paved with stone or brick that the flock 
 may be less exposed to damp and mud. When the 
 flock passes the night out of doors, a place should 
 be selected having the same exposure and the fold 
 strewn with leaves to protect the flock from fouling 
 themselves. 
 
 There is not much difference in the method of 
 handling goats in the pasture from sheep, but goats 
 have this characteristic, that they prefer the moun- 
 tain woodland pastures to meadows, for they feed 
 eagerly on the brushwood and in cultivated places 
 crop the shrubbery; indeed, their name capree is 
 derived from carpere, to crop. For this reason it is 
 customary to stipulate in farm leases that the tenant 
 shall not graze any goat on the leased land, for their 
 
 * Aristotle (fl. A. I, 9.1) refers to this opinion and denounces 
 it as erroneous. 
 
 [210] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 teeth are the enemies of all planted crops : wherefore 
 the astrologers were careful to station them in the 
 heavens outside of the pale of the twelve signs of 
 the zodiac, but there are two kids and a goat not far 
 from Taurus. 
 
 So far as concerns breeding, it is the custom to 
 separate the bucks from the pastured flock at the 
 end of autumn and confine them apart, as has been 
 said with respect to rams. The nannies which con- 
 ceive at this time drop their kids in four months, 
 and so in the spring. In what regards rearing the 
 kids, it is enough to say that when they are three 
 months old they are raised and may join the flock. 
 What shall I say of the health of these animals who 
 never have any.? yet the flock master should have 
 written down what remedies are used for certain of 
 their maladies and especially for the wounds which 
 often befall them by reason of their constant fighting 
 among themselves and their feeding in thorny places. 
 It remains to speak of number: this is less to the 
 herd in the case of goats than with sheep because of 
 the wantonness and wandering habit of the goat: 
 sheep, on the other hand, are wont to flock together 
 and keep in one place. 
 
 For another reason it is the custom in Gaul to di- 
 vide the goats into many flocks rather than concen- 
 trate them in large ones, because a pestilence quickly 
 
 [211] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 takes possession of a large herd and sweeps it to de- 
 struction. About fifty goats is considered to be a 
 large enough flock: 
 
 The experience of Gaberius, a Roman of the eques- 
 trian order, will illustrate the reason for this: for he, 
 who had a thousand jugera of land near Rome, met 
 one day a certain goatherd leading ten goats to town, 
 and heard him say that he made a denier * a day 
 out of each goat, whereupon Gaberius bought a 
 thousand goats, hoping that he might thereby derive 
 from his property an income of a thousand deniers 
 a day: but so it fell out that he lost all his goats after 
 a brief illness. On the other hand, among the Sallen- 
 tini and near Casinum they graze their goats in flocks 
 of one hundred. 
 
 Almost the same difference of opinion exists as to 
 the relative number of bucks to nannies, for some, 
 and I am among them, allow a buck to every ten 
 nannies, but others, like Menas, make it fifteen, and 
 some even twenty, like Murrius. 
 
 Of swine 
 
 IV. "And now," concluded Cossinius, "which of 
 you Italian swine breeders will stand forth and tell 
 
 ' The Roman denarius, which has been here and later trans- 
 lated denier, may be considered for the purpose of comparing 
 values as, roughly, the equivalent of the modem franc, or lira, 
 say 20 cents United States money. 
 
 [212] 
 
ROxMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 us of his herd? Surely he should be able to speak 
 with the most authority whose cognomen is Scrofa." 
 At this pleasantry, Tremelius turned upon Cos- 
 sinius and said: "You seem to be ignorant why I am 
 called Scrofa, but, in order that our friends sitting 
 beside you may understand, you should know my 
 family did not always bear this swinish cognomen, 
 nor am I of the race of Eumaeus. The first of us to 
 be called Scrofa was my grandfather who, when he 
 was quaestor under the praetor Licinius Nerva, and was 
 left in conunand of the army in the province of Mace- 
 donia during tlie absence of the praetor, it so happened 
 that the enemy thought they had an opportunity to 
 gain a victory and began to attack the camp. My 
 grandfather, in exhorting the soldiers to take up their 
 arms and go out against the enemy, exclaimed that he 
 would soon scatter them as a sow (scrofa) does her 
 pigs, and he was as good as his word. For in that bat- 
 tle he so overwhelmed and discomfited the enemy, 
 that on account of it the praetor Nerva was hailed Im- 
 perator and my grandfather obtained his cognomen 
 and so was called Scrofa.^ So, while neither my great 
 
 ^ Macrobius {Saturn. I, 6) tells another story of the origin 
 of this cognomen, which, if not so heroic as that in the text, is 
 entertaining. It is related that a neighbour's sow strayed on 
 Tremelius' land and was caught and killed as a vagrant. When 
 the owner came to claim it and asserted the right to search the 
 premises Tremelius hid the carcass in the bed in which his wife 
 
 I 213] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 grandfather nor any of my ancestors of the Tremel- 
 ian family was ever called Scrofa, yet as I am not 
 less than the sixth of our family in succession who 
 has attained praetorian rank, it ill becomes me to 
 run away in the face of your challenge, so I will 
 tell you what I know about swine. Indeed from my 
 youth I have been devoted to agriculture, so that I 
 am perhaps as well acquainted with that animal as 
 is any of you great stockmen: for who of us culti- 
 vates a farm but keeps hogs, and who has not heard 
 his father say that that man is either lazy or a spend- 
 thrift who hangs in the meat house a flitch of bacon 
 obtained from the butcher rather than from his own 
 farm. 
 
 He who wishes to have a proper herd of swine 
 ought to choose them, in the first place, of the right 
 age, and in the second place, of good conformation: 
 which means large everywhere except in the head 
 and feet and of a solid colour rather than spotted: 
 but the boar should have without fail a thick neck 
 in addition to these other qualities. Swine of good 
 breed may be known from their appearance, if both 
 boar and sow are of good conformation; from their 
 get, if they have many pigs at a birth; and from their 
 origin, if you buy them in a place with a reputation 
 
 was lying and then took a solemn oath that there was no sow 
 in his house except that in the bed. 
 
 [214] 
 
ROMAN FARAl MANAGEMENT 
 
 for producing fat rather than lean hogs. The usual 
 formula for buying runs thus: 'Do you warrant that 
 these hogs are in good health; that I shall take good 
 title to them; that they have committed no tort, and 
 that they do not come out of a diseased herd?' 
 
 Some add a particular stipulation that they are 
 not affected with cholera. 
 
 In the matter of pasture, a marshy place is well 
 fitted for hogs, because they delight not only in 
 water, but in mud, the reason for which appears in 
 the tradition that when a wolf has fallen upon a hog 
 he always drags the carcass into the water because 
 his teeth cannot endure the natural heat of hog flesh. 
 
 Swine are fed mostly on mast, though also on 
 beans, barley and other kinds of com, which not 
 only make them fat but give the meat an agreeable 
 relish. In summer they go out to pasture early in 
 the morning and before the heat of the day: at mid- 
 day they are brought into some shady place, pref- 
 erably where there is water: in the afternoon, when 
 the heat has abated, they are fed again. In the 
 winter time they do not go out to pasture until the 
 hoar frost has evaporated and the ice has melted. 
 
 In the matter of breeding, the boar should be 
 separated from the herd for two months before the 
 season, which should be arranged between the rising 
 of the west wind and the vernal equinox, for thus it 
 
 [2IS] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 will befall that the sows (which are big for four 
 months) will have their litters in summer when forage 
 is plenty. Sows should not be bred under a year old, 
 but it is better to wait until the twentieth month 
 so that they may have pigs at two years. They are 
 said to breed regularly for seven years after the first 
 litter. During the breeding season they should be 
 given access to muddy ditches and sloughs, so that 
 they may wallow in the mud, which is the same 
 relaxation to them that a bath is to a man. When 
 all the sows are stinted, the boars should be segre- 
 gated again. A boar is fit for service at eight months 
 and so continues until his prime, after which his vigor 
 decreases until he is fit only for the butcher to make 
 of his flesh a dainty offering for the people. Our 
 name for the hog, sus, is called u5 in Greek, but 
 formerly it was 6v^, derived from dvav, meaning 
 to offer as a sacrifice, for it seems that victims were 
 chosen from the race of swine for the earliest sacri- 
 fices; evidence of which remains in the tradition 
 that pigs are sacrificed at the initiation to the mys- 
 teries of Ceres, that when a treaty is ratified peace 
 begins with the slaughter of a pig, and that in solem- 
 nizing a marriage the ancient kings and mighty men 
 of Etruria caused the bride and the bridegroom to 
 sacrifice a pig at the beginning of the ceremony, a 
 practice which the earliest Latins and the Greek colo- 
 
 [216] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 nists in Italy seem also to have followed: nam et nos- 
 tras muHeres, maxime nutrices, naturam qua feminae 
 sunt in virginibus appellant porcum, et grsecae x°^P°^f 
 significantes esse dignum insigni nuptiarum.^ 
 
 The hog is said to be created by nature for the food 
 of man * and so life and salt perform the same func- 
 tions for him, as they both preserve his flesh. 
 
 The Gauls ' are reputed to put up not only the larg- 
 
 ^ It would seem, as Gibbon says of the Empress Theodora, 
 that this passage could be left "veiled in the obscurity of a 
 learned language"; but it may be noted that the locus classicus 
 for the play on the word is the incident of the Megarian "mys- 
 tery pigs" in Aristophanes' Acharnians, 728 ff. Cf. also Athe- 
 nsus, IX, 17, 18. 
 
 * Cf. Pliny (^. N. VIII, 77): "There is no animal that affords 
 a greater variety to the palate of the epicure: all the others have 
 their own peculiar flavour, but the flesh of the hog has nearly 
 fifty different flavours." 
 
 ' In his stimulating book. Comment la route cree le type Social, 
 Edmond Desmolins submits an ingenious hypothesis to explain 
 the pre-eminence of the Gauls in the growing and making of 
 pork, and how that pre-eminence was itself the explanation of 
 their early success in cultivating the cereals. He describes their 
 migrating ancestors, the Celts, pushing their way up the Danube 
 as hordes of nomad shepherds with their vast flocks and herds 
 of horses and cattle, on the milk of which they had hitherto 
 subsisted. So long as they journeyed through prairie steppes, 
 the last of which was Hungary, they maintained their shepherd 
 character, but when they once passed the site of the present city 
 of Vienna and entered the plateau of Bavaria, they found new 
 physical conditions which caused them to reduce and to separate 
 their herds of large cattle — an unbroken forest affording little 
 pasture of grass. Here they found the wild boar subsisting upon 
 the mast of the forest, and him they domesticated out of an 
 
 [217I 
 
ROMAN FARiM MANAGEMENT 
 
 est quantity but the best quality of pork: evidence 
 of its quality being that even now hams, sausage,* 
 bacon and shoulders are imported every year from 
 Gaul to Rome: while Cato writes concerning the 
 amount of pork cured by the Gauls: 'In (northern) 
 Italy the Insubres are wont to put up three or four 
 thousand cuts of pork [the bulk of which can be 
 appreciated from the fact that among that people] ^ 
 
 economic necessity, to take the place of their larger cattle as a 
 basis of food supply. Until then they had not been meat eaters, 
 and so had known no necessity for cereals, for milk is a balanced 
 ration in itself. But this change of diet required them also to 
 take to agriculture and so to abandon their nomad life. 
 
 'By reason of the habits of the animal, swine husbandry has 
 a tendency in itself to confine those engaged in it to a more or 
 less sedentary life, but we are about to see how the Celts were 
 compelled to accomplish this important evolution by an even 
 more powerful force. Meat cannot be eaten habitually except 
 in conjunction with a cereal . . . and of all the meats pork is 
 the one which demands this association most insistently, because 
 it is the least easily digested and the most heating of all the 
 meats. ... So that is how the adoption of swine husbandry 
 and a diet of pork compelled our nomad Celts to take the next 
 step and settle down to agriculture.* 
 
 ' This Gallic tomacina was doubtless the ancestor of the morta- 
 della now produced in the Emilia and known to English speak- 
 ing consumers as "Bologna" sausage. 
 
 *The Gaul of which Cato was here writing is the modem 
 Lombardy, one of the most densely populated and richest agri- 
 cultural districts in the world. Here are found today those 
 truly marvellous "marchite" or irrigated meadows which owe 
 the initiative for their existence to the Cistercian monks of the 
 Chiaravalle Abbey, who began their fruitful agricultural labours 
 in the country near Milan in the twelfth century. There is a 
 
 [218] 
 
ROMAN FARM iVlANAGEMENT 
 
 the hog some times grows so fat that it is not able 
 to stand on its feet or to walk, so that it is necessary 
 to put it on a cart to move it any where.' Atilius the 
 Spaniard, who is a truthful man and learned in many 
 things, tells of a hog which was killed in further 
 Spain or Lusitania from which two chops, sent to 
 the Senator L. Volumnius, were found to weigh three 
 and twenty pounds, the fat on them being so thick 
 that it measured a foot and three fingers from the 
 skin to the bone." 
 
 "I can testify to some thing not less extraordinary 
 than what you have related," said I, "for in Arcadia 
 I saw with my own eyes a hog which was so fat that 
 not only was it unable to get up but a shrew mouse 
 having eaten a hole in its back had there made its 
 nest and was rearing a family. I have heard that 
 this same thing happened in the country of the 
 Veneti." 
 
 recorded instance of one of these meadows which yielded in a 
 single season 140 tons of grass per hectare, equal to 75 tons of 
 hay, or 30 tons per acre! The meadows are mowed six times 
 a year, and the grass is fed green to Swiss cows, which are kept 
 in great numbers for the manufacture of "frommaggio di grana," 
 or Parmesan cheese. This system of green soiling maintains the 
 fertility of the meadows, while the by-product of the dairies is 
 the feeding of hogs, which are kept in such quantity that they 
 are today exported as they were in the times of Cato and Varro. 
 There is no region of the earth, unless it be Flanders, of which 
 the aspect so rejoices the heart of a farmer as the Milanese. 
 Well may the Lombard proverb say, " Chi ha prato, ha tutto." 
 
 [ 219 ] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 "Usually," resumed Scrofa, "the fecundity of a 
 sow may be learned from her first litter, for in later 
 litters she does not vary much from the number of 
 pigs in the first. 
 
 In the matter of rearing young swine, which we 
 call porculatio it is customary to leave pigs with the 
 sow for two months, and then when they are able 
 to feed themselves to separate them. Pigs bom in 
 the winter are apt to be runts on account of the cold 
 and because the sow refuses to suckle them, partly 
 by reason of her lack of milk at that season and partly 
 to protect her teats from the teeth of the hungry pigs. 
 
 Each sow should suckle her pigs in her own stye, 
 because a sow will not drive strange pigs away from 
 her, and it results that if the litters are mingled 
 the breed deteriorates. The year is naturally divided 
 for the sow into two parts, because they breed twice 
 a year, being heavy in pig for four months and suck- 
 ling for two. The stye should be built about three 
 feet deep and a little more in width and such a height 
 from the ground as will permit a pregnant sow to 
 get out without straining herself, as that might cause 
 her to abort. A good measure of the proper height 
 from the ground is what is necessary to enable the 
 swineherd to keep watch that no little pigs are crushed 
 by the sow, and to clean out the bedding easily. 
 There should be a door to the stye with the lower 
 
 [ 220] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 sill elevated a foot and a palm high so as to prevent 
 the pigs from following the sow when she goes out. 
 As often as the swineherd cleans out the stye he 
 should strew the floor with sand, or some thing else 
 to absorb moisture. 
 
 When a sow has had her pigs she should be fed 
 liberally to enable her to make milk: for this the 
 ration is usually two pounds of boiled barley, indeed 
 some feed this both at morning and at night if other 
 feed is lacking. When pigs are taken from their 
 dam they are sometimes called delici or weanlings 
 being then no longer lactantes or sucklings. 
 
 Pigs are considered to be clean ten days after 
 birth, and for that reason were then called by the 
 ancients sacred, as being then first fit for sacrifice: 
 and so in the Meneechmi of Plautus, when a character 
 thinking some one in Epidamnus to be out of his 
 wits and seeking to purify him, asks: 'How much 
 are sacred pigs here.' 
 
 If the farm affords them, pigs should be fed grape 
 husks and stalks. 
 
 After they have lost the name of lactantes the shoats 
 are called nefrendes because they are not yet able to 
 break down {Jrendere that is frangere) the bean stalks. 
 Porcus is the ancient Greek name for them but is 
 fallen into disuse, for the Greeks now call them xdipo%. 
 
 While she is giving suck the sow should be watered 
 
 [221] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 twice a day to promote the flow of milk. A sow 
 should bear as many pigs as she has teats : if she has 
 less it is considered that she is unprofitable, but if 
 more, a prodigy. In this respect there is the ancient 
 tradition that the sow of .^neas bore thirty white 
 (albos) pigs at Lavinium,^ which portended that 
 after thirty years the inhabitants of Lavinium would 
 found the town of Alba: indeed, vestiges of this 
 sow and of her pigs may still be seen at Lavinium 
 where there is a brazen image of them now in the 
 public square, and the true body of the sow is shown 
 by the priests, preserved in pickle. 
 
 Sows are able at first to suckle eight little pigs, 
 but as they grow larger half of them are usually 
 taken away by experienced swineherds, because the 
 sow cannot supply milk enough for all, and too many 
 pigs fed together do not prosper in any event. A 
 sow should not be driven out of the stye for ten days 
 after having her litter except for water, but after 
 that time she is permitted to graze in a paddock so 
 conveniently near at hand that she may return to 
 
 ^ Virgil (^n. VII, 26) subsequently made good use of this 
 tradition of the founding of Lavinium, the sacred city of the 
 Romans where the Penates dwelt and whither solemn proces- 
 sions were wont to proceed from Rome until Christianity be- 
 came the State religion. The site has been identified as that of 
 the modem village of Practica, where a few miserable shepherds 
 collect during the winter months, fleeing to the hills at the ap- 
 proach of summer and the dread malaria. 
 
 [ 222 ] 
 
ROMAN FARiM MANAGEMENT 
 
 the stye frequently to suckle the pigs. When the 
 pigs are large enough they are permitted to follow 
 the sow to pasture, but at home they should be 
 penned apart from the sow and fed by themselves 
 until they overcome their yearning for the dam, 
 which usually happens in ten days. The swineherd 
 should train his shoats to do every thing at the sound 
 of the trumpet. This training is begun by letting 
 the shoats hear the trumpet outside their pens and 
 then at once come out to a place where barley has 
 been scattered broad cast (for thus less is wasted 
 than if the feed is put in heaps and more of the shoats 
 can get to it easily). By such education it is possible 
 to collect pasturing hogs at the sound of a trumpet 
 and prevent their being lost when scattered in the 
 woods. ^ 
 
 * Cf. Polybius, XII, 4: 'For in Italy the swineherds manage 
 the feeding of their pigs in the same way. They do not follow 
 close behind the beasts, as in Greece, but keep some distance in 
 front of them, sounding their horn every now and then: and the 
 animals follow behind and run together at the sound. Indeed, 
 the complete familiarity which the animals show with the par- 
 ticular horn to which they belong seems at first astonishing and 
 almost incredible. For, owing to the populousness and wealth 
 of the country, the droves of swine in Italy are exceedingly 
 large, especially along the sea coast of the Tuscans and Gauls : 
 for one sow will bring up a thousand pigs, or some times even 
 more. They, therefore, drive them out from their night styes 
 to feed according to their litters and ages. When if several 
 droves are taken to the same place they cannot preserve these 
 distinctions of litters: but they, of course, get mixed up with 
 
 [223] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 Boars are altered most successfully when they 
 are a year old, but in no case should this be done 
 when they are less than six months old. After the 
 operation they are no longer called boars, but barrows. 
 
 Concerning the health of swine, I will say one thing 
 only by way of example: if the sow is not able to 
 supply milk the sucking pigs should be fed, until 
 they are three months old, on roasted wheat (for 
 when it is raw it loosens the bowels) or on barley 
 boiled in water. 
 
 As to number: it is considered that ten boars to 
 
 each other both as they are being driven out and as they feed, 
 and as they are being brought home. Accordingly, the device 
 of the horn blowing has been invented to separate them when 
 they have got mixed up together, without labour or trouble. For 
 as they feed one swineherd goes in one direction sounding his 
 horn, and another in another and thus the animals sort them- 
 selves of their own accord and follow their own horn with such 
 eagerness that it is impossible by any means to stop or hinder 
 them. But in Greece when the swine get mixed up in the oak 
 forests in their search for the mast, the swineherd who has most 
 assistants and the best help at his disposal, when collecting his 
 own animals drives off his neighbours' also. Some times, too, a 
 thief lies in wait and drives them off without the swineherd 
 knowing how he has lost them, because the beasts straggle a 
 long way from their drivers in their eagerness to find acorns, 
 when they are just beginning to fall.' 
 
 Bishop Latimer in one of his sermons quotes the phrase used 
 in his youth, at the time of the discovery of America, in calling 
 hogs: 'Come to thy minglemangle, come pur, come pur.' It 
 would be impossible to transcribe the traditional call used in 
 Virginia. One some times thinks that it was the original of the 
 celebrated 'rebel yell' of General Lee's army. 
 
 [224] 
 
ROMAN FARM xMANAGEMENT 
 
 an hundred sows is enough; some even reduce this 
 proportion. 
 
 The practice varies as to the number to a herd, 
 but my judgment is that a hundred is a moderate 
 number: some make it more, say 150: some feed two 
 herds together, and some do even more than that. 
 A small herd is less expensive than a large one be- 
 cause the swineherd requires less assistance. A 
 swinefeeder should fix the number to be fed as a herd 
 on a principle of utility, not by the number of boars 
 he may happen to have, for that is determined by 
 nature." 
 
 So far Scrofa. 
 
 Of neat cattle 
 
 V. At this point we were joined by the Senator Q. 
 Lucienus, a man as learned as he is agreeable and in- 
 timate with us all. "Hail, my fellow citizens of 
 Epirus," he exclaimed in Greek,* "and you, my dear 
 
 * The use of the Greek salutation was esteemed by the more 
 austere Romans of the age of Scipio an evidence of preciosity, 
 to be laughed at: and so Lucienus' jesting apology for the use 
 of it here doubtless was in reference to Lucilius' epigram (which 
 Cicero has preserved, de Finibus, 1, 3.) 
 
 " Graece ergo prsetor Athenis 
 Id quod maluisti te, quum ad me accedi, saluto 
 X<uipc inquam, Tite: lictores turma omni cohorsque 
 Xfupe Tite! Hinc hostis mi Albucius, hinc inimicus." 
 
 It was the word which the Romans taught their parrots. Cf. 
 Persius, Prolog. 8. 
 
 [225] 
 
ROMAN I'ARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 Varro, 'shepherd of men,' for I have already greeted 
 Scrofa this morning." 
 
 While one saluted him, another reproached him 
 for having come so late to our club. 
 
 " I will see to that, my merry men, for I am about 
 to offer you my back and a scourge: or else, Murrius, 
 you who are my friend: come with me while I pay a 
 forfeit to the goddess Pales, so that you may bear 
 me witness if our friends here seek to make me do it 
 again." 
 
 "Tell him," said Atticus, turning to Murrius, 
 "what we have been talking about and what is still 
 on the programme, so that when his turn comes he 
 may be prepared. In the meantime we will take up 
 the second order of domestic live stock and proceed 
 to a discussion of the larger cattle." 
 
 "In this," said Vaccius, "my name would seem to 
 assign me a part, since cows {vaccce) are included in 
 that category. Wherefore I will tell what I know 
 about neat cattle, so that he who knows less may 
 learn, while he who knows more may correct me when 
 I fall down." 
 
 "Be careful what you do, Vaccius," said I, "for 
 the genus Bos is of the first importance among cattle, 
 certainly in Italy, which is thought to have taken 
 its very name from that family, for, as Timaeus 
 records, in ancient Greece a bull was called iraXos, 
 
 1226] 
 
ROiMAN FARM MANAGl-MKNT 
 
 whence is derived our word vitula, and from this 
 Italy is supposed to have taken its name because of 
 the number and beauty of its breed of cattle (vituli). 
 Others claim that the name comes from that of the 
 famous bull Italus which Hercules drove out of 
 Sicily into this country. 
 
 The ox is indeed the companion and fellow la- 
 bourer of man and the minister of Ceres: wherefore 
 the ancients, holding him inviolable, made it a capital 
 offence to kill an ox.^ Both Attica and Peloponnesus 
 bear witness of the regard in which the ox was held : 
 for he who first yoked oxen to the plough is celebrated 
 at Athens under the name Buzyges and at Argos 
 under that of Homogyros." 
 
 "I know," replied Vaccius, "the importance of the 
 ox and that his very name is used to signify that 
 
 * The working ox was respected by the ancient Romans as a 
 fellow labourer. Valerius Maximus (VIII, 8 ad fin.) cites a case 
 of a Roman citizen who was put to death, because, to satisfy 
 the craving of one of his children for beef to eat, he slew an ox 
 from the plough. Ovid puts this sentiment in the mouth of 
 Pythagoras, when he agrees that pigs and goats are fit subjects 
 for sacrifice, but protests against such use of sheep and oxen. 
 iMetamor.XV, 139.) 
 
 "Quid meruere boves, animal sine fraude dolisque 
 Innocuum, simplex, natum tolerare labores? 
 Immemor est demum, nee frugum manere dignus 
 Qui potuit curvi demto modo pondere arati 
 Ruricolam mactare suum: qui trita labore 
 Ilia quibus toties durum renovaverat arvum 
 Tot dederse messes, percussit coUa securi." 
 [227] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 quality, as in words like ^ovovkov (big fig), ^Souttoi? 
 (a big boy), /8ouX.i/xos (a ravenous hunger), fiowm^ 
 (large eyed), and again that a certain large grape is 
 called bumamma (cow teat). Furthermore, I know 
 it was the form of a bull that Jupiter assumed when 
 he wooed Europa and bore her across the sea from 
 Phoenicia: that it was a bull which protected the 
 children of Neptune and Melanippe from being 
 crushed in a stable by a herd of cattle: I know too 
 that the bees which give the sweetest honey are 
 generated from the carcase of an ox, whence the 
 Greeks call them /Sovyo/eis (bom of an ox), an expres- 
 sion which Plautius latinized on the occasion where 
 the praetor Hirrius, was accused at Rome of having 
 libeled the Senate. 'But be of good cheer, I will give 
 you at least as great satisfaction as did he who wrote 
 the Bugonia.' ^ 
 
 In the first place there are said to be four ages of 
 cattle, during which they are known by the succes- 
 
 * The learned commentators have been able to discover noth- 
 ing about either this Plautius or this Hirrius, but it appears that 
 Archelaus wrote a book under the title Bugonia, of which noth- 
 ing survives. It may be conjectured, however, on the analogy 
 of Samson's riddle to the Philistines, "Out of the eater came 
 forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness," {Judges, 
 XIV, 14), that Plautius meant to imply that some good might 
 be the consequence of the evil Hirrius had done: and that Vac- 
 cius cited the allusion to suggest to Varro that, while he might 
 know nothing much about cattle, his attempt to deal with the 
 subject might provoke some useful discussion. 
 
 [228] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGl.MENT 
 
 sive designation of calf (vitulus), yearling (juvencus), 
 prime (novellus) and aged (vetulus). These designa- 
 tions are further divided according to sex, as bull- 
 calf and heifer-calf, or bull and cow. 
 
 A cow which is sterile is called taura: when preg- 
 nant, horda, from which last name a certain festival 
 is called the hordicalia {Fordicidia) because cows in 
 calf are sacrificed upon it. 
 
 He who wishes to buy a herd of neat cattle should 
 take care first that they are of an age to produce, 
 rather than past breeding; that they are well set up, 
 clean limbed, square bodied, large, with black horns 
 and broad brows, large black eyes, hairy ears, flat 
 cheek bones, snub-nosed, not hump-backed but 
 rather with the back bone slightly roached, wide 
 nostrils, blackish lips, a neck muscular and long with 
 dew laps hanging from it, the barrel large and well 
 ribbed, the shoulders broad and the quarters good, 
 a tail sweeping the heels, the end being frizzled in a 
 heavy brush, the legs rather short and straight with 
 knees projecting a little and well separated, the feet 
 narrow and not inclined to spread in walking, the 
 hoofs not being splayed but consisting of light and 
 even bones, and a hide which is not rough and hard 
 to the touch. The best colour is black, next red, third 
 chestnut and last white: for a white coat indicates 
 weakness, as black indicates endurance: of the other 
 
 [229] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 two colours red is more common than chestnut, and 
 both than black and white. In addition you should 
 be particular that the bull is of good breed, which is 
 determined from his conformation and his get, as 
 calves usually reproduce the qualities of their sire. 
 And, finally, it is of importance whence they come. 
 Gallic cattle are considered in Italy to be the best 
 for work, while on the other hand Ligurian cattle are 
 worthless. The foreign cattle of Epirus are not only 
 better than all the Greek cattle but even than the 
 Italian: nevertheless, there are those who choose 
 Italian cattle for victims and to serve as offerings 
 to the gods on account of their size: and without 
 doubt they may be preferred for such holy offices, 
 so great is the distinction of their majestic bulk and 
 their candid coats: and they are the more suitable 
 for such use because white cattle are not so common 
 in Italy as in Thrace at the gulf of Melas, wheire 
 there are few of any other colour. 
 
 When cattle are bought already broken for work 
 we stipulate thus: *Do you guarantee these cattle 
 to be in good health and warrant me against liability 
 for any tort committed by them?' 
 
 When we buy them unbroken, we say: 'Do you 
 guarantee these yearlings to be in good health and to 
 come out of a healthy herd, and warrant me against 
 liability for tort?' 
 
 [230] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 When butchers buy for the shambles they use a 
 fuller formula recommended by Manilius: but those 
 who buy for the altar do not usually stipulate for 
 health in their victims. 
 
 Neat cattle pasture best in groves where there is 
 brushwood and much leafage: and so when they are 
 wintered by the sea they are driven up to pasture 
 in summer in the hills where shrubbery abounds. 
 
 These are my breeding rules : 
 
 For a month before breeding I cut down the food 
 and drink of the cows because it is deemed that they 
 breed more certainly when they are thin. On the 
 other hand, I fatten the bulls up on grass and straw 
 and hay for two months before the breeding season, 
 and during that time I keep them apart from the 
 cows. Like Atticus, I have two for seventy cows, 
 one a yearling, the other two years old. When that 
 constellation has risen which the Greeks call Lyra, 
 and we Romans, Fides, I turn the bull into the herd 
 again. The bull indicates whether a male or a female 
 calf has been conceived by the side on which he leaves 
 the cow: if male, on the right; if female, on the left. 
 "Why this is so," said Vaccius, turning to me, "I leave 
 to you who read Aristotle. 
 
 A cow should not be served under two years, so 
 that she may have her first calf in the third year: 
 it would be better in the fourth. Most cows bear for 
 
 [231] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 ten years, some even more. The most suitable time 
 for stinting cows is during the forty days following 
 the rising of the Dolphin, or even a little later, for 
 thus they will drop their calves at the most temperate 
 season of the year, for a cow goes ten months preg- 
 nant. On this subject I have come upon an extraor- 
 dinary statement in a book that a bull which has just 
 been altered can get a cow with calf. 
 
 Breeding cows should be pastured where there is 
 abundant grass and plenty of water, and care should 
 be taken to protect them from crowding too close 
 together, and from being struck, or from fighting 
 with one another: moreover, to protect them against 
 being worried in summer by cattle flies and those 
 minute insects which get under their tails, some 
 farmers shut them up during the heat of the day in 
 pens, which should be strewn with leaves or some 
 other bedding on which they can rest comfortably. 
 In summer they are driven to water twice a day, in 
 winter once. Against the time when they are due to 
 drop their calves you should arrange to give them 
 access to fresh forage near the stable which they can 
 eat with appetite as they go out, for at that time they 
 are very dainty about their food. A watch out must 
 be kept to prevent their frequenting chilly places, 
 for cold depresses the vitality as much as hunger. 
 
 These are the rules for raising neat cattle: the suck- 
 
 [232] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 ling calves should not be suffered to sleep with their 
 dams, for they might crush them, but should be 
 given access to them in the morning and when they 
 return from pasture. When the calves are weaned 
 the dams should be comforted by having green stuff 
 thrown into their stalls for them to eat. The floor of 
 a calf stable, like most others, should be paved with 
 stone to keep their hoofs from rotting. The calves 
 may be pastured with their dams after the autumn 
 equinox. Bull calves should not be altered before 
 they are two years old, as they recover with difficulty 
 if the operation is performed sooner, while if it is 
 done later they are apt to be stubborn and useless. 
 
 As in the case of other cattle, the herd should 
 be gone over every year and the culls thrown out be- 
 cause they occupy the room of those which might be 
 profitable. If a cow loses her calf she should be 
 given another to nurse, taken from a cow which has 
 not a sufficient supply of milk. Calves six months 
 old are fed wheat bran and barley meal and young 
 grass, and care should be taken that they are watered 
 morning and evening. 
 
 The rules for taking care of the health of neat 
 cattle are many. I have those which Mago has 
 recorded written out and I take care that my herds- 
 man reads them frequently. 
 
 I have already said that a yearling and a two-year 
 
 [233] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 old bull should be provided for every sixty cows, 
 though some have more or less cows in the herd: 
 thus Atticus has two bulls for every seventy cows. 
 Some observe one rule as to the number of cattle to 
 the herd, some another. I am among those who 
 think that one hundred is enough, but Atticus here, 
 like Lucienus, has one hundred and twenty." 
 So far Vaccius. 
 
 Of asses 
 
 VI. While Vaccius was speaking, Murrius had 
 returned with Lucienus and now began: 
 
 "I propose to tell about asses as well I may, be- 
 cause I am from Reate where the best and the largest 
 are found; indeed, I have sold to the Arcadians them- 
 selves asses of this race and of my own breeding. 
 He who wishes to establish a good herd of asses 
 should see in the first place that he procures jacks and 
 jennies of prime age so that they may breed as long 
 as possible, strong, well made in all parts, of full 
 body and of a good breed, that is to say derived 
 from those localities whence the best specimens 
 come; thus the Peloponnesians, so far as possible, 
 buy asses bred in Arcadia and we in Italy those from 
 the valley of Reate. For if the best of those deli- 
 cious fish we call murcerue flutce are taken on the 
 coast of Sicily and the best sturgeons at Rhodes, it 
 
 [234I 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 does not follow that they are of equal delicacy in all 
 seas. 
 
 There are two kinds of asses, one wild, which is 
 called the onager, of which there are many herds 
 in Phrygia and Lycaonia; the other domestic, as 
 they are all over Italy. The onager is fit for use for 
 breeding because he is easily tamed and once domes- 
 ticated never reverts to a wild life.^ 
 
 Because their young take after their parents, it is 
 important to choose both jack and jenny of good 
 conformation. The conditions of buying and selling 
 asses are much the same as for other kinds of cattle 
 and include stipulations as to their health and against 
 tort. They are best fed on com and barley bran. 
 The jennies are bred before the solstice so that they 
 may have their foals at the same season in the foUow- 
 
 * Darwin, Animals and Plants, II, 20, cites this passage and 
 says that "at the present day the natives of Java some times 
 drive their cattle into the forests to cross with the wild Ban- 
 teng." The crossing of wild blood on domestic animals is not, 
 however, always successful. A recent visitor to the German 
 agricultural experiment station at Halle describes "a curious 
 hairy beast with great horns, a wild look in his eye, a white 
 streak down his back and a bumpy forehead, which had in it 
 blood from cattle which had lived on the plains of Thibet, 
 which had grazed on the lowland pastures of Holland, which 
 had roamed the forests of northeast India and of the Malay 
 Peninsular, and had wandered through the forests of Germany. 
 We Americans had sympathy for this beast. He was some thing 
 like ourselves, with the blood of many different races flowing 
 through his veins." 
 
 [235] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 ing year, for their period of gestation is twelve months. 
 The jennies should be relieved from work while in 
 foal for fatigue at that time injures the off spring : but 
 the jacks, on the contrary, are worked all the time, 
 because it is lack of exercise which is bad for them. 
 
 In the matter of rearing, practically the same rules 
 apply to asses as to horses. The foals are not sep- 
 arated from their dams for the first year after they 
 are born: during the second year they are permitted 
 to stay with their dams at night, but they should then 
 be tied with a loose halter or some other such re- 
 straint. In the third year you begin to break them 
 for whatever service they are intended. 
 
 As to the number: they are not usually kept in 
 herds unless it may be for transport service; gener- 
 ally they are used to turn the mill, or for carrying 
 about the farm, or even for the plough where the 
 soil is light, as in Campania. Herds of asses are 
 some times employed by merchants, like those who 
 transport wine, or oil, or corn, or any other com- 
 modity, from Brundisium or Apulia to the sea, by 
 pack trains." 
 
 Oj horses 
 
 VII. Here Lucienus took up the discourse. 
 "It is my turn," he said, "to open the barrier and 
 drive in my horses: and they are not only stallions, 
 
 [236] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 of which, like Atticus, I keep one for every ten breed- 
 ing mares, but mares as well, such as Q. Modius 
 Equiculus, that gallant soldier, was wont to esteem 
 for use even in war nearly as much as stallions.' 
 
 He who wishes to have such studs of stallions and 
 mares as may be seen in Peloponnesus and in Apulia 
 should first consider age and see that he obtains them 
 not less than three nor more than ten years old. The 
 
 ' Pliny (VIII, 66) cites the fact that the Scythians always 
 preferred mares to stallions for war, and gives an ingenious reason 
 for the preference. Aristotle {H. A. VI, 22) says that the Scyth- 
 ians rode their pregnant mares until the very last, saying that 
 the exercise rendered parturition more easy. Every breeder of 
 heavy draft horses has seen a mare taken from the plough and 
 have her foal in the field, with no detriment to either: and the 
 story of the mare Keheilet Ajuz, who founded the best of the 
 Arab families, is well known, but bears repetition. I quote from 
 Spencer Borden, The Arab Horse, p. 44: "It is related that a 
 certain Sheik was flying from an enemy, mounted on his favourite 
 mare. Arab warriors trust themselves only to mares, they will 
 not ride a stallion in war. The said mare was at the time far 
 along toward parturition: indeed she became a mother when the 
 flying horseman stopped for rest at noonday, the new comer 
 being a filly. Being hard pressed the Sheik was compelled to 
 remount his mare and again seek safety in flight, abandoning 
 the newborn filly to her fate. Finally reaching safety among 
 his own people, great was the surprise of all when, shortly after 
 the arrival of the Sheik on his faithful mare, the little filly less 
 than a day old came into camp also, having followed her mother 
 across miles of desert. She was immediately given into the 
 care of an old woman of the tribe (Ajuz = an old woman), hence 
 her name Keheilet Ajuz, ' the mare of the old woman,' and grew 
 to be the most famous of all the animals in the history of the 
 breed." 
 
 [237] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 age of a horse, as also of nearly all animals whose 
 hoofs are not cloven, even horned animals, may be 
 known from the condition of the teeth : thus at thirty 
 months of age a colt is said to lose the milk incisors 
 from the middle of his mouth, two above and two 
 below. At the beginning of the fourth year, in like 
 manner he sheds the same number, being the incisors 
 adjoining those previously lost, and at that age also 
 the teeth called canine begin to appear. At the 
 beginning of the fifth year he loses two more incisors, 
 and at that time the new teeth show hollow. In 
 the sixth year the new teeth begin to fill out their 
 cavities, and by the seventh usually all have been 
 renewed and the permanent mouth is made. What 
 is the age of a horse beyond this point it is not pos- 
 sible to determine accurately, except that when the 
 teeth project and the eye brows are white and have 
 hollows under them, it is considered that a horse is 
 sixteen years old. 
 
 A breeding mare should be of medium size, for it 
 is not fitting that they should be either very large or 
 very small, but the quarters and belly should be 
 broad. 
 
 A breeding stallion on the other hand should be 
 chosen with a large body, well made and all his parts 
 in harmony. What sort of horse it will turn out to 
 be can be determined from the points of the foal, 
 
 [238] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 for it should exhibit a small head: limbs well knit 
 together: a black eye, Wide nostrils: ears well pricked: 
 a mane which is thick, dark and curly, of fine hairs 
 and falling on the right side of the neck: a breast 
 broad and well developed: strong shoulders: a mod- 
 erate belly: the loins flat and rising to the quar- 
 ters: long shoulder blades: a back bone well doubled 
 [with ridges of meat] but if these are not prominent 
 in no event should the bone itself stand out: a tail 
 large and curly: legs straight and even and rather 
 long: knees round and small and not turned in as 
 you look at them: hard hoofs: veins visible all over 
 the body (for a horse of this kind is fit for treatment 
 when he is sick). 
 
 The breed is of the greatest importance, for there 
 are many. In this respect the celebrated breeds 
 take the names of the countries from which they 
 come: thus in Greece we have the Thessalian breed: 
 in Italy the Apulian from Apulia, and the Rosean 
 from Rosea.* 
 
 * Varro does not describe the livery of the horses of his day, 
 as he does of cattle, but Virgil {Georg. Ill, 8i) supplies the de- 
 ficiency, asserting that the best horses were bay {/padices) and 
 roan {jglauci) while the least esteemed were white (a/it) and 
 dun (fi/w), which is very interesting testimony in support of 
 the most recent theory of the origin of the thoroughbred horse. 
 Professor Ridgeway who, opposing Darwin's conclusion, con- 
 tends for a multiple origin of the historic and recent races of 
 horses, has collected a mass of information about the marking 
 
 [239] 
 
ROMAN FARiM MANAGEMENT 
 
 It is a sign that they will make good horses if, 
 when at pasture with the herd, the colts contend 
 with one another for superiority in running or in any 
 thing else, or if when a stream is to be crossed they 
 leap it at the head of the herd and do not look back 
 for the others. 
 
 Horses are bought in almost the same manner as 
 cattle or asses, because they change ownership by 
 similar formalities, all of which are set forth in the 
 book of Manilius. 
 
 Horses should be pastured whenever possible in 
 meadows of grass, and in the stable and stall they 
 are fed on hay. 
 
 When a mare has foaled she should be fed on 
 barley and watered twice a day. 
 
 In the matter of breeding, the period of service 
 is from the vernal equinox to the solstice so that the 
 
 of famous horses of all ages in his Origin and Influence of the 
 Thoroughbred Horse. He maintains that a bay livery, with a 
 white star and stockings, the development of protective colora- 
 tion from an originally striped coat, such as has gone on more 
 recently in the case of the quaggas, is absolute evidence of the 
 North African origin of a horse, and he shows that all the swiftest 
 horses mentioned in history are of that race, while the heavier 
 and less mettlesome horses of Northern origin have been, when 
 pure bred, dun coloured or white. 
 
 Of the Italian breeds mentioned by Varro, Professor Ridgeway 
 conjectures that the Etruscan (or Rosean) was probably an im- 
 proved Northern horse, while the Apulian, from the South of 
 Italy, represented an admixture of Libyan blood. 
 
 [240] 
 
ivOMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 foal may come at a suitable season, for they are sup- 
 posed to be born on the tenth day of the twelfth 
 month after the mare was stinted. Those which 
 are bom after the time are usually defective and 
 unfit for use. When the season has come the stallion 
 should be admitted to the mare twice a day, in the 
 morning and in the evening, under the direction of 
 the origa (so the studgroom is called), for a mare 
 held in hand is stinted more quickly, nor does the 
 stallion waste his seed by excess of ardor. When a 
 mare is stinted she makes it known by defending 
 herself. If the stallion shows an aversion for a mare, 
 her parts should be smeared when she is in heat with 
 the marrow of a shrimp macerated in water to the 
 consistency of honey, and the stallion allowed to 
 smell of it. 
 
 Although it may seem incredible, what I am about 
 to relate is true and should be remembered. Once 
 upon a time a studgroom tried to make a stallion 
 cover his mother, but could never get him to come 
 near her: so one day the groom muffled the stallion's 
 head and put him to his mother successfully: but 
 when the bandage was removed and the stallion saw 
 what he had done, he fell upon the groom and killed 
 him with his teeth. 
 
 When the mares have been stinted it must be 
 seen to that they are worked only in moderation and 
 
 [241] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 are kept out of cold places, because cold is of the 
 greatest prejudice to a mare in that condition. For 
 this reason the floor of their stable should be kept 
 dry and the windows and doors should be kept shut: 
 and furthermore the mares should be separated one 
 from another by long poles fastened back from the 
 manger so that they may not fight. 
 
 Mares in foal should neither be over-fed nor 
 starved. 
 
 There are some who breed their mares only every 
 other year and claim they get better colts, on the 
 same principle that as corn land is exhausted by 
 continuous cropping, so is a mare which is bred 
 every year.^ 
 
 The foal should be led out to pasture with its dam 
 on the tenth day after it is born, so to avoid burning 
 its tender hoofs by standing on manure in the stable. 
 When five months old a colt should be fed, whenever 
 he is brought into the stable, a ration of barley meal 
 whole with its bran, or any other product of the 
 earth which he will eat with appetite. When they 
 are a year old they may be fed barley in the grain 
 mixed with bran, and this should be kept up as long 
 
 ' Aristotle {H. A. VI, 22) preceded Varro with this good ad- 
 vice, saying that a mare "produces better foals at the end of 
 four or five years. It is quite necessary that she should wait 
 one year and should pass through a fallow, as it were — ir<»«v 
 
 SxTTtp VtUOV." 
 
 [242] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGlixMEN T 
 
 as they suckle, for they should not be weaned until 
 they have completed the second year. From time to 
 time while they are still with their dams they should 
 be handled so that they may not be wild after they 
 are separated. To the same end it is well to hang 
 bridles in their stalls so that while they are still colts 
 they may become accustomed to the sight of them 
 and the sound of their clanking as well. When a colt 
 has learned to come to an outstretched hand you 
 should put a boy on his back, for the first two or 
 three times stretched out flat on his belly, but after- 
 wards sitting upright. The time to do this is when 
 the colt is three years old, for then he has his full 
 growth and is beginning to develop muscles. 
 
 There are those who say that a colt may be broken 
 at eighteen months, but it is better to wait until the 
 third year. Then is the time too to begin to feed him 
 that mixture of grain in the milk which we call jar- 
 rago, for this is very good for a horse as a purgative. 
 It should be fed for ten days to the exclusion of all 
 other food. On the eleventh day and until the four- 
 teenth you should feed barley, adding a little to the 
 ration every day for four days and then maintaining 
 that quantity for the ten days succeeding: during 
 this period the horse should be exercised moderately, 
 and when in a sweat rubbed down with oil. If it is 
 cold a fire should be lit in the stable. 
 
 [243I 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 As some horses are suitable for military service, 
 some for the cart, some for breeding, some for racing, 
 and others for the carriage, it follows that the methods 
 of handling and looking after them all are not the 
 same. Thus the soldier chooses some and rears and 
 trains them for his particular use, and so in turn does 
 the charioteer and the circus rider. Nor does he 
 who wishes a cart horse choose the same conformation 
 or give the same training as to a horse intended for the 
 saddle or the carriage: for as the one desires mettle 
 for military service, the other prfefers a gentle dis- 
 position for use on the road. It was to provide for this 
 difference of use that the practice of castrating 
 horses was inaugurated, for horses that are altered 
 are of a quieter disposition: they are called geldings, 
 as hogs in the same state are called barrows and 
 chickens are called capons. 
 
 As to medicine for the horse, there are so many 
 symptoms of their maladies and so many cures that 
 the studgroom must have them written down: in- 
 deed, on this account in Greece the veterinarians 
 are mostly called imrtaTpoi (horse leeches)." 
 
 Of mules 
 
 VIII. While we were talking a freedman came 
 
 from Menas and said that the sacrificial cakes 
 
 were cooked and every thing ready for the sacri- 
 
 [244] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 fice; that whoever wishes to take part had only to 
 come. 
 
 "But I will not suffer you to go," I protested, 
 "until you have fulfilled your promise and given me 
 the third chapter of our subject, that concerning 
 mules and dogs and shepherds." 
 
 "What is to be said about mules," ^ replied Mur- 
 rius, "may be said briefly. Mules and hinnies are 
 mongrels and grafts as it were on a stock of a different 
 species, for a mule is got by an ass out of a mare, 
 and a hinny by a horse out of a she ass. Both have 
 their uses, but neither is fit to reproduce its kind. 
 For this purpose it is the custom to put a new-bom 
 ass colt to nurse to a mare because mares' milk will 
 make it more vigorous: it is considered better than 
 asses' milk, or indeed than any other kind of milk. 
 Later they are fed on straw, hay and barley. The 
 foster mother must be given good attention also, as 
 
 ' Mules were employed in antiquity from the earliest times. 
 In Homer they were used for drawing wagons: thus Nausicaa 
 drove a mule team to haul out the family wash, and Priam made 
 his visit to Achilles in a mule litter. Homer professes to prefer 
 mules to oxen for ploughing. There were mule races at the 
 Greek games. Aristotle {Rhetoric, HI, 2) tells an amusing story 
 of Simonides, who, when the victor in the mule race offered him 
 only a poor fee, refused to compose an ode, pretending to be 
 shocked at the idea of writing about "semi-asses," but, on re- 
 ceipt of a proper fee, he wrote the ode beginning: "Hail, daugh- 
 ters of storm-footed mares," although they were equally daugh- 
 ters of the asses. 
 
 [245] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 she must bring up her own colt in addition to her 
 service as a wet nurse. An ass raised in this way is 
 fit to get mules when he is three years old, nor will 
 he contemn the mares because he has become used 
 to their kind. If you use him for breeding earlier 
 he will quickly exhaust himself and his get will be 
 poor. 
 
 If you have no ass foal to have brought up by a 
 mare and you wish a breeding jackass, you should 
 buy the largest and handsomest you can find; the 
 best breed, as the ancients said, was that of Arcadia, 
 but nowadays we who know maintain that the breed 
 of Reate is best: where breeding jacks have brought 
 thirty and even forty thousand sesterces ($i,8oo- 
 $2,000). 
 
 Jacks are bought like horses, with the same stipu- 
 lations and guarantees. We feed them principally 
 on hay and barley, increasing the ration at the breed- 
 ing season so as to infuse strength into their get by 
 means of their food. The breeding season is the 
 same as for horses, and, like them again, we have the 
 jack handled by a studgroom. 
 
 When a mare has dropped a mule colt or filly we 
 bring it up with care. Those which are bom in 
 marshy and swampy country have soft hoofs, but 
 if they are driven up into the mountain in summer, 
 as we do at Reate, their hoofs become hardened. 
 
 [246] 
 
ROMAxN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 In buying mules you must consider age and con- 
 formation, the one that they may be able to work 
 under a load, the other that the eye may have pleas- 
 ure in looking at them: for a team of two good mules 
 is capable of drawing any kind of a wagon on the 
 road. 
 
 You, my friend from Reate," Murrlus added, turn- 
 ing to me, " can vouch for what I have said, as you 
 yourself have herds of breeding mares at home and 
 have bred and sold many mules. 
 
 The get of a horse out of a she ass is called a hinny: 
 he is smaller in the body and usually redder in colour 
 than a mule, and has ears like a horse, but mane and 
 tail like an ass. Hinnies are carried by the dam 
 twelve months, like a horse, and, like the horse too, 
 they are raised and fed, and their age can be told by 
 their teeth." 
 
 Oj herd dogs 
 
 IX. "It remains," said Atticus, "to speak of the 
 last of the quadrupeds on our programme, that is to 
 say, of dogs, which are of the greatest importance 
 to us who feed the woolly flock, for the dog is the 
 guardian of such cattle as lack the means to defend 
 themselves, chiefly sheep and goats. For the wolf is 
 wont to lie in wait for them and we oppose our dogs 
 to him as defenders. Hogs can defend themselves, 
 
 [247I 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 as well pigs, boars, barrows and sows, for they are 
 near akin to the wild boar, which we know often 
 kills dogs in the woods, with their tusks. What 
 shall I say of large cattle? I know of an instance of 
 a herd of mules pastured together, which, when they 
 were attacked by a wolf, joined in forming a circle 
 about him and killed him with blows of their hoofs : 
 and again, bulls often stand together, rump to rump, 
 and drive off wolves with their horns. But of dogs 
 there are two kinds, hunting dogs, which are used 
 against wild beasts and game, and herd dogs, which 
 are used by the shepherd. I will discuss the latter 
 methodically, following Scrofa's nine heads. 
 
 Of the first importance is the choice of dogs of 
 suitable age, for puppies and old dogs cannot protect 
 themselves, much less the sheep, and so often become 
 themselves the prey of wild beasts. 
 
 In appearance they should be handsome, of good 
 size, with black or tawny eyes: a symmetrical nose: 
 lips blackish or ruddy, neither drawn back above nor 
 hanging underneath: a short muzzle, showing two 
 teeth on either side, those of the lower jaw projecting 
 a little, those above rather straight and not so ap- 
 parent, and the other teeth, which are covered by 
 the lips, very sharp: a large head, ears large and 
 turned over: a thick crest and neck: long joints: 
 straight legs, rather bowed than knock-kneed: feet 
 
 [248] 
 
ROiMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 large and well developed, so that in walking they 
 may spread out: toes slightly splayed: claws hard 
 and curved: the pad of the foot neither homy nor 
 hard, but as it were puffed and soft: short-coupled: 
 a back bone neither projecting nor roached: a heavy 
 tail: a deep bark, and wide gaping chops. The colour 
 to be preferred is white because it gives the dog a 
 lion like aspect in the dark.^ Finally, the females 
 should have large teats equally distributed. Care 
 should be taken that they are of good breed, such as 
 those called for their place of origin, Laconian, Epirot 
 and Sallentian. Be careful not to buy a sheep dog 
 from a professional hunter or a butcher, because 
 the one is apt to be lazy about following the flock, 
 while the other is more likely to make after a hare 
 or a deer which it might see, than to tend the sheep. 
 It is better either to buy, from a shepherd, dogs 
 which are accustomed to follow sheep or dogs which 
 are without any training at all. While a dog does 
 readily whatever he has been trained to do, his affec- 
 tion is apt to be stronger for the shepherds than for 
 the flock.2 
 
 ^ The breed of Maremma sheep dogs, still preferred in Italy, 
 is white. He is doubtless the descendant of the large woolly 
 "Spitz" or Pomeranian wolf dog which is figured on Etruscan 
 coins. 
 
 ^ In his essay, Notre ami U chien, Maeterlinck maintains elo- 
 quently that the dog alone among the domestic animals has 
 
 [249I 
 
ROMAxN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 Once P. Aufidius Pontianus of Amitemum bought 
 certain flocks of sheep in further Umbria, the dogs 
 which herded them being included in the bargain, 
 but not the shepherds, who were, however, to make 
 the delivery at the Saltus of Metapontum and the 
 market of Heraclea: when these shepherds had re- 
 turned home, their dogs, longing for their masters, 
 a few days later of their own will came back to the 
 shepherds in Umbria, having made several days 
 journey without other food than what the fields 
 afforded. Nor had any one of those shepherds done 
 what Saserna advises in his books on agriculture, 
 
 given his confidence and friendship to man. "We are alone, 
 absolutely alone, on this chance planet: and amid all the forms of 
 life that surround us not one excepting the dog has made alliance 
 with us. A few creatures fear us, most are unaware of us, and 
 not one loves us. In the world of plants, we have dumb and 
 motionless slaves: but they serve us in spite of themselves. . . . 
 The rose and the com, had they wings, would fly at our ap- 
 proach, like birds. Among the animals, we number a few serv- 
 ants who have submitted only through indifference, cowardice 
 or stupidity: the uncertain and craven horse, who responds only 
 to pain and is attached to nothing . . . the cow and the ox 
 happy so long as they are eating and docile because for centuries 
 they have not had a thought of their own. ... I do not speak 
 of the cat, to whom we are nothing more than a too large and 
 uneatable prey: the ferocious cat whose side long contempt 
 tolerates us only as encumbering parasites in our own homes. 
 She at least curses us in her mysterious heart: but all the others 
 live beside us as they might live beside a rock or a tree." 
 
 The effective use of this thesis in the scene of the revolt of 
 the domestic animals in the Blue Bird will be remembered. 
 
 [250] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 'Whoever wishes to be followed by a dog should 
 throw him a cooked frog.' * 
 
 It is of importance that all your dogs should be 
 of the same breed, for when they are related they are 
 of the greatest aid to one another. 
 
 Now as to Scrofa's fourth consideration, that con- 
 cerning the manner of buying: this is accomplished 
 by delivery by the former owner to the purchaser. 
 
 The same stipulations as to health and against 
 liability for tort are made as in the case of cattle, 
 leaving out whatever is inapplicable to dogs. Some 
 make a price on dogs at so much per head, others 
 stipulate that the puppies shall go with the mother, 
 others that two puppies shall count as one dog — as 
 two lambs usually count as a sheep. Usually it is 
 provided that all the dogs which have been accus- 
 tomed to be together should be included in the 
 bargain. 
 
 The food appropriate for dogs is more like that of 
 man than of sheep, for they are fed on scraps and 
 bones rather than on grass and leaves. Care must 
 be taken that they are fed regularly, for, if food is 
 not provided, hunger will lead them in search of it 
 away from the flock, unless, indeed, they shall find 
 
 ^This method of securing the faithful affection of a dog is 
 solemnly recommended, without acknowledgment to Saserna, 
 in the seventeenth century editions of the Maison Rustique 
 (I, 27). 
 
 [251] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 it in one another, thereby contradicting the old 
 proverb,^ or perchance they may realize the fable 
 of Actseon and turn their teeth against their master 
 himself. You would do well to feed them on barley 
 bread soaked in milk, because when they have become 
 accustomed to that diet they will not readily desert 
 the flock. They should never be suffered to taste the 
 flesh of a carrion sheep lest the relish should tempt 
 them to indulge in such food again. They may be 
 fed also broth made out of bones, or bones themselves 
 when broken up, for that makes their teeth stronger 
 and the mouth wider: and thereby the jaws are 
 stretched, while the zest of the marrow makes the 
 dog fiercer. They should be accustomed to take their 
 food in the day time where the flock is feeding and 
 at night where the flock is folded. 
 
 In the matter of breeding it is the practice to line 
 the bitch at the beginning of spring, for then she is 
 said to be in heat, that is to say, to show a readiness 
 for breeding. When they are lined at this season 
 they pup about the solstice, for they go three months. 
 While they are in pup they should be fed barley 
 bread rather than wheat bread, for it is more nourish- 
 ing and makes more milk. 
 
 * Keil happily points out that in his book on the Latin lan- 
 guage (VII, 31), Varro quotes the "ancient proverb" to which 
 he here refers, viz.: "canis caninam non est" dog doesn't eat 
 dog. 
 
 [252] 
 
ROMAN FARM MAxNAGEMENT 
 
 In the matter of bringing up the puppies after 
 birth: if there are many in the litter you should 
 choose those you wish to keep and destroy the others : 
 the fewer you keep the better they will be nourished, 
 for then their portion of the mother's milk will be 
 larger. 
 
 ChaflF or some thing else of that sort should be 
 
 spread under them, because the better they are 
 
 bedded the more easily they are brought up. Puppies 
 
 open their eyes twenty days after birth. ' During 
 
 the first two months they are not separated from 
 
 their mother, but wean themselves gradually. A 
 
 number of puppies should be kenneled together, 
 
 where they may be encouraged to fight, which will 
 
 make them fiercer, but they should never be suffered 
 
 to tire themselves since weariness develops cowardice. 
 
 They should also be accustomed to be tied, at first 
 
 with a light leash, and if they attempt to gnaw it 
 
 they should be punished by whipping, so that they 
 
 may not get the habit. On rainy days their kennels 
 
 should be bedded with leaves or grass, for two reasons : 
 
 that they may not soil themselves or suffer from cold. 
 
 Some castrate their puppies thinking them less 
 
 likely to leave the flock, but others do not, thinking 
 
 ^ Aristotle {H. A. VI, 20) says that puppies are blind from 
 twelve to seventeen days, depending upon the season of the year 
 at which they are born. Pliny {H. N. VIII, 62) says from seven 
 to twenty days, depending upon the supply of the mother's milk. 
 
 [253] 
 
ROMAN FARxM xMANAGEiMIiNT 
 
 that the operation makes them less fierce. Some 
 rub their ears and between their toes with a suffusion 
 of bitter almonds steeped in water because flies, 
 ticks and fleas usually develop sores in those parts, 
 unless it is your practice to so anoint them. To 
 protect them from wounds from wild beasts we place 
 collars on them, of the kind which we call melium, 
 which is a girth around the neck made from strong 
 leather studded with nails and lined with soft leather 
 to protect the neck from being chafed by the hard 
 iron heads of the nails: for if a wolf or other wild 
 beast is once wounded by these nails all the other 
 dogs are safe from his attack, even if they have no 
 collars. 
 
 The number of dogs to be kept is determined by 
 the size of the flock, usually one dog for every shep- 
 herd is considered enough, but the practice varies. 
 Thus there should be more in localities where wild 
 beasts are plentiful, and those increase the number 
 also who are wont to drive their flocks over the long 
 forest drift ways to their summer or their winter 
 feeding grounds. 
 
 But two dogs are enough for a flock kept on a 
 farm: in which case they should be male and female, 
 for they are more attached and, by emulation, fiercer, 
 and if one is sick for a protracted time the flock will 
 not be without a dog." 
 
 [254] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGKMENT 
 
 Here Atticus looked around as if to enquire whether 
 he had omitted any thing. 
 
 "This is the silence," said I, "which summons 
 another player on the boards. 
 
 Oj shepherds 
 
 X. "The rest of this act," I added, "relates to how 
 many and what kind of shepherds are necessary." 
 
 Cossinius took the cue. "For large cattle," he 
 said, "men of full age are required; for small cattle 
 boys will do: but in either case those who drive their 
 flocks and herds on the drift ways must be stouter 
 than those who remain on the farm and return to 
 the steading every day. 
 
 So in the wood pastures {salius) it behooves one to 
 have young men and usually armed men, while on 
 the farm boys or even girls may tend the flock. Those 
 who use the distant feeding grounds should require 
 their shepherds to feed their flocks together all day, 
 but at night to remain each one with his own flock. 
 They should all be under the supervision of one flock 
 master, who should be older and more experienced 
 than the others, because they will obey more cheer- 
 fully one who surpasses them in age and knowledge; 
 and yet the flock master should be of such years that 
 he may not be prevented by age from hard work: 
 for neither old men nor boys can endure the steeps 
 
 hssl 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 of the drift ways, nor the ardours and roughness of 
 the mountains, which must be suffered by those 
 who follow flocks, especially cattle and goats, to 
 whom the rocks and the forests are pleasant grazing 
 places. 
 
 So far as concerns the conformation of the men 
 chosen for these occupations, they should be strong 
 and swift and active, with ready limbs not only able 
 to follow the cattle but to defend them from the in- 
 cursions of wild beasts and of brigands: men who 
 can load the packs on the sumpter beasts: can run 
 and throw a javelin.^ 
 
 Every nation is not fit for tending cattle, especially 
 the Basculi and the Turduli [of Spain]. The Gauls 
 are the best of all, particularly for draught cattle. 
 
 In the matter of the purchase of shepherds, there 
 are six usual methods of obtaining lawful title to a 
 slave: (i) by inheritance, (2) by due form of mancipa- 
 tion, which is delivery of possession by one who has 
 the legal right, (3) by the legal process called sur- 
 render in court (cessio in jure) from one who has 
 that right, the transfer taking place where it should, 
 (4) by prescriptive use {usucapion), (5) by purchase 
 of a prisoner of war "under the crown" (6) by auc- 
 
 ^ It was among these hardy shepherd slaves that Spartacus 
 recruited his army in 72-71 B. C, as did Cselius and Milo in 
 48 B. C, while their descendants were the brigands who in- 
 fested Southern Italy even in the nineteenth century. 
 
 [256] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 tion at the distribution of some one's property by 
 order of court under the process known as bonorum 
 emptio.^ 
 
 The peculium or personal property of the slave 
 usually passes with him to a new master unless it is 
 specially excepted in the terms of sale: there is also 
 the usual guaranty as to the health of the slave and 
 that he has committed no theft or tort for which his 
 master is legally responsible, and, unless the pur- 
 chase is by mancipation, the bargain is bound by an 
 obligation of double indemnity, or in the amount of 
 the purchase price alone, if that is the agreement. 
 
 The shepherds should take their meals separately 
 during the day, each one with his flock, but in the 
 evening they should meet at a common supper under 
 the supervision of the flock master.* It should be 
 
 'Gaius, I, 119, II, 24, 41, describes in detail the processes 
 here referred to by which a slave was acquired under the Roman 
 law. 
 
 * Dennis, in his Cities and Cemeteries oj Etruria, draws a pic- 
 ture of modem Italy which may serve to illustrate Varro's 
 sketch of the mountain life of the shepherds of his day: 
 
 "Occasionally in my wanderings on this site (Veil) I have 
 entered, either from curiosity or for shelter, one of the capanne 
 scattered over the downs. These are tall conical thatched huts 
 which the shepherds make their winter abode. For in Italy, 
 the lowlands being generally unhealthy in summer, the flocks 
 are driven to the mountains about May, and as soon as the great 
 heats are past are brought back to the rich pastures of the 
 plains. It is a curious sight, the interior of a capanna, and affords 
 an agreeable diversity to the antiquity hunter. A little bold- 
 
 [257] 
 
ROMAN FARxM iMANAGEMENT 
 
 the duty of the flock master to see that every thing 
 is provided which may be required by the flock or 
 
 ness is requisite to pass through the pack of dogs, white as new 
 dropt lambs, but large and fierce as wolves, which, were the 
 shepherd not at hand, would tear in pieces whoever might ven- 
 ture to approach the hut: but with one of the pecoraj for a 
 Teucer, nothing is to be feared. The capanne are of various 
 sizes. One I entered not far from Veil was thirty or forty feet 
 in diameter and fully as high, propped in the centre by two rough 
 masts, between which a hole was left in the roof for the escape 
 of smoke. Within the door lay a large pile of lambs, there might 
 be a hundred, killed that morning and already flayed, and a 
 number of shepherds were busied in operating on the carcases 
 of others: all of which were to be dispatched forthwith to the 
 Roman market. Though a fierce May sun blazed without, a 
 huge fire roared in the middle of the hut: but this was for the 
 sake of the ricotta, which was being made in another part of 
 the capanna. Here stood a huge cauldron, full of boiling ewes' 
 milk. In a warm state this curd is a delicious jelly and has 
 often tempted me to enter a capanna in quest of it, to the amaze- 
 ment of the pecoraj, to whom it is vilior alga. Lord of the 
 cauldron, stood a man dispensing ladlefuls of the rich simmering 
 mess to his fellows, as they brought their bowls for their morn- 
 ing allowance: and he varied his occupation by pouring the 
 same into certain small baskets, the serous part running off 
 through the wicker and the residue caking as it cooled. On the 
 same board stood the cheeses, previously made from the cream. 
 In this hut lived twenty-five men, their nether limbs clad in 
 goat skins, with the hair outwards, realizing the satyrs of ancient 
 fable: but they had no nymphs to tease, nor shepherdesses to 
 woo, and never 
 
 'sat all day 
 
 Playing on pipes of com, and versing love 
 
 To amorous Phillida.' 
 
 They were a band of celibates without the vows. In such huts 
 they dwell all the year round, flaying lambs or shearing sheep, 
 
 [258] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 by the shepherds, chiefly the victuals for the men and 
 medicine for the flock: for which the master should 
 provide beasts of burden, either horses or some thing 
 else, which can carry a load on its back. 
 
 As to what relates to the breeding of shepherds, 
 it is easy, so far as concerns those who remain on 
 the farm all the time because they can have a fellow 
 servant to wife at the farmstead, for Venus Pastoralis 
 demands no more. Some hold that it is expedient 
 also to furnish women ^ for those who pasture the 
 flocks in the Saltus and the forests and have no resi- 
 dence but find their shelter from the rain under im- 
 provised sheds : that such women following the flocks 
 and preparing the food for the shepherds keep the 
 men better satisfied and more devoted to their duty. 
 But they must needs be strong though not deformed, 
 and not less capable of work then the men them- 
 selves, as they are in many localities and as may 
 be seen throughout lUyricum, where the women feed 
 the flocks or carry in wood for the fire and cook the 
 food, or keep watch over the household utensils in 
 their cottages. 
 
 living on bread, ricotta and water, very rarely tasting meat or 
 wine and sleeping on shelves ranged round the hut, like berths 
 in a ship's cabin. Thus are the dreams of Arcadia dispelled by 
 realities." 
 
 ^ In modem Italy the shepherds do not take their women 
 with them to the saltus, but, as Dennis says, lead there the life 
 of "celibates, without the vows." 
 
 [259] 
 
ROxVlAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 As to the method of raising their children, it suf- 
 fices to say that the shepherd women are usually 
 both mothers and nurses at the same time." 
 
 At this Cossinius looked at me and said: "I have 
 heard you relate that, when you were in Liburnia, 
 you saw women big with child bringing in fire wood 
 and at the same time carrying a nursing child, or 
 even two of them, thus putting to shame those slender 
 reeds, the women of our class, who are wont to lie 
 abed under mosquito bars for days at a time when 
 they are pregnant." 
 
 "That is true," I replied, "and the contrast is 
 even more marked in lUyricum, where it often hap- 
 pens that a pregnant woman whose time has come 
 will leave her work for a little while and return with 
 a new born child which you would think she had 
 found rather than borne.^ 
 
 Not only this, the custom of that country permits 
 the girls as much as twenty years of age, whom they 
 call virgins, to go about unprotected and to give 
 themselves to whomever they wish and to have 
 children before marriage." 
 
 * In the Venitian provinces of Italy today the women are 
 still seen at work in the harvest and rice fields with their babes 
 in their bosoms : but the most amazing modern spectacle of this 
 kind is that of women coaling ships in the East, carrying their 
 unhappy youngsters up and down the coal ladders throughout 
 the work. 
 
 [260] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGKMENT 
 
 "As to what pertains to the health of man and 
 beast," resumed Cossinius, "and the leech craft 
 which may be practised without the aid of a physi- 
 cian, the flock master should have the rules written 
 down: indeed, the flock master must have some edu- 
 cation, otherwise he can never keep his flock accounts 
 properly.^ 
 
 As to the number of shepherds, some make a nar- 
 row, some a broad, allowance. I have one shepherd 
 for every eighty long wool sheep: Atticus here has 
 one for every hundred. One can reduce the number 
 of men required in respect of large flocks (like those 
 containing a thousand head or more) much more 
 readily than in respect of comparatively small flocks, 
 like Atticus' and mine, for I have only seven hundred 
 head of sheep, and you, Atticus, have, I believe, 
 eight hundred, though we are alike in providing a 
 ram for every ten ewes. Two men are required to 
 care for a herd of fifty mares : and each of them should 
 have a mare broken for riding to serve as a mount in 
 those localities where it is the custom to drive the 
 
 * The author of Maison Rustique did not agree with Varro in 
 this opinion. I quote from Surflet's translation of 1606 (I, 7) : 
 
 "And for writing and reading it skilleth not whether he be 
 able to doe it or no, or that he should have any other charge 
 to looke unto besides that of yours, or else that he should use 
 another to set downe in writing such expences as he hath laid 
 out: for paper will admit any thing." 
 
 [261] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 mares to pasture, as often happens in Apulia and 
 Lucania." 
 
 Of milk and cheese and wool 
 
 XI. "And now that we have fulfilled our promise, 
 let us go," said Cossinius. 
 
 "Not until you have added some thing," I cried, 
 "concerning that supplemental profit from cattle 
 which was promised; namely, of milk and cheese and 
 the shearing of wool." 
 
 So Cossinius resumed: 
 
 " Ewes' milk, and, after it, goats' milk, is the most 
 nourishing of all liquids which we drink. As a purga- 
 tive, mares' milk ranks first, and, after it, in order, 
 asses' milk, cows' milk and goats' milk, but the 
 quality depends upon what has been fed to the cattle, 
 upon the condition of the cattle, and upon when it is 
 milked. 
 
 So far as concerns the food of the cattle, milk is 
 nourishing which is made from barley and stover and 
 other such kinds of dry and hard cattle food. 
 
 So far as concerns its purgative qualities, milk 
 is good when made from green stuff, especially 
 if it is grass containing plants which, taken by 
 themselves, have a purgative effect upon the human 
 body. 
 
 So far as concerns the condition of the cattle, 
 
 [262] 
 
ivOAlAN FARM ^MANAGEMENT 
 
 that milk is best which comes from cattle in vigorous 
 health and from those still young. 
 
 So far as concerns the time of milking, that milk 
 is best which comes neither from a 'stripper' nor 
 from a recently fresh dam. 
 
 The cheese made of cows' milk is the most agree- 
 able to the taste but the most difficult to digest: 
 next, that of ewes' milk, while the least agreeable in 
 taste, but the most easily digested, is that of goats' 
 milk. 
 
 There is also a distinction between cheese when it 
 is soft and new made and when it is dry and old, for 
 when it is soft it is more nourishing and digestible, 
 but the opposite is true of old and dry cheese. 
 
 The custom is to make cheese from the rising of 
 the Pleiades in spring to their rising in summer, and 
 yet the rule is not invariable, because of diflFerence 
 in locality and the supply of forage. 
 
 The practice is to add a quantity of rennet, equal 
 to the size of an olive, to two congii of milk to make it 
 curdle. The rennet taken from the stomachs of the 
 hare and the kid is better than that from lambs, 
 but some use as a ferment the milk of the fig tree 
 mixed with vinegar, and some times sprinkled with 
 other vegetable products. In parts of Greece this is 
 called oiro^, elsewhere gofpuos." 
 
 "I am prepared to believe," I said, "that the fig 
 
 [263] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENl 
 
 tree standing beside the chapel of the goddess Ru- 
 mina ^ was planted by shepherds for the purpose 
 you mention, for there is it the practice to make 
 libations of milk rather than of wine or to sacrifice 
 suckling pigs. For men used to use the word rumis 
 or Tuma where we now say mamma, signifying a 
 teat: hence even now suckling lambs are called sub- 
 rumi from the teat they suck, just as we call suckling 
 pigs lactantes from lac, the milk that comes from the 
 teat." 
 
 Cossinius resumed: 
 
 "If you sprinkle your cheese with salt it is better 
 to use the mineral than the marine kind. 
 
 Concerning the shearing of sheep, the first thing 
 to be looked into before you begin is that the sheep 
 are not suffering from scab or sores, as it is better to 
 wait, if necessary, until they are cured before shearing. 
 
 The time to shear is between the vernal equinox 
 and the summer solstice, when the sheep begin to 
 sweat (it is the sweat which gives new clipped wool 
 its name sucidd). As soon as the sheep are sheared 
 they are smeared with a mixture* of wine and oil, 
 
 * This temple and fig tree stood in Rome at the foot of the 
 Palatine hill, in the neighbourhood of the Lupercal. It was 
 under this fig tree that Romulus and Remus were supposed to 
 have been suckled by the wolf. 
 
 * "That is the beste grease that is to a shepe, to grease hym in 
 the mouthe with good meate,' says Sir Anthony Fitzherbert. 
 
 [264] 
 
ROMAxX FARM MANAGKMENT 
 
 some add white wax and hogs' grease. If they are 
 sheep which are kept blanketed, the inside of the 
 blanket should be anointed with this mixture before 
 it is put on again. 
 
 If the sheep has suffered any wound during the 
 shearing, it should be treated with liquid tar. 
 
 Long wool sheep are usually sheared about the 
 time of the barley harvest: in some places before the 
 hay harvest. 
 
 Some men shear their sheep twice a year, as in 
 hither Spain, investing double work because they 
 think they get more wool, just as some men mow their 
 meadows twice a year. Careful shepherds are wont 
 to shear on a mat so as not to lose any of the wool. 
 A clear day should be chosen for the shearing and 
 it is usually done between the fourth and the tenth 
 hours (lo a. m.-4 p. m.) since wool sheared in the 
 hot sun is softer, heavier and of better colour by rea- 
 son of the sweat of the sheep. Wool which has been 
 collected and packed in bags is called vellera or 
 velamina, words derived from vellere, to pull, whence 
 it may be concluded that the practice of pulling wool 
 is older than shearing. Those who pull the wool 
 today make a practice of starving their sheep for 
 three days before, because when they are weak the 
 wool 5nelds more readily." 
 
 "Speaking of shearing," I said, "it is reported that 
 
 [265] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 the first barbers were brought into Italy from Sicily 
 in the year 453 after the foundation of Rome (B. C. 
 300) by P. Ticinius Menas, as appears from the in- 
 scription in the public square of Ardea. The statues 
 of the ancients show that formerly there were no 
 barbers because most of them have long hair and a 
 heavy beard." ^ 
 
 Cossinius resumed: 
 
 "As the wool of the sheep serves to make clothes, 
 so the hair of goats is employed: on ships, in making 
 ntiilitary engines and certain implements of industry. 
 Certain nations, indeed, are clad in goat skins, as 
 in Gsetulia and Sardinia. Their use for this purpose 
 by the ancient Greeks is apparent, because old men 
 in the tragedies are called SuftBepicu, from the fact 
 that they were clad in goat skins: and it is the cus- 
 tom also in our comedies to dress rustic characters 
 in goat skins, like the youth in the Hypobolimaus 
 (the Counterfeit) of Caecilius, and the old man in the 
 Heautontimorumenos (the Self Tormentor) of Terence. 
 
 It is the practice to shear goats in the greater part 
 of Phrygia because there the goats have heavy coats, 
 of which cilicia (so called because the practice of 
 
 * Pliny (VII, 59) says that most nations learn the use of bar- 
 bers nejct after that of letters, but that the Romans were late 
 in this respect. Varro himself wore a beard, as appears on the 
 coin he struck during the war with the Pirates. It is reproduced 
 in Smiths Diet. Gr. and Rom. Biog., Ill, p. 1227. 
 
 [266I 
 
ROMAN FAPvM MAiXAGEMENT 
 
 shearing goats began in the city of that name) and 
 other hair cloth materials of that kind are made." 
 
 With this Cossinius stopped, and, while he was 
 waiting for criticism of what he had said, Vitulus' 
 freedman, coming into town from the gardens [of 
 his master] turned to us and said, "I was on my way 
 to your house to invite you to come early so as not 
 to shorten the holiday." 
 
 And so, my dear Turranius Niger, we separated: 
 Scrofa and I going to the gardens of Vitulus; the 
 others, some home and some to see Menas. 
 
 [267! 
 
BOOK III 
 
 THE HUSBANDRY OF THE STEADING 
 
 Introduction: the antiquity of country life 
 I 
 j|HERE are two modes of human life, 
 
 Tmy dear Pinnius, which are manifestly 
 as different in the time of their origin 
 as they are in their habitat, that of the 
 country and that of the town. Country 
 
 \^(mm^ 
 
 life is much the more ancient, for time was when 
 men lived altogether in the country and had no 
 towns: indeed, the oldest town in Greece, according 
 to the tradition, is the Boeotian Thebes, which was 
 founded by King Ogyges, and in our own land that 
 of Rome, founded by King Romulus (of which now it 
 may be affirmed with confidence, as was not possible 
 when Ennius wrote: 
 
 " Tis seven hundred years, or more or less, 
 Since first illustrious Rome began her sway, 
 With hallowed augury.") 
 
 Now, if it is admitted that Thebes was founded 
 before the deluge, which is known by Ogyges' name, 
 its age is not more than about twenty-one hundred 
 years: and if that period is compared with the lapse 
 of time since men began to cultivate the land and to 
 
 [269] 
 
ROMAX FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 live in huts and hovels, knowing naught of city walls 
 and gates, it is evident that life in the country pre- 
 ceded life in town by a tale of immemorial years. 
 Nor is this to be wondered at since 'God made the 
 country and man made the town.' ^ While the tra- 
 dition is that all the arts were invented in Greece 
 within a thousand years, there never was a time 
 when the earth could not be cultivated. And, as 
 life in the country is the more ancient, so it is the 
 better life: for it was not without good reason that 
 our ancestors were wont to plant colonies of citizens 
 in the country, because by them they were both fed 
 in times of peace and protected in times of war: nor 
 was it without significance that they called both the 
 Earth and Ceres by the common name of Mother 
 and esteemed that those who worshipped her lead a 
 life at once pious and useful and were the sole repre- 
 sentatives left on earth of the race of Saturn. A proof 
 of this is that the mysteries peculiar to the cult of 
 Ceres were called Initia, the very name indicating 
 that they related to the beginning of things. 
 A further proof that country life was earlier than 
 
 ' Cowper's verse in The Task seems to be all that is happy in 
 the way of translation of Varro's text, " divina natura dedit agros, 
 ars humana sedificavit urbes": but Cowley's "God the first 
 garden made, and the first city Cain" was probably Cowper's 
 source. Cowley was a reader of Varro, as his pleasant and sane 
 essay Of Agriculture shows. 
 
 [270] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGKiMENT 
 
 that of town is found in the name of the town of 
 Thebes, which was bestowed from the character of 
 its situation rather than from the name of its founder: 
 for in the ancient language, and among the iEolians 
 who had their origin in Boeotia, a small hill is called 
 tebas without the aspirate; and in the Sabine country, 
 where Pelasgians from Greece settled, they still have 
 the same locution : witness that hill called Tebae which 
 stands in the Sabine country on the via Salaria not 
 far from the mile stone of Reate. At first agriculture 
 was conducted on so small a scale that it had little 
 distinction, since those who followed it, being sprung 
 from shepherds, at once sowed their corn and pas- 
 tured their flocks on the same land, but as later this 
 art grew in importance the husbandry of live stock 
 was separated, and it befel that some men were called 
 farmers and others shepherds. 
 
 The art of feeding live stock should really be di- 
 vided into two branches, as is not yet fully appre- 
 ciated, one relating to the stock kept at the steading, 
 the other to the stock pastured in the fields. The 
 latter, which is designated by the name pecuaria, is 
 well known and highly esteemed so that rich men, 
 either lease or buy much pasture land in order to 
 carry it on: the other, which is known as villatice, 
 has, because it seemed to be of less importance, been 
 treated by some as an incident of the husbandry of 
 
 [271] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANACJKMENT 
 
 agriculture, when in fact it should be made a part of 
 the husbandry of live stock: nor has it been de- 
 scribed separately and at length by any one, so far 
 as I know. 
 
 And so, as I think that there are three branches of 
 farm management which are undertaken for profit, 
 namely: agriculture, live stock and the industries 
 peculiar to the steading, I have planned three books, 
 of which I have already written two, the first con- 
 cerning the husbandry of agriculture, which I dedi- 
 cated to my wife Fundania, and the second concern- 
 ing the husbandry of live stock to Turranius Niger: 
 the third, relating to the profits of those industries 
 which are carried on at the steading, I now send 
 herewith to you ; for the fact that we are neighbours 
 and entertain a mutual affection seems to demand 
 that it should be dedicated to you above all others. 
 
 Although you have a villa, which is remarkable 
 for the beauty of its workmanship within and with- 
 out, and for the splendour of its mosaic pavements, 
 still you deem it to be bare unless you have the walls 
 decorated also with books: so in like manner that 
 your villa may be more distinguished by the profits 
 you derive from it than by the character of its con- 
 struction, and that I may be of assistance to that 
 end, so far as may be, I have sent you this book, 
 which is a summary of some conversations which we 
 
 [272] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGExMENT 
 
 have had on the subject of what makes the perfectly 
 equipped villa: and so I begin as follows: 
 
 Of the definition of a Roman villa 
 
 II. The Senator Q. Axius, my fellow tribesman, 
 and I had cast our votes at the comitia for the elec- 
 tion of sediles, and, although it was the heat of the 
 day, we wished to be on hand when the candidate 
 whom we were supporting should go home. So Axius 
 said to me: "What would you think of taking shelter 
 in the villa publica * while the votes are being sorted 
 rather than in the booth of our candidate." " I hold," 
 said I, "not only with the proverb that bad advice 
 is worst for him who gives it, but that good advice is 
 good for both the giver and the taker." 
 
 And so we made our way to the villa publica, where 
 we found Appius Claudius,* the Augur, seated on a 
 bench waiting for any call for his services by the 
 Consul : on his left was Cornelius Merula (black-bird) 
 
 ' Following the precedent of the first and second books in the 
 matter of local colour, the scene of this third book, relating to 
 villas and the "small deer," which were there reared, is laid 
 in the villa publica at Rome, and the characters of the dialogue 
 are selected for the suggestion which their names may make of 
 the denizens of the aviary, the bam yard and the bee-stand. 
 
 'This Appius Claudius Pulcher served in Asia under his 
 brother-in-law LucuUus, was Augur in B. C. 59, Consul in S4 
 and Censor in 50. He wrote a book on augural law and the 
 habits of birds at which Cicero poked some rather mean fun. 
 He fixes the date of the dialogue. 
 
 [273] 
 
ROMAN i'ARM xMAiNAGEMIlNT 
 
 of the Consular family of that name, and Fircellius 
 Pavo (pea-cock) of Reate, and on his right Minutius 
 Pica (mag-pie) and M. Petronius Passer (sparrow). 
 When we had approached them Axius, smiling, said 
 to Appius: "May we come into your aviary where 
 you are sitting among the birds?" 
 
 "By all means," repHed Appius, "and especially 
 you who set before me such birds as still make my 
 mouth water, when I was your guest a few days ago 
 at your Reatine villa on my way to lake Velinus 
 to settle the controversy between the people of 
 Interamna and Reate.^ 
 
 * In Varro's time, as today, the river Velinus drained the 
 fresh pastures of the Umbrian prairie of Rosea, "the nurse of 
 Italy," which lay below the town of Reate (the modern Rieti), 
 and was originally the bed of a lake. Its waters are so strongly 
 impregnated with carbonate of lime that by their deposit of 
 travertine they tend to block their own channel. The drainage 
 of Rosea has, therefore, always been a matter of concern to the 
 live stock industry of Reate, and in B. C. 272 M. Curius Denr 
 tatus opened the first of several successful artificial canals 
 (the last dating from the sixteenth century, A. D.), which still 
 serve to lead the Velinus into the Nar at the renowned Cascate 
 delle Marmore. For two hundred years the people of Interamna 
 (the modem Terni) had complained that their situation below 
 the falls was endangered by Curius' canal, and finally in B. C. 
 54 the Roman Senate appointed the commission to which Ap- 
 pius Claudius refers in the text, to hear the controversy. Cicero 
 was retained as counsel for the people of Reate, and during the 
 hearing stopped, as Appius Claudius did, with our friend Azius 
 at his Reatine villa, and wrote about the visit to the same At- 
 ticus whom we met in Varro's second book, as follows {ad Atti- 
 
 [274] 
 
ROM \N FARM MANAGL^MENT 
 
 But," he added, "is not this villa, which our an- 
 cestors constructed, simpler and so better than that 
 elaborate one of yours at Reate: do you see any where 
 here any furniture of citrus wood or ormolu, any 
 decorations of vermillion or blue, any tessellations or 
 mosaic work, all of which on the other hand were 
 displayed in your house? And while this is open to 
 the entire people, yours is available to you alone: 
 this is the resort for the citizens after the comitia 
 in the Campus Martins, and for all alike, while yours 
 is- reserved for mares and asses. And furthermore 
 it should be considered that this building is useful 
 in carrying on the public business, for here the consuls 
 review the army on parade, here the arms are in- 
 spected, here the censors enumerate the people." 
 
 "Tell me," retorted Axius, "which is useful, this 
 
 cum, IV, 15): "After this was over the people of Reate sum- 
 moned me to their Tempe to plead their cause against the people 
 of Interamna, before the Consul and ten commissioners, the 
 question being concerning the Veline lake, which, drained by 
 M. Curius by means of a channel cut through the mountain, now 
 flows into the Nar: by this means the famous Rosea has been 
 reclaimed from the swamp, though still fairly moist. I stopped 
 with Axius, who took me also to visit the Seven Waters." What 
 was once deemed a danger is a double source of profit to the 
 modem folk of Interamna. Tourists today crowd to see the 
 same waterfall which Cicero visited, taking a tram from the 
 busy little industrial town of Temi: and the waters which flow 
 from Velinus now serve to generate power with which armour 
 plates are manufactured for the Italian navy on the site of the 
 ancient Interamna. 
 
 [275] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 villa of yours giving on the Campus Martius, more 
 extravagantly arrayed with objects of art than all 
 Reate put together, so bedizened is it with pictures 
 and garnished with statues, or mine where there is 
 no trace of the artists Lysippus or Antiphilus, but 
 there are many of the farm hand and the shepherd? 
 And since there can be no villa where there is no 
 farm and that well cultivated, how can you call this 
 house of yours a villa which has no land appurtenant 
 to it and no cattle or horses ? Again, tell me, pray, 
 how does your villa compare with that of your grand- 
 father and great grandfather, for one cannot see at 
 yours, as one could always see at theirs, cured hay 
 in the mows, the vintage in the cellar, and the harvest 
 in the granary? Because, forsooth, a house is situ- 
 ated out of town, it is no more a villa for that reason 
 than the houses of those who dwell beyond the Porta 
 Flumentaria or in the ^miliana suburb," 
 
 "Since it appears that I do not know what a 
 villa is," replied Appius, smiling, "I wish you would 
 be good enough to instruct me, so that I may not 
 make a fool of myself, as I am planning to buy from 
 M. Seius his villa at Ostia: for if a mere house is not 
 a villa unless it is equipped with a jackass costing forty 
 thousand sesterces (^2,000), like that you showed 
 me at your place, I fear that I would be making a 
 mistake in buying Seius' house on the shore at Ostia 
 
 [276] 
 
ROMAiNf FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 in the belief that it is a villa. But it was our friend 
 Merula here who put me in mind of buying this 
 house, for he told me that he had spent several days 
 there and that he had never seen a more delightful 
 villa, and yet he saw there no paintings, nor any 
 bronze or marble statues, neither did he see any wine 
 press, or oil mill, or oil jars." 
 
 "And what kind of a villa is this," said Axius, 
 turning to Merula, "where there are neither the 
 ornaments of a town house nor the utensils of a 
 farm?" 
 
 "Do you consider," said Merula, "that your house 
 on the bank of Velinus, which neither painter nor 
 architect has ever seen, is any less a villa than the 
 one you have in Rosea so elegantly decorated with 
 the work of an architect and which you share with 
 your famous jackass?" 
 
 Axius admitted, with a nod, that a simple farm 
 house was as much entitled to be called a villa as 
 any house which united the characteristics of both 
 town and country, and asked what he deduced from 
 this. 
 
 "What?" said Merula. "Why, if your estate in 
 Rosea is to be approved by reason of the husbandry 
 which you carry on, and is properly called a villa 
 because there cattle are fed and stabled, then, by 
 the same reasoning, all those houses should be called 
 
 [277] 
 
ROMAiN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 villas in which large profits are derived from hus- 
 bandry: for what difference does it make whether 
 you derive your profit from sheep or from birds ? Is 
 the income any sweeter which comes from cattle, 
 in which bees are generated, than from the bees them- 
 selves, such as work in their hives at the villa of Seius ? 
 Do you sell to the butcher the hogs which you raise 
 at your farm for more than Seius sells his wild boars 
 to the meat market?" 
 
 "Am I any less able," replied Axius, "to have these 
 things at my farm at Reate: is Sicilian honey made 
 at Seius' place and only Corsican honey at Reate,' 
 and does the mast which he buys for his wild boars 
 make them fat while that which I get for nothing 
 from my woods makes mine lean?" 
 
 "But," said Appius, "Merula does not deny that 
 you can carry on at your villa the kind of husbandry 
 which Seius does at his, yet I myself have seen that 
 you don't. 
 
 For there are two kinds of husbandry of live stock : 
 one in the fields, as of cattle; and the other at the 
 steading, as of chickens and pigeons and bees and 
 other such things which are usually kept at a villa. 
 
 ' Sicilian honey was famous for its flavour because of the bee 
 pasture of thyme which there abounded, especially at Hybla. 
 Theophrastus (H. P. Ill, 15, 5) explains that the honey of 
 Corsica had an acrid taste, because the bees pastured there 
 largely on box trees. 
 
 [278] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 About the latter, Mago the Carthaginian, and Cassius 
 Dionysius and others have treated specially in dif- 
 ferent parts of their books, and it would seem that 
 Seius has read their precepts and so has learned how 
 to make more profit from his villa alone by such hus- 
 bandry than others make out of an entire farm." 
 
 "Certainly," agreed Merula, "for I have seen there 
 great flocks of geese, chickens, pigeons, cranes and 
 pea-cocks: also dormice, fish, wild boars and other 
 such game.^ The freedman who keeps his books 
 which Varro has seen, assured me when he was doing 
 the honours in the absence of his master, that Seius 
 derives an income of more than fifty thousand ses- 
 terces (^2,500) per annum from his villa." 
 
 As Axius seemed astonished, I asked him: "Surely 
 
 you know the estate of my aunt in the Sabine coun- 
 
 ^ These denizens of the Roman villa are all enumerated by 
 Martial in his delightful verses (III, 38) upon Faustinus' villa 
 at Bais. The picture of the bam yard is very true to life in all 
 ages, especially the touch of the hungry pigs sniffing after the 
 pail of the farmer's wife: 
 
 "Vagatur omnis turba sordids cortis 
 Argutus anser, gemmeique pavones 
 Nomenque debet qux rubentibus pennis, 
 Et picta perdix, Numidicseque guttatae 
 £t impiorum phasiana Colchorum. 
 Rhodias superbi feminas prement galli 
 Sonantque turres plausibus columbarum, 
 Gemit hinc palumbus, inde cereus turtur 
 Avidi sequuntur villicx sinum porci: 
 Matremque plenam mollis agnus exspectat." 
 
 [279] 
 
ROMAN I'ARxM iVIANAGEiMENT 
 
 try which is at the twenty-fourth mile stone from 
 Rome on the via Salaria." 
 
 "Of course, I do," Axius replied, "for it is there 
 that I am wont to divide the day in summer on my 
 way from Reate to town and to spend the night when 
 I come thence in winter." 
 
 "Well," I continued, "in that villa there is an 
 aviary from which I know that there were taken in 
 one season five thousand thrushes, which, at three 
 deniers apiece, means that that department of the 
 establishment brought in a revenue of sixty thousand 
 sesterces that year, or twice the yield of the entire 
 two hundred jugera of your farm at Reate." ' 
 
 "What, sixty thousand," exclaimed Axius, "sixty 
 thousand: you are making game of me!" 
 
 "Sixty thousand," I affirmed, "but in order that 
 you might realize such a lucky throw you will require 
 either a public banquet or a triumph on the scale of 
 that of Scipio Metellus, or club dinners, which indeed 
 
 * The sestertius was one quarter of a dertarius, or, say, the 
 equivalent of five cents. It was also called nummus, as we say 
 " nickel." The ordinary unit used by the Romans in reckoning 
 considerable sums of money was i,ooo sesterces, which may 
 accordingly be translated as the equivalent of (say) $50. Axius' 
 jackass thus cost $2,000, while Seius' income from his villa 
 was $2,500 per annum, that of Varro's aunt from her aviary 
 was $3,000, and that of Axius from his farm $1,500. Cicero 
 records that Axius was a money lender, which explains the 
 fun here made of his avarice. 
 
 [280] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGICMENT 
 
 have now become so frequent as to raise the price 
 of provisions of the market." 
 
 "You will perchance expect this return every year," 
 said Merula, "so I trust that your aviary may not 
 lead you into a loss. But surely in such good times 
 as these it could not happen that you would fail, 
 except rarely, for what year is there that does not see 
 such a feast or a triumph, or clnb dinners, such as now- 
 a-days consume victuals without number. Nay," 
 he added, " it seems that in our habit of luxury such 
 a public banquet is a daily occurrence within the 
 gates of Rome.* 
 
 To supplement the examples of such profits : L. Al- 
 butius, a learned man and, as you know, the author 
 of certain satires in the manner of Lucilius, has 
 said that the returns from feeding live stock on his 
 Alban farm are always less than his income from 
 his villa, for the farm yields less than ten thousand 
 sesterces and the villa more than twenty. He even 
 maintains that if he should establish a villa near 
 the sea in such a place as he might choose he could 
 derive from it an income of more than a hundred 
 thousand sesterces. Did not M. Cato recently sell 
 
 ' Columella, writing about one hundred years after Varro, 
 refers to this passage and says that luxury had so developed 
 since Varro's time that it no longer required an extraordinary 
 occasion, like a triumph, to bring the price of thrushes to three 
 denarii a piece, but that that had become a current quotation. 
 
 [281] 
 
ROMAxN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 forty thousand sesterces worth of fishes from the 
 fish ponds of Lucullus after he had accepted the 
 administration of his estate?" 
 
 "My dear Merula," exclaimed Axius, "take me, 
 I beg of you, as your pupil in the art of the husbandry 
 of the steading." 
 
 "I will begin," replied Merula, "as soon as you 
 promise me a minervalin the form of a dinner." ^ 
 
 "You shall have it," said Axius, "both today, and 
 hereafter as well, off those delicacies you will teach 
 me to rear." 
 
 "I fear," replied Merula, "that what you may 
 oifer me at the beginning of your experience with 
 villa feeding will be dead geese or deceased pea- 
 cocks." 
 
 "And what difference will it make to you," retorted 
 Axius, "if I do serve you fish or fowl which has come 
 to an untimely end: for in no event could you eat 
 them unless they were dead: but I beg you," he 
 added, "matriculate me in the school of villa hus- 
 bandry and expound to me the theory and the prac- 
 tice of it." 
 
 Merula accepted the invitation cheerfully. 
 
 ^ A minerval was the fee (of Minerva) paid to a school teacher. 
 
 [282] 
 
ROMAxN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 Of the Roman development of the industries of the 
 
 steading 
 
 III. "In the first place," he said, "you should 
 know what kind of creatures you may raise or feed 
 in or about a villa, either for your profit or for your 
 pleasure. There are three divisions for this study: 
 poultry houses, warrens and fish ponds. 
 
 I include under the head of poultry houses the 
 feeding of all kinds of fowls which are usually kept 
 within the walls of a steading: under the head of 
 warrens not merely what our great grandfathers 
 meant — ^places where rabbits were usually kept — 
 but any enclosure adjoining a villa in which game 
 animals are enclosed to be fed. In like manner I 
 include under the head of fish ponds all those places 
 in which fish are kept at a villa either in fresh or salt 
 water. 
 
 Each of these divisions may be separated into at 
 least two parts: thus the first, that with respect to 
 poultry houses, should be treated with reference to a 
 classification of fowls as between those which are 
 content on land alone, such as pea-cocks, turtle 
 doves, thrushes; and those which require access to 
 water as well as land, such as geese, widgeons and 
 ducks. So the second division, that relating to game, 
 has two diflPerent classifications: one which includes 
 
 1 283] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 the wild boar, the roe buck and hares; the other 
 bees, snails and dormice. 
 
 The third, or aquatic division, likewise has two 
 classifications, one including fresh water fish, the 
 other salt water fish. 
 
 In order to secure and maintain a supply of these 
 six classes of stock it is necessary to provide a force 
 of three kinds of artificers, namely: fowlers, hunters 
 and fishermen, or else you may buy breeding stock 
 from such men, and trust to the diligence of your 
 servants to rear and fatten their offspring until they 
 are ready for market. Certain of them, such as 
 dormice, snails and chickens, may, however, be ob- 
 tained without the aid of a hunter's net, and doubt- 
 less the business of keeping them began with the 
 stock native to every farm: for the breeding even of 
 chickens has not been a monopoly of the Roman 
 augurs, to make provision for their auspices, but has 
 been practised by all farmers from the beginning of 
 time.' From such a start in the kind of husbandry 
 we are now discussing, the next step was to provide 
 masonry enclosures near the steading to confine game, 
 and these served as well for shelter for the bee-stand, 
 for originally the bees were wont to make their hives 
 under the eaves of the farm house itself. 
 
 ' The inventor of the auspices ex tripudiis or the feeding of 
 chickens was evidently an ingenious poultry fancier who suc- 
 ceeded in securing the care of his favourites at the public charge. 
 
 [284] 
 
ROMAN FARM .MANAGEMENT 
 
 The third division, that of keeping fish, had its 
 origin in simple fresh water ponds in which fish 
 taken in the streams were kept. 
 
 There have been two steps in the development of 
 each of these three conveniences; the earlier distin- 
 guished by the ancient simplicity, the later by our 
 modem luxury. The earlier stage was that of our 
 ancestors, who had but two places for keeping poul- 
 try: one the court yard of the steading in which 
 chickens were fed and their profit derived from eggs 
 and pullets, the other above ground, for their pigeons 
 were kept in the dormers or on the roof of the farm 
 house. 
 
 Now-a-days, on the contrary, what our ancestors 
 called hen-houses are known as ornithoneSy and serve 
 to house thrushes and pea-cocks to cater to the deli- 
 cate appetite of the master: and indeed such struc- 
 tures now have larger roofs than formerly sufficed 
 to cover an entire farm house. 
 
 Such has been the progress in respect of warrens 
 also: your father, Axius, never saw any game but 
 rabbits, nor did there exist in his time any such ex- 
 tensive enclosures as now are made, many jugera in 
 extent, to hold wild boars and roe bucks. You can 
 witness," he said, turning to me, "that you found 
 many wild boars in the warren of your farm at Tus- 
 culum, when you bought it from M. Piso. 
 
 [285] 
 
ROMAN hARM M ANAGJai i',N i 
 
 In respect of the third class, who was there who 
 used to have any kind of a fish pond, except of fresh 
 water, stocked merely with cat fish and mullets, 
 while today our elegants declare that they would 
 as soon have a pond stocked with frogs as with those 
 fish I have named. You will recall the story of 
 Philippus when he was entertained at Casinum by 
 Un^midius: a pickerel caught in your river, Varro, 
 was put before him, he tasted it and forthwith spat 
 it out, exclaiming "May I perish, but I thought it 
 was fish!" 1 
 
 As the luxury of this age has enlarged our war- 
 rens, so has it carried our fish ponds even to the sea 
 itself and has herded shoals of sea fish into them. 
 Have not Sergius Grata (goldfish) and Licinius 
 Murena (lamprey) taken their cognomens from fishes 
 for this reason? And who does not know the fame 
 of the fish ponds of Philippus, of Hortensius, and of 
 the brothers LucuUus? 
 
 Where, then, Axius, do you wish me to begin?" 
 
 Of aviaries 
 rV. "I prefer," replied Axius, "that you should 
 
 'This was L. Marcius Philippus, the orator mentioned by 
 Horace {Epist. I, 7, 46), who was Consul in B. C. 91, and was 
 celebrated for his luxurious habits, which his wealth enabled 
 him to gratify. His son married the widow of C. Octavius and 
 so became the step-father of the Emperor Augustus. 
 
 [286] 
 
ROM AX I- ARM MAXACaMBNf 
 
 begin with the sequel — postprincipia, as they say in 
 the camps — that is, with the present day rather than 
 with the past, because the profits from pea-cocks are 
 greater than those from hens. I will not dissemble 
 that I wish to hear first of omithones because the 
 thrushes which are kept in them make the very 
 name sound like money: indeed, the 60,000 sesterces 
 of Fircelina have consumed me with avarice." 
 
 "There are two kinds of omithones" replied 
 Merula; "one for pleasure, like that so much admired 
 which our friend Varro here has at his villa near 
 Casinum: the other for profit, such as are maintained 
 commercially, some even indoors in town, but chiefly 
 in the Sabine country which abounds in thrushes. 
 There is a third kind, consisting of a combination 
 of the two I have mentioned, such as LucuUus main- 
 tained at his Tusculan villa, where he contrived a 
 dining room under the same roof as his aviary to 
 the end that he might feast delicately, satisfying two 
 senses, now by eating the birds cooked and spread 
 on a platter, now by seeing them flying about the 
 windows: but the truth is that he was disappointed, 
 for the eyes did not take as much pleasure from the 
 sight of the flying birds as the nostrils were offended 
 by their odour. 
 
 I287I 
 
ROxMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 a. For profit 
 
 V. But, as I gather you would prefer, Axius, I 
 will speak of that kind of ornithon which is estab- 
 lished for profit, whence, but not where, fat thrushes 
 are served. 
 
 For this purpose is built a dome, in the form of a 
 peristyle, with a roof over it and enclosed with 
 netting, sufficiently large to accommodate several 
 thousand thrushes ^ and blackbirds; indeed, some 
 also include other kinds of birds, such as ortolans 
 and quail, which sell for a good price when fat. Into 
 this enclosure water should be conducted through a 
 conduit and so disposed as to wind through the 
 aviary in channels narrow enough to be cleaned 
 easily (for if the water spreads out it is quickly pol- 
 luted and rendered unfit to drink) and draining like 
 a running stream to find its vent through another 
 conduit, so that the birds may not be exposed to the 
 risk of mud. The door should be low and narrow and 
 well balanced on its hinges like the doors they have 
 in the amphitheatres where bulls are fought: few 
 windows and so placed that the birds cannot see 
 trees and wild birds without, for that makes the 
 prisoners pine and grow thin. The place should 
 
 ^ This was turdus pilaris, the variety of thrush which is called 
 field fare. 
 
 [288] 
 
ROiMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 have only so much light as may be necessary to en- 
 able the birds to see where they are to perch and to 
 eat and drink. The doors and the windows should 
 be lightly stuccoed round about to keep out rats and 
 other such vermin. 
 
 Around the wall of the building on the Inside are 
 fastened many perches where the birds can sit, and 
 another such convenience should be contrived from 
 |K)les set on the ground and leaning against the walls 
 and tied together with other poles fastened trans- 
 versely at regular intervals, thus giving the appear- 
 ance of the rising degrees of a theatre. Down on 
 the ground near the drinking water you should place 
 the birds' food, which usually consists of little balls 
 of a paste made out of figs and com meal: but for 
 twenty days before you intend to market your 
 thrushes it is customary to feed them more heavily, 
 both by giving them more food and that chiefly of 
 finer meal. 
 
 In this enclosure there should also be cages with 
 wooden floors which may serve the birds as resting 
 places supplementing the perches. 
 
 Next to the aviary should be contrived a smaller 
 structure, called the seclusorium, in which the keeper 
 may array the birds found dead, to render an ac- 
 count of them to his master, and where he may drive 
 the birds which are ready for market from the larger 
 
 I289I 
 
ROMAxV FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 aviary: and to this end this smaller room is connected 
 with the main cage by a large door and has more 
 light: and there, when he has collected the number he 
 wishes to market, the keeper kills them, which is 
 done secretly, lest the others might despond at the 
 sight and themselves die before they are ready for 
 market. 
 
 Thrushes are not like other birds of passage which 
 lay their eggs in particular places, as the swan does in 
 the fields and the swallows under the roof, but they 
 lay anywhere: for, despite their masculine name 
 {turdus) there are female thrushes, just as there are 
 male blackbirds, although they have a purely fem- 
 inine name {merula). 
 
 All birds are divided as between those which are 
 of passage, like swallows and cranes, and those which 
 are domestic, like chickens and pigeons: thrushes 
 are birds of passage and every year fly from across 
 the sea into Italy about the time of the autunm 
 equinox, returning about the spring equinox. At 
 another season doves and quail do the same in im- 
 mense numbers, as may be seen in the neighbouring 
 islands of Pontia, Palmaria and Pandataria, for 
 there they are wont to rest a few days on their arrival 
 and again before they set out across the sea from 
 Italy." 
 
 [290] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 b. For pleasure 
 
 "So," said Appius to Axius, "if you enclose five 
 thousand thrushes in such an aviary as Merula has 
 described and there happens to be a banquet or a 
 triumph, you will gain forthwith that sixty thousand 
 sesterces which you so keenly covet and be able to 
 lend the money out at good interest." And then, 
 turning to me, he added, "Do you tell us of that other 
 kind of omithon, namely: for pleasure merely, for 
 it is said that you have constructed one near Casinum 
 which surpasses not only the original built by the 
 inventor of such flying cages, our friend M. Lsenius 
 Strabo of Brundisium (who was the first to keep 
 birds confined in the chamber of a peristyle and to 
 feed them through the net), but also the vast struc- 
 tures of Lucullus at Tusculum." 
 
 "You know," I said, "that there flows through 
 my estate near Casinum ^ a stream which is both 
 
 * The traveller by railway from Rome to Naples passes near 
 Varro's estate of Casinum, and if he stops at the mediaeval town 
 of San Germano to visit the neighbouring Badia di Monte 
 Cassino, where the "angelic doctor" Thomas Aquinas was 
 educated, he will find Varro's memory kept green: for he will 
 be entertained at the Albergo Varrone ("very fair but bargain- 
 ing advisable," sagely counsels Mr. Baedeker) and on his way 
 up the long winding road to the Abbey there will be pointed 
 out to him the river Rapido, on the banks of which Varro's 
 aviary stood, and nearby what is reputed to be the site of the 
 old polymadi's villa which Antony polluted with the orgies 
 
 [291] 
 
ROMAiN FARM MAN ACJKMKNT 
 
 deep and clear and fifty-seven feet wide between the 
 masonry embankments, so that it is necessary to 
 use bridges to get from one part of the property to 
 the other. On the upper reach of this stream is 
 situated my Museum * and at a distance of 950 feet 
 below is an island formed by the confluence of an- 
 other stream. Along the bank for this distance is 
 an uncovered walk ten feet broad and between this 
 walk and the field is the location of my aviary en- 
 closed on both sides, right and left, with high masonry 
 walls. The ornithon itself is built in the shape of a 
 writing tablet with a capital on it, the main quad- 
 Cicero described in the second Philippic. Antony's destruction 
 of his library was a great blow to Varro, but one likes to think 
 that his ghost can take satisfaction in the maintenance, so near 
 the haunts of his flesh, of such a noble collection of books as is 
 the continuing pride of the Abbey on the mountain above. 
 
 ^ Varro's Museum, or study where he wooed the Muses, on his 
 estate at Casinum was not unlike that of Cicero at his native 
 Arpinum, which he described (de Leg. II, 3) agreeably as on an 
 island in the cold and clear Fibrenus just above its confluence 
 with the more important river Liris, where, like a plebeian 
 marrying into a patrician family, it lost its name but contributed 
 its freshness. The younger Pliny built a study in the garden of 
 his Laurentine villa near Ostia, which he describes (II, 17) with 
 enthusiasm: "horti diaeta est, amores mei, re vera amores": and 
 here he found refuge from the tumult of his household during 
 the festivities of the Saturnalia, which corresponded with our 
 Christmas. In the ante helium days every Virginia gentleman 
 had such an "office" in his house yard where he pretended to 
 transact his farm business, but where actually he was wont to 
 escape from the obligations of family and continuous hospitality. 
 
 [292] 
 
ROMAK FARM MANAC.1':MENT 
 
 rangle being forty-eight feet wide and seventy-two 
 feet long, the capital semi-circular with a radius of 
 twenty-seven feet. To this a covered walk or portico 
 is joined, as it were across the bottom of the page of 
 the tablet, with passages leading on either side of the 
 ornithon proper which contains the cages, to the 
 upper end of the interior quadrangle [adjoining the 
 capital]. This portico is constructed of a series of 
 stone columns between which and the main outside 
 walls are planted dwarf shrubs, a net of hemp being 
 stretched from the top of the walls to the architrave 
 of the portico, and thence down to the stylobate or 
 floor. The exterior spaces thus enclosed are filled 
 with all kinds of birds which are fed through the net, 
 water being provided by a small running stream. On 
 the interior sides of the porticos, and adjoining them 
 at the upper end of the interior quadrangle, are 
 constructed on both sides two narrow oblong basins. 
 Between these basins a path leads to the tholus, or 
 rotunda, which is surrounded with two rows of 
 columns, like that in the house of Catulus, except 
 that I have substituted columns for walls. Beyond 
 these columns at the end is a grove of large trans- 
 planted trees forming a roof of leaves, but admitting 
 light underneath, as that is entirely cut off by the 
 high walls on the sides. Between the exterior row 
 of columns of the tholus, which are of stone, and the 
 
 I293I 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 interior row, which are of pine, there is a narrow 
 space, five feet in width. The exterior columns are 
 filled in with a transparent net instead of walls, thus 
 permitting the birds to look out upon the grove and 
 the wild birds there but without escaping: the in- 
 terior columns being filled in with the net of the 
 main aviary. The space between the two rows of 
 columns thus enclosed is equipped with perches for 
 the birds in the form of many rods let into all the 
 columns in ascending array like the degrees of a 
 theatre; and here are enclosed all kinds of birds, but 
 chiefly singing birds, like nightingales and black- 
 birds, for whom water is conducted by means of a 
 small canal and food is supplied under the net. 
 [Under the lantern of the tholus is a basin of water: 
 and around this\ a foot and nine inches below the 
 stylobate or pedestal of the interior row of columns, 
 runs a stone platform. This is five feet in width 
 and two feet above the level of the basin, thus afford- 
 ing a space on which my bird guests may hop about 
 from the cushions to the little columns [which are 
 there provided for them].^ 
 
 ' The commentators on this interesting but obscure descrip- 
 tion of Varro's aviary have at this point usually endeavoured to 
 explain the arrangements of the chamber under the lantern of 
 the tholus with respect to its use as a dining room which Varro 
 frequented himself, and hence have been amused into all kinds 
 of difficulties of interpretation. The references to the convivee 
 
 [294] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 The basin is immediately surrounded with a quay 
 a foot in width adjoining [but below the level of] the 
 platform and has a little island in the middle. Around 
 the platform and the quay are contrived docks for 
 ducks. On the island is a little column arranged to 
 turn on its axis and carrying a wheel-shaped table 
 with hollow drum-like dishes fashioned at the ends 
 of the spokes two and a half feet wide and a palm in 
 depth. This is turned by a boy whose business that 
 is, so that meat and drink is put before all my bird 
 guests in turn. From the elevation of the platform, 
 where mats are usually placed, the ducks go out to 
 swim in the basin, and from this streams flow into the 
 two basins I have already described, and little fish 
 may be seen darting from one to the other, while 
 warm or cold water may be turned on the guests from 
 the circumference of the revolving table, which I have 
 described as equipped with spokes. 
 
 Within the dome is an arrangement to tell the 
 hours by marking the position in the heavens of the 
 sun by day and Hesperus by night: and furthermore, 
 as in the clock which [Andronicus] Cyrrestes con- 
 structed at Athens, the eight winds are depicted 
 
 are what lead them astray, and it remained for Keil to suggest 
 that this was a playful allusion to the birds themselves, a conclu- 
 sion which is strengthened by Varro's previous statement of 
 the failure of LucuUus' attempt to maintain a dining room in his 
 aviary. 
 
 [295] 
 
ROMAN FARxVI iMANAGEMl^N r 
 
 on the dome, and, by means of an arrow connecting 
 with a vane, the prevailing wind is indicated to those 
 within." » 
 
 As we were talking an uproar was heard on the 
 Campus Martius. While this did not astonish 
 old parliamentary hands ^ like ourselves, who knew 
 the enthusiasm of an election, yet we were anxious 
 to know what it meant, and at this moment Pan- 
 tuleius Parra came up and told us that while the 
 votes were being sorted some one was caught stuffing 
 the ballot box ' and had been haled before the consul 
 by the supporters of the rival candidate. Pavo 
 rose to go, for it was understood that he who had 
 been arrested was the campaign manager of Pavo's 
 own candidate. 
 
 ^ Cf. Vitruvius, I, 6: "Andronicus Cyrrhestes built at Athens 
 an octagonal marble tower, on the sides of which were carved 
 images of the eight winds, each on the side opposite that from 
 which it blew. On the pyramidal roof of this tower he placed a 
 bronze Triton holding a rod in his right hand, and so contrived 
 that the Triton, revolving with the wind, always stood opposed 
 to that which prevailed, and thus pointed with his rod to the 
 image on the tower of the wind that was blowing at the moment." 
 The ruins of this Tower of the Winds may still be seen in 
 Athens. There is a picture of it in Harper's Dictionary of 
 Classical Antiquities in the article Andronicus. 
 
 ^ One ventures to translate athletce comitiorum by Mr. Glad- 
 stone's famous phrase. 
 
 ^ Reading "tesserulas coicientem in loculum." 
 
 [296] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANA(;KMENT 
 
 Of pea-cocks 
 
 VI. "Now that Fircellius is gone you can speak 
 freely of pea-cocks," said Axius, "for if you should 
 say any thing to their disadvantage in his presence, 
 you might perchance have a crow to pluck with him 
 on account of his relationship." ^ 
 
 "Within my memory," said Merula, "the practice 
 of keeping commercial flocks of pea-cocks has largely 
 developed and it has so developed that M. Aufidius 
 Lurco is said to derive an income of sixty thousand 
 sesterces per annum from them. If you keep them 
 for profit it is well to have somewhat fewer males 
 than females; while the contrary is true if you keep 
 them for pleasure, for the pea-cock far surpasses 
 his hen in beauty. With us they are fed in the coun- 
 try, but abroad it is said that they are kept on islands, 
 as at Samos in the grove of Juno and at Planasia, 
 the island of M. Piso. In setting up a flock age and 
 beauty must be considered, for nature has given the 
 palm of beauty to the pea-cock among all the birds. 
 The hens are not fit for breeding under two years of 
 age, nor when they are aged. They are fed all kinds 
 of grain but chiefly barley. Seius makes a practice 
 of feeding them a modius of barley apiece for the 
 
 * A French translator might better convey the intention of 
 the pun, contained in the ducere serram of the text, by the 
 locution, une prise de bee. 
 
 [297] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 month before they begin to breed, his purpose being 
 to make them more productive. He expects his 
 overseer to raise three pea fowl for every hen, and he 
 sells them when matured for fifty deniers (^lo) 
 a piece, a price such as one never obtains for a sheep.' 
 Furthermore, he buys eggs and sets them under 
 dunghill hens, transferring the young pea fowls so 
 hatched to the shelter set apart for their kind. This 
 house should be built large enough for the number of 
 pea fowl to be kept and should be equipped with 
 separate roosting places smoothly stuccoed, so that 
 snakes and such vermin may not be able to get into 
 it: and, furthermore, it should have attached to it a 
 run in which the pea fowl may feed on sunny days, 
 and both these places should be kept clean, as this 
 
 ' It probably will not comfort the ultimate consumer who 
 holds in such odium the celebrated "Schedule K" of the Payne- 
 Aldrich tariff, to realize that the American wool grower puts 
 no higher value on his sheep than did his Roman ancestor, as 
 revealed by this quotation from the stock yards of Varro's time. 
 It is interesting, however, to the breeder to know that a good 
 price for wool has always stimulated the production of the best 
 stock. Strabo says that the wool of Turdetania in Spain was 
 so celebrated in the generation after Varro that a ram of the 
 breed (the ancestors of the modem Merino) fetched a talent, 
 say $1,200; a price which may be compared with that of the 
 prize ram recently sold in England for export to the Argentine 
 for as much as a thousand pounds sterling, and considered a 
 good commercial investment at that. Doubtless the market for 
 Rosean mules comforted Azius in his investment of the equiva- 
 lent of £400 in a breeding jack. 
 
 [298] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 kind of fowl demands. The keeper should make the 
 rounds often with a shovel to collect and preserve 
 their manure, which is not only fit for use in agricul- 
 ture but serves also as bedding for your pea chicks. 
 
 It is said that Q. Hortensius was the first to serve 
 pea-cocks at dinner, on the occasion of his inaugura- 
 tion as an augur, an evidence of prodigality which 
 was more approved by the luxurious than by good 
 men of simple manners: but many others quickly 
 followed his example, so that the price of pea fowl 
 was raised until an egg sold for five deniers ($i) and 
 a pea fowl itself readily for fifty ($io), thus a flock 
 of an hundred of them easily yields an income of 
 forty thousand sesterces, ($2,000), or even sixty 
 ($3,000), if, as Abuccius advises, one obtains three 
 chickens from every pea hen." 
 
 Of pigeons 
 
 VII. In the meanwhile an apparitor came to Ap- 
 pius from the Consul and said that the augurs were 
 summoned. As Appius went out from the villa pub- 
 lican a flock of pigeons flew in, whereupon Merula 
 said to Axius: "If you had established a irepurreporpo- 
 ^daif you would think that these were your pigeons, 
 although they are wild, for it is the custom to keep 
 both kinds in a n€purTepoTpo<j>eiop. One is the wild 
 dove (or, as some call them the rock dove, or 
 
 [2991 
 
ROMA N 1- A RM M AN AG J<:M h N r 
 
 saxatilis), such as live in the towers and dormers 
 (columines) of a farm house, whence they get the 
 name columbee, because, on account of their natural 
 timidity, they seek the highest places on the roof. 
 On this account wild doves usually frequent towers, 
 to which they may fly from the fields of their own 
 accord, and return.^ The other kind of pigeons is 
 tamer and are wont to seek their food at the very 
 threshold of a house. This kind is usually white 
 in colour, the wild variety being mottled but without 
 any white. From these two stocks a third or mixed 
 variety has been developed for commercial profit 
 and these are collected in the place which some 
 call a irepiarepedv (pigeon house), and others a 
 Trepiarepm-potfulov (place for raising pigeons), where 
 there are often confined as many as five thousand 
 at a time. 
 
 ^ In feudal times the right to maintain a dove cote was the 
 exclusive privilege of the lord of the manor. According to their 
 immemorial custom, which Varro notices, the pigeons preyed 
 on the neighbourhood crops and were detested by the com- 
 munity in consequence. During the French revolution they 
 were one of the counts in the indictment of the land-owning 
 aristocracy, and in the event the pigeons as well as their owners 
 had the sins of their forefathers justly visited upon them. The 
 American farmer who has a pigeon-keeping neighbour and is 
 restrained by the pettiness of the annoyance from making a 
 point on their trespasses, feels something of the blind and im- 
 potent wrath of the French peasant against the whole pigeon 
 family. 
 
 [300] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGILMENT 
 
 A pigeon house is made like a great dome, with 
 an arched roof, a narrow entrance, and grilled win- 
 dows or with wider lattices on all sides so that the 
 interior may be well lighted and yet no snake or 
 other such pest may have access. The walls and the 
 dome within and the edges of the windows without 
 should be smeared with light stucco to keep out 
 rats and lizards, for nothing is so timid as a pigeon. 
 A round nest should be provided for each pair of 
 pigeons and these should be arranged in close order 
 so that there may be established as many as pos- 
 sible of them ranked from the ground to the very 
 dome. Each nest should have a door no bigger than 
 necessary to enable the pigeons to go in and out but 
 within should be of three palms in diameter. Under 
 each rank of nests should be fastened planks two 
 palms broad for the use of the pigeons as a vestibule 
 on coming out. Water should be led into the pigeon 
 house, both for them to drink and to bathe in, for 
 pigeons are very clean birds. For this reason the 
 keeper of the pigeons should sweep out the house 
 several times a month, for that which soils it has so 
 great a value in agriculture that some writers even 
 claim that it is the best of all manures. Further- 
 more, the keeper in these rounds may tend any pigeon 
 which is ailing, remove any which are dead, and take 
 out such squabs as are fit for market. Likewise, 
 
 [301] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 those which are setting should be transferred to a 
 particular place, separated from the others by a net 
 but from which the mothers may be free to get out 
 of doors : which is done for two reasons : first, because 
 if they become weary or decrepit from being cooped 
 too long, they will be refreshed by the free air when 
 they go abroad: secondly, because they serve as 
 decoys for other pigeons, for their squabs will always 
 bring them home themselves unless they are struck 
 down by a crow or cut off by a hawk. Pigeon breeders 
 rid themselves of the last mentioned pests by plant- 
 ing in the ground two rods smeared with birdlime 
 and bent in one upon the other, and then tie on some 
 bait so disposed that when the hawk falls upon his prey 
 he finds himself entangled in the birdlime and is taken. 
 
 It may be noted that the pigeon has a homing 
 instinct, as is proved by the practice of many in let- 
 ting pigeons loose from their bosoms in the theatre 
 expecting them to return home, for if they did not 
 return the practice would not persist. 
 
 The food for pigeons is placed in mangers fas- 
 tened around the walls and filled from the outside 
 by means of conduits. They thrive on millet, wheat, 
 barley, peas, beans and vetch. This regimen should 
 be followed also, as far as possible, in the care of 
 the wild pigeons, which live on the towers and the 
 roofs of the barn. 
 
 [302] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 In equipping a vepurrepedv pigeons of good age 
 should be secured, neither squabs nor veterans, and 
 as many males as females. Nothing is more pro- 
 lific than the pigeon, for in forty days they con- 
 ceive, lay, hatch and raise a brood, and they keep 
 this up nearly all the year, stopping only from the 
 winter solstice until spring. Squabs are hatched in 
 pairs, and as soon as they have grown up and have 
 strength breed with their own mothers. Those who 
 fatten squabs in order to sell them dearer, make a 
 practice of isolating them as soon as they are covered 
 with feathers, then they cram them with white bread 
 which has been chewed:^ in winter this is fed twice 
 a day, in summer three times a day, morning, noon 
 and night, the midday meal being omitted in winter. 
 Those which are just beginning to have feathers are 
 left in the nests, but their legs are broken, and, in 
 order that they may be crammed, the food is put 
 
 * It appears that the Romans actually hired men to chew the 
 food intended for cramming birds, so as to relieve the unhappy 
 victims even of such exercise as they might get from assimilat- 
 ing their diet. C)lumella (VII, lo) in discussing the diet of 
 thrushes deprecates this practice, sagely saying that the wages 
 of the chewers are out of proportion to the benefit obtained, 
 and that any way the chewers swallow a good part of what they 
 are given to macerate. 
 
 The typical tramp of the comic papers who is forever looking 
 for occupation without work might well envy these Roman 
 professional chewers. Not even Dr. Wiley's "poison squad" 
 employed to test food products could compare with them. 
 
 [303I 
 
ROMAN FARM M AxXAGI'.MENT 
 
 before the mothers, for they will feed themselves 
 and their squabs on it all day long. Squabs which 
 are reared in this way become fat more quickly than 
 others and have whiter flesh. 
 
 A pair of pigeons will commonly sell at Rome 
 for two hundred nummi, if they are well made, of 
 good colour, without blemish, and of good breed: 
 some times they even bring a thousand nummi, and 
 there is a report that recently L. Axius, a Roman of 
 the equestrian order, declined that sum, refusing to 
 sell for less than four hundred deniers." ' 
 
 "If I could procure a fully equipped Trepiarepetav," 
 cried Axius, "as readily as I have bought a supply 
 of earthen ware nests, I would have had it already 
 on the way to my farm." 
 
 "As if," remarked Pica, "there were not many of 
 them here in town. But perhaps those who have 
 pigeon houses on their roofs do not seem to you to be 
 justified in calling them ircpMrrepeSvas even though 
 some of them represent an investment of more than 
 one hundred thousand sesterces. I advise you to 
 
 ^ These prices of $io and $50 and even $80 a pair for pi- 
 geons, large as they seem, were surpassed under the Empire. 
 Columella says (VIII, 8): "That excellent author, M. Varro, 
 tells us that in his more austere time it was not unusual for a 
 pair of pigeons to sell for a thousand sesterces, a price at which 
 the present day should blush, if we may believe the report that 
 men have been found to pay for a pair as much as four thousand 
 nummi." ($200.) 
 
 [304] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 buy out one of them and leam how to pocket a profit 
 here in town, before you build on a large scale in the 
 country." 
 
 Oj turUe doves 
 
 VIII. "So much for that then," said Axius. "Pro- 
 ceed, please, to the next subject, Merula." 
 
 "For turtle doves," said Merula, "in like manner a 
 house should be constructed proportioned to the num- 
 ber you intend to feed, and this, like the pigeon house, 
 I have described, should have a door and windows 
 and fresh water and walls and a vaulted roof, but in 
 place of breeding nests the mutules should be ex- 
 tended through the walls or poles set in them in 
 regular order with hempen mats on them, the lowest 
 rank being not more than three feet from the floor, 
 the rest at intervals of nine inches, the top rank six 
 inches from the vault, and of equal breadth as the 
 mutule stands out from the wall. On these the doves 
 are fed day and night. For food they are given dry 
 wheat, usually a half modius for every one hundred 
 and twenty doves. Every day the house should be 
 cleaned out, that they may not be injured by the 
 accumulation of manure, and because also it has its 
 place in the economy of the farm. The best time for 
 fattening doves is about the harvest, for then the 
 mothers are in their best condition and produce young 
 
 [305] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 ones not only in the largest number but the best for 
 cramming: so that is the time when they are most 
 profitable." 
 
 Of poultry 
 
 IX. "Tell me now, if you please, Merula," said 
 Axius, "what I should know of raising and fattening 
 poultry and wood pigeons, then we can proceed 
 to the discussion of the remainder of our programme." 
 
 "There are three kinds of fowls usually classed as 
 poultry," replied Merula, "dunghill fowl, jungle fowl 
 and guinea fowl. The dunghill fowl are those which 
 are constantly kept in the country at farms. 
 
 He who wishes to establish an opviOofioa-Keiov from 
 which, by the exercise of intelligence and care, he 
 can take large profits, as the people of Delos do 
 with such great success,' should observe five prin- 
 cipal rules: i° in regard to buying, what kind and 
 how many he will keep: z° in regard to breeding: 
 3° in regard to eggs, how they are set and hatched: 
 4° in regard to chicks, how and by whom they are 
 
 'The market for chickens and eggs in the United States 
 would doubtless astonish the people of Delos as much as the 
 statistics do us (ipsa suas mirantur Gargara messes!). It is 
 solemnly recorded that the American hen produces a billion 
 and a quarter dozen eggs per annum, of a value greater than 
 that of either the wheat or cotton crops, and yet there are many 
 of us who cannot get our hens to lay more than a hundred eggs 
 
 a year! 
 
 [306] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGKMKNT 
 
 reared, and 5°, which is a supplement of all the fore- 
 going, how they are fattened. 
 
 The females of the dunghill fowl are called hens, 
 the breeding males cocks, and the males which have 
 been altered capons. Cocks are caponized by burn- 
 ing the spurs ^ with a hot iron until the skin is 
 broken, the wound being poulticed with potters' 
 clay. 
 
 He who wishes to have a model opviBo^otTKdov 
 should equip it with all three kinds of fowls, though 
 chiefly the dunghill variety. In purchasing these 
 last it is important to choose fertile hens, which are 
 indicated by red feathers, black wings, unequal toes, 
 large heads, combs upstanding and heavy, for such 
 hens are more likely to lay. 
 
 A lusty cock may be known by his muscular 
 carriage, his red comb, a beak short, strong and 
 sharp, eyes tawny or black, wattles a whitish red, 
 neck spotted or tinged with gold, the second joint 
 
 ^ Reading ad infirma crura. This practice is explained more 
 at length by Columella (VIII, 2, 3) who specifies the spurs, 
 calcarSnis inustis. 
 
 Buffon, who describes a practice of trimming the combs of 
 capons, adds (V, 302) an interesting account of an experiment 
 which he says he had made "une espece de greffe animale": 
 after trimming the comb of a growing cockerel his budding spurs 
 were cut out and grafted on the roots of the comb, where they 
 took root and flourished, growing to a length of two and a half 
 inches, in some cases curving forward like the horns of a ram, 
 and in others turning back like those of a goat. 
 
 [307] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 of his legs well covered with feathers, short legs, 
 long spurs, a heavy tail, and profuse feathers, also 
 by his spirit and his frequent crowing, his readiness 
 to fight, and that he is not only not afraid of such ani- 
 mals as do the hens harm, but even goes out to fight 
 them. You must be careful, however, not to buy for 
 breeding any fowls of the breeds known as Tanagran, 
 Medean and Chalcidean, for, while they are beautiful 
 to look at and are fit for fighting with one another, 
 they are practically sterile. 
 
 If you wish to keep a flock of two hundred, choose 
 an enclosed place and there construct two large 
 poultry houses side by side and looking to the East, 
 each about ten by five feet and a little less than five 
 feet in height, and furnished with windows three by 
 four feet in which are fitted shutters of wickerwork, 
 which will serve to let in plenty of fresh air and light 
 and yet keep out such vermin as prey upon chickens. 
 
 Between the two houses should be a door by which 
 the gallinarius who takes care of them, may have 
 access. Within the houses enough poles are arranged 
 to serve as roosts for all the chickens : opposite each 
 roost a nest should be set in the wall. In front of 
 the house should be an enclosed yard to which the 
 fowls may have access in the day time and where 
 they can dust themselves,^ and there should be 
 
 'The dusting yard which Varro here describes was in the 
 
 [308] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 constructed the keeper's house, which should be 
 equipped all about with nests, either set into the 
 walls or firmly fastened to them, for the least dis- 
 turbance injures eggs when they are setting. 
 
 When the hens begin to lay, straw should be spread 
 in their nests and this should be renewed when they 
 begin to set, for in such bedding are bred mites and 
 other insects which will not suffer the hen to be quiet, 
 with the result that the eggs are hatched unequally 
 or rot. 
 
 A hen should not be allowed to set on more than 
 
 twenty-five eggs, although such is her fecundity that 
 
 open, but Columella (VIII, 3) advises what modern poultry 
 farmers pride themselves upon having recently discovered, — a 
 covered scratching pen strewn with litter to afford exercise for 
 the hens in rough weather. It will be observed that, so far as 
 ventilation is concerned, Varro recommends a hen house open 
 to the weather: this is another standard of modem practice 
 which has had a hard struggle against prejudice. Columella 
 adds two more interesting bits of advice, that for the comfort 
 of the hens the roosts should be cut square, and for cleanliness 
 their water trough should be enclosed leaving only openings 
 large enough to receive a hen's head. With so much enlighten- 
 ment and sanitation one would expect one or the other of these 
 Romans to tell us of some "teeming hen" like Herrick's who 
 laid "her egg each day." 
 
 We are proud to be able to cite the eminent Roseburg Indus- 
 trious Biddy who, in the year of grace 191 2, achieved the cham- 
 pionship of America with a record of 266 eggs in ten months and 
 nineteen days, and was sold for $800: but Varro is content to 
 suggest that a hen will lay more eggs in a season than she can 
 hatch, and the conservative Columella (VIII, 5) that the number 
 of eggs depends upon diet. 
 
 [309] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 she lays more than that in a season. The best time 
 for hatching is from the spring to the autumn equinox. 
 Eggs laid before or after this season, or the first eggs 
 laid by a pullet, should never be set. Hens used for 
 setting should be old rather than young, without 
 sharp beaks and claws, for those so equipped are 
 better employed in laying than in setting. Hens a 
 year or two years old are better fitted for laying. 
 
 If you set pea-cock eggs under a hen, you should 
 wait ten days before adding hen eggs to the nest, 
 to insure them all hatching together, for the period 
 of incubation of chicken eggs is thrice seven days and 
 that of the eggs of pea-fowl is thrice nine. Sitting 
 hens should be shut up day and night, except for a 
 time in the morning and evening, when they are 
 let out to eat and drink. 
 
 The keeper should make the rounds every few 
 days and turn the eggs, so that they may be kept 
 warm all over. It is said that you can tell whether 
 an egg is fertile or sterile by putting it in water: for 
 if it is sterile it will float, while if it is fertile it will 
 sink. Those who shake their eggs to ascertain this 
 fact make a mistake for thereby they destroy the 
 germ in them. It is also said that you can tell a 
 sterile egg by the fact that it is transparent when 
 held against the light. 
 
 To preserve eggs they should be rubbed with fine 
 
 [310 1 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 salt or soaked for three or four hours in brine, and 
 then cleaned off or packed in chaff or straw. Care 
 should be taken to set eggs only in uneven num- 
 bers. The keeper can tell whether an egg is fertile 
 or not four days after it is set, by holding it to the 
 light, when he should throw it out if it is found to be 
 empty and substitute another for it. 
 
 The new hatched chickens should be taken from 
 every nest and given to a hen who has only a few to 
 care for. When in this way a setting hen has less 
 than half her eggs left unhatched, they should be 
 taken from her and put under another hen which has 
 eggs still unhatched. It is not well to give more 
 than thirty chicks to a hen. Chicks should be fed 
 for the first fifteen days in the dust to protect them 
 from injuring their tender beaks on the hard ground : 
 their diet being crushed barley mixed with cress 
 seed and soaked in wine, for prepared in this way 
 the grain is digestible. They should be kept away 
 from water in the beginning. When they begin to 
 have feathers on their legs the mites should be care- 
 fully picked off their heads and necks, for these 
 banes often destroy them. Deer's horn should be 
 burnt around their coops to keep snakes away, for 
 the very smell of those vermin is fatal to young 
 chickens. They should be allowed to run in the sun 
 and to scratch in a dung heap, which serves to de- 
 
 I311] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 velop them. This rule applies not only to young 
 chickens but also to the entire opvtOo^oa-Kiiov, and 
 should be practised all summer and even in winter 
 on mild and sunny days. A net should be stretched 
 over the chicken yard to keep the fowls them- 
 selves from flying out and to protect them from 
 hawks and other birds of prey. Fowls should be 
 protected from heat as well as cold, for both are 
 harmful to them. When the chicks have got their 
 feathers it is best to accustom them to follow one or 
 two hens, leaving the other hens free to go to laying, 
 in which occupation they are more useful than in 
 rearing chicks. 
 
 A hen should be set after the new moon, for those 
 which begin earlier seldom hatch many chicks. 
 
 They hatch usually in twenty days. 
 
 And now since I have discussed the dunghill fowl 
 at some length, I will make up to you by brevity with 
 respect to the other kinds of fowls. 
 
 Jungle fowl are rarely seen at Rome, and then 
 usually in cages. They resemble guinea chickens 
 more than dunghill fowls. When perfect in form and 
 appearance they are often carried in the public pro- 
 cessions with parrots and white blackbirds and other 
 such rarities. They do not usually lay or raise their 
 chickens on a farm, but in the forests. The island 
 of Gallinaria, which lies in the Tuscan sea off the 
 
 I312] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 coast of Italy, opposite the Ligurian mountains (and 
 the towns of Intermelii and Alba Ingannua) derives 
 its name from them, though some maintain that 
 the name comes from dunghill fowl which were car- 
 ried to that island by sailors and have there run wild. 
 Guinea fowl {gallims africarue) are large, mottled 
 and have their humps in their backs. The Greeks 
 call them /leXeaypis.' They are the last fowls which 
 the culinary art has introduced to our dining tables, 
 on account of their gamy flavour.' By reason of their 
 rarity they sell for a high price. 
 
 Of the three kinds of fowls, the ordinary dunghill 
 fowl is used chiefly for cramming. For this purpose 
 they are shut up in a small confined and darkened 
 coop, because both exercise and light are enemies of 
 fat. Any large chickens may be selected for this 
 operation, not necessarily of that breed which the 
 peasants call Melica incorrectly, for as the ancients 
 said Thelis when they meant Thetis, so the country 
 
 * The guinea fowl got their Greek name, meleagrides, because 
 the story was that the sisters of Meleager were turned into 
 guinea hens. Pliny {H. N. X, 38) says that they fight every 
 year on Meleager's tomb. It is a fact that they are a pugnacious 
 fowl. Buffon says that guinea fowl disappeared from Europe 
 in the Dark Ages and were not known again until the route to 
 the Indies via the Cape of Good Hope was opened when they 
 were imported anew from the west coast of Africa. 
 
 * Reading, " propter fastidium hominum." Cf. Pliny (X, 38), 
 whose explanation is "propter ingratum virus." 
 
 [313] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 people still say Melica for Medica. This name was 
 given at first to the fowls which were imported from 
 Medea on account of their great size and then to all 
 of that breed, but now the name is given indiscrimin- 
 ately to all large fowls by reason of their general 
 resemblance. After the feathers have been pulled 
 from their tails and wings they are crammed with 
 balls of barley paste, with which may be mixed 
 darnel meal, or flax seed soaked in soft water. They 
 are fed twice a day but care must be taken to see that 
 the last meal is digested before another is put before 
 them. After they have been fed and their heads 
 have been cleaned of mites, they are shut up again. 
 This process is kept up for twenty-five days, when 
 they will be fat. 
 
 Some cram them on wheat bread soaked in water, 
 or even in wine of good flavour and bouquet, claiming 
 that they are thereby made fat and tender in twenty 
 days.^ 
 
 If in the process of cramming the fowls lose their 
 appetite from too much food, the ration should be 
 
 ' There is a Virginia practice of feeding a fat turkey heavily on 
 bread soaked in wine or liquor just before he is killed, the re- 
 sult being that as the turkey gets into that condition which used 
 to put our ancestors under the table, he relaxes all his tendons 
 and so is sweeter and more tender when he comes above the 
 table. There is a humanitarian side to the practice which 
 should recommend it even to the W. C. T. U. as well as to the 
 epicure. 
 
 [314] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 reduced daily during the last ten days in the same 
 proportion as it was increased during the first ten 
 days, so that the ration will be the same on the twen- 
 tieth as on the first day. 
 
 Wood pigeons are crammed and fattened in the 
 same way." 
 
 Of geese 
 
 X. "Let us now pass," said Axius, "to that tribe 
 which cannot live in the bam yard all the time, or 
 even on land, but requires access to ponds. I mean 
 those whom you philhellenes call amphibia. I under- 
 stand that you call the places in which geese are kept 
 by the Greek name x'?''°i8oo-Ketbi', and that Scipio 
 Metellus and M. Seius have several large flocks of 
 geese." 
 
 "It is Seius' practice," said Merula, "to maintain 
 
 his flocks of geese ^ in accordance with the five rules 
 
 I have laid down for poultry, namely: with respect 
 
 to choice of individuals, breeding, eggs, goslings and 
 
 the process of cramming. 
 
 ^ Many thousands of geese used to be driven every year to 
 Rome from the land of the Morini in Northern Gaul, but the 
 Germans are the modem consumers. A British consular report 
 says that in addition to the domestic supply a special "goose 
 train" of from fifteen to forty cars is received daily in Berlin 
 from Russia. It would seem that the goose that lays the golden 
 egg has emigrated to Muscovy. Buffon says that the introduc- 
 tion of the Virginia turkey into Europe drove the goose off the 
 tables of all civilized peoples. 
 
 [315] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 On the first point he requires the slave who buys 
 his geese to select them of good size and of white 
 plumage, because they reproduce their own qualities 
 in their goslings. This is necessary for there is an- 
 other kind of geese of variegated plumage, which 
 are called wild, and do not flock freely with the other 
 kind and are domesticated with difiiculty. 
 
 The best time for breeding geese is at the end of 
 winter and for laying and hatching from the be- 
 ginning of February or March until the summer 
 solstice. They breed usually in the water, diving 
 to the bottom of the stream or pond.' A goose lays 
 only three times a year: and each one should be fur- 
 nished with a coop about two and a half feet square 
 and bedded with straw: each of their eggs should be 
 marked for identification, for they will not hatch any 
 eggs but their own. They are usually set on nine or 
 eleven eggs, never more than fifteen, nor less than 
 five. In cold weather they set for thirty days, in 
 warm weather twenty-five. When they are hatched 
 the goslings are suffered to remain with their mother 
 for five days, and then daily, when the weather is 
 fine, they are driven out to the meadows or to the 
 ponds or some swampy place. The gosling houses 
 
 ' Columella (VIII, 14) repeats this myth, but Aristotle (H. A. 
 V, 2, 9) says that geese bathe ajUr breeding. BuflFon gives a 
 Gallic touch, "ces oiseauz preludent aux actes de I'amour en 
 allant d'abord s'egayer dans I'eau." 
 
 [316] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 may be built either above or below ground, but 
 never more than twenty should be housed together 
 and care must be taken lest the floor be damp and 
 that they are bedded on chaff or some thing of that 
 kind, and that the house is so constructed as to keep 
 out weasels and other beasts which prey on goslings. 
 Geese are fed in wet places and it is the practice to 
 sow especially for their food supply, using for this 
 purpose any kind of grain, but particularly that 
 salad plant called endive ' which keeps green wher- 
 ever there is water, freshening at the mere contact of 
 water however dry it may be. This is gathered to 
 be fed to them, for if they have access to the place 
 where it is growing they will destroy the plant by 
 trampling on it, or else kill themselves by eating too 
 much of it, for they are greedy by nature. For this 
 reason they must be watched, as often in feeding 
 their greediness leads them to seize a root and to 
 break their own necks in attempting to pull it from 
 the ground : for the neck is weak, as the head is soft. 
 If there is none of this plant they should be fed 
 barley or some other grain. When the farrago season 
 is on, feed that to them, but in the same manner as 
 I have described in respect of endive. While they 
 are setting they may be fed ground barley soaked in 
 
 ^ Reading seris. It is the Cichorium endivia of Linnaeus. Cf. 
 PUny {H. N. XX, 32.) 
 
 [317] 
 
ROMAN lARM JM ANAGKIMKN'i' 
 
 water. The goslings may be fed for the first two 
 days on barley cake (pollenta) or raw barley, and 
 for the next three days fresh water cress chopped 
 fine in a dish. When they are of an age to be kept 
 by themselves in flocks of twenty, in the kind of 
 house I have described, they are fed on barley meal 
 or farrago or some kind of young herbage cut up. 
 
 For cramming, goslings are picked out when they 
 are about six months old, and are shut up in the 
 fattening pen and there are fed three times a day 
 as much as they will eat, of crushed barley and flour 
 dust mixed with water, and after meals they should 
 be made to drink copiously. Kept on this diet they 
 will be fat in about two months.^ After every meal 
 the feeding place must be cleaned, for, while geese 
 like a clean place, they never leave any place clean 
 in which they have been. 
 
 ' Varro does not mention it, but the Romans knew and prized 
 pate de foie gras under the name ficatum, which indicates that 
 they produced it by cramming their geese with a diet of figs. 
 Cf. Horace's verse "pinguibus et ficis pastum iecur anseris albi." 
 
 In Toulouse, whence now comes the best of this dainty of 
 the epicure, the geese are crammed daily with a dough of corn 
 meal mixed with the oil of poppies, fed through a tin funnel, 
 which is introduced into the esophagus of the unhappy bird. 
 At the end of a month the stertorous breathing of the victim 
 proclaims the time of sacrifice to Apicius. The liver is expected 
 to weigh a kilogram, (say two pounds), while at least two kilo- 
 grams of fat are saved in addition, to garnish the family plat of 
 vegetables during the remainder of the year. 
 
 [318I 
 
ROM.\N FARM Ni ANAGi^MENT 
 
 Of ducks 
 
 XL Whoever wishes to keep a flock of ducks and 
 to establish a pjia-a-orpo^lov, should choose for it, 
 above all others if it is possible, a swampy loca- 
 tion, because that is most agreeable to the ducks, 
 but, if not, then a situation sloping to a natural lake 
 or pool, or to an artificial pond, with steps leading 
 down to it, practicable for the ducks. The enclosure 
 where they are kept should have a wall fifteen feet 
 high, such as you saw at Seius' villa, with only one 
 door opening into it. All around the wall on the 
 inside should run a broad platform on which are 
 built against the wall the duck houses, fronting on a 
 level concrete vestibule in which is constructed a 
 permanent channel in which their food can be placed 
 in water, for ducks are fed in that way. The entire 
 wall should be given a smooth coating of stucco to 
 keep out polecats * and other animals of prey, and 
 the enclosure should be covered with a net of large 
 mesh to prevent eagles from pouncing in and the 
 ducks themselves from flying out.^ 
 
 ^ Reading feeles, which Keller, in his account of the fauna of 
 ancient Italy in the Cambridge Companion to Latin Studies, 
 identifies with Maries vulgaris. Sir Ajithony Fitzherbert calls 
 them fuUymartes. It does not appear that the Romans had in 
 Varro's time brought from Egypt our household cat, F. man- 
 iculata. They used weasels and tame snakes for catching mice. 
 
 * Darwin {Animals and Plants, I, 8) cites this passage and 
 
 [319I 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 For food they are given wheat, barley, grape marc, 
 and some times even lobsters and other such aquatic 
 animals. The pond in the enclosure should be fed 
 with a large head of water so that it may be kept 
 always fresh. 
 
 There are other kinds of similar birds, like teals 
 and coots which may be fed in the same way. 
 
 Some even keep partridges, which, as Archelaus 
 writes, conceive when they hear the voice of the 
 male bird. By reason of the natural abundance and 
 the delicacy of their flesh, these last are not crammed 
 like those domestic fowls I have described, but they 
 are fattened by feeding in the ordinary way. 
 
 And now, as I think that I have completed the 
 first act of the drama of the bam yard, I am done." 
 
 0/ rabbits 
 
 XII. At this point Appius returned and, after an 
 exchange of questions and answers as to what had 
 been said and done during his absence, he said: 
 "Here beginneth the second act of those industries 
 
 argues that Varro's advice to cover the duck yard with netting 
 to keep the ducks from flying out is evidence that in Varro's 
 time ducks were not entirely domesticated, and hence that the 
 modem domestic duck is the same species as the wild duck. It 
 may be noted, however, that Varro gives the same advice about 
 netting the chicken yard, having said that chickens had been 
 domesticated from the beginning of time. 
 
 [320] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 which are wont to be practised at a villa, namely 
 of those enclosures which are still known as leporaria 
 from their ancient special designation. Today a 
 warren no longer means an acre or two in which hares 
 are kept, but some times forests of vast extent in 
 which troops of red deer and roe deer are enclosed. 
 Q. Fulvius Lippinus is said to have forty jugera 
 enclosed in the neighbourhood of Tarquinii ^ where 
 he keeps not only those animals I have named but 
 wild sheep as well. Parks of still larger extent are 
 found in the territory of Statonia (in Etruria) and 
 in certain other places : indeed, in transalpine Gaul T. 
 Pompeius has so great a game preserve that the en- 
 closure is about four miles in extent.* 
 
 It is the practice to keep in such enclosures not 
 only the animals I have named, but also snail houses 
 and bee hives and jars in which dormice are fed, but 
 the care and the increase and the feeding of all these 
 things are easy, except in the case of bees. Who does 
 
 ^ The ancient Etruscan city of Tarquinii is now known as 
 G)meto. The wild sheep which Lippinus there kept in his game 
 preserves were probably the moufion which are still hunted in 
 Sardinia and Corsica, though they may have been the Phrygian 
 wild sheep {^goceros argedi) which Varro mentions in Book II. 
 Pliny {H. N. VIII, 211) says that this Lippinus was the first of 
 the Romans to keep wild animals enclosed; that he established 
 his preserves shortly before the Civil Wars, and that he soon had 
 imitators. 
 
 * Reading 00 en 00 cd possum. The Roman mile, mille pas- 
 suum, was 142 yards less than the English mile. 
 
 [321] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 not know that a leporarium should be enclosed with 
 masonry walls which are at once smooth and high, 
 the one to keep out wild cats and badgers and other 
 such beasts : the other to prevent wolves from getting 
 over. Within should be coverts where the hares may 
 lurk in the day time under bushes and grass, and 
 trees with broad spreading branches to ward off the 
 attacks of the eagle. 
 
 Who does not know also that if he introduces only 
 a few hares of both sexes in a short time the place 
 will be full of them, for such is the fecundity of 
 this quadruped that two pair are enough to stock 
 an entire warren in a short time. Often a mother 
 who has just had her litter is found to be big with 
 another: indeed, Archelaus says that if you want 
 to know how old a hare is you have only to count the 
 number of openings in her belly, for without doubt 
 there is one for every year of her life. 
 
 It has recently become the practice to cram hares 
 as well as poultry, and for this purpose they are 
 taken out of the warren and shut up in small hutches 
 where they are fattened. There are three kinds of 
 hares: the first, our common Italian kind, which 
 has short front legs and long hind legs, the upper 
 part of the body dark coloured, the belly white, and 
 long ears. Some say that our hare conceives a sec- 
 ond time while it is still big. In transalpine Gaul 
 
 [3"] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 and Macedonia they grow to a great size, but in 
 Spain and in Italy they are not so large. The second 
 kind is native in Gaul near the Alps, and is white all 
 over the body: these are brought to Rome, but rarely. 
 The third kind is native in Spain and is like our hare 
 in every way except that it is smaller and is called 
 rabbit (cuniculus).^ L. iElius thinks that the hare 
 (lepus) gets his name from his swiftness, as it were 
 that he is light of foot (levipes), but I think the name 
 is derived from the ancient Greek, because the 
 iEolians of Boeotia call him Xoropis. The rabbits 
 derive their latin name of cuniculi from the habit of 
 making underground burrows to hide in [for cuni- 
 ctdus is a Spanish word for mine]. If possible you 
 should have all these three kinds in your warren. I 
 am sure you already have the first two kinds," Apius 
 added, turning to me, " and, as you were so many years 
 in Spain doubtless some rabbits followed you home." 
 
 ^ Of the three kinds of hares mentioned by Varro the "com- 
 mon Italian kind" was L. timidus, a roast shoulder of which 
 Horace vaunts as a delicacy: the Alpine hare was L. variabilis, 
 which grows white on the approach of winter: and the cuniculus 
 was the common rabbit known to our English ancestors as the 
 coney. Strabo records (Casaub, 144) that the inhabitants of the 
 Gymnesian (Balearic) Islands in Spain sent a deputation to 
 A.ugustus to request, a military force to exterminate the pest of 
 rabbits, for such was their multitude that the people were being 
 :rowded out of their homes by them, in which their plight was 
 ■iiat of modem Australia. They were usually hunted in Spain 
 vith muzzled ferrets imported from Africa. 
 
 [323] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 Of game preserves 
 
 XIII. Then addressing himself again to Axius, 
 Appius continued: 
 
 "You know, of course, that wild boars are kept in 
 game parks, and that those which are brought in 
 wild are fattened with as little trouble as the tame 
 ones which are born in the park, for you have doubt- 
 less seen at the farm near Tusculum, which Varro 
 here bought from M. Pupius Piso, wild boars and 
 roe bucks assemble at the sound of the trumpet to 
 be fed' at regular hours, when from a platform, the 
 keeper scatters mast to the wild boars and vetch 
 or some such forage to the roe bucks." 
 
 "I saw this done," put in Axius, "more dramat- 
 ically when I was a visitor at the villa of Q. Horten- 
 sius in the country near Laurentum. He has there 
 a wood of more than fifty jugera in extent, all en- 
 closed, but it might better be called a dripurrptxjieiop 
 than a warren; there on high ground he caused his 
 dinner table to be spread, and while we supped Hor- 
 tensius gave orders that Orpheus be summoned : when 
 he came, arrayed in his long robe, with a cithara in 
 his hands, he was desired to sing. At that moment 
 a trumpet was sounded and at once Orpheus was 
 surrounded by a large audience of deer and wild 
 boars and other quadrupeds : it seemed to be not less 
 
 1 324] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 agreeable a spectacle than the shows of game, with- 
 out African beasts, which the iEdiles provide in the 
 Circus Maximus." 
 
 Oj snails 
 
 XIV. And turning to Merula, Axius continued: 
 "Appius has lightened your task, my dear Merula, 
 so far as concerns the matter of game, and briefly the 
 second act of our drama may be brought to an end, 
 for I do not seek to learn any thing about snails and 
 dormice, which is all that is left on the programme, 
 for there can be no great trouble in keeping them." 
 
 "It is not so simple as you seem to think, my dear 
 Axius," replied Merula, "for a place suitable for keep- 
 ing snails ^ must be not only in the open air but 
 
 ^ The edible snail, helix pomatia, L., is still an article of com- 
 merce in France and Italy. They prey upon vines and give 
 evidence of their appreciation of the best by abounding in the 
 vineyards of the Cote iTor, the ancient Burgundy. There at the 
 end of summer they are gathered for the double purpose of pro- 
 tecting the vines and delighting the epicure: are then stored in 
 a safe place until cold weather, when they considerately seal up 
 their own shells with a calcareous secretion and so are shipped 
 to market. 
 
 Here is the recipe for ' escargots a la bourguignonne,' which 
 despite the prejudice engendered by Leviticus (XI, 30.) may be 
 recommended to the American palate jaded by beefsteak and 
 potatoes and the high cost of living: "Mettre les escargots a 
 bouillir pendant 5 a 10 minutes dans de I'eau salee, les retirer de 
 leur coquille, les laver a I'eau froide pour les debarrasser du limon, 
 les cuire dans un court-bouillon fortement assaisonne. Apres 
 
 [325] 
 
ROMAiN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 entirely surrounded by water, otherwise you will 
 be kept running not only after the children but 
 also the parents which you have supplied for 
 breeding." 
 
 "In other words," said I, "they must be enclosed 
 by water to save the maintenance of a slave catcher." 
 
 "A place which is not baked by the sun and on 
 which the dew remains is preferable," continued 
 Merula. "If the place you use for your snails is not 
 supplied with dew naturally, as often is the case in 
 sunny situations, and there is no available shady 
 recess, such as is found under rocks or hills whose 
 feet are laved by a lake or a stream, then you must 
 supply dew artificially. This may be done by leading 
 into the snailery a pipe on the end of which is fixed 
 a rose nozzle, through which water is forced against 
 a rock so that it scatters in spray. The problem of 
 feeding snails is small, for they supply themselves 
 without help, finding what they require as they creep 
 over the level ground and also while clinging to the 
 sides of a wall, if no running water prevents their 
 access to it. On the hucksters' stands they keep alive 
 a long time, as it were chewing their own cud, all that 
 is done for them being to supply a few laurel leaves 
 
 cuisson les replacer dans le coquille bien nettoyee, en les gamis- 
 sant au fond et par dessus d'une farce de beurre frais manipule 
 avec un fin hachis de persil, cerfeuil, ail, echalote, sel et poivre. 
 Avant de servir, faire chauffer au four." 
 
 [326] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 and scatter a little bran over them: so a cook never 
 knows whether he is cooking them alive or dead. 
 
 There are many kinds of snails, such as the small 
 white ones, which come from Reate: the large variety 
 which are imported from lUyricum, and the medium 
 size which come from Africa : but they vary in size 
 in certain localities of each of those countries. Thus, 
 there is found in Africa a variety which are called 
 solitanrue of so great size that their shells will hold 
 ten quarts : ^ and so in the other countries I have 
 named they are found together of all sizes. They 
 produce an innumerable progeny, which at first are 
 very small and soft but develop their hard shell with 
 time. If you have large islands in the enclosure you 
 may expect a rich haul from your snails. 
 
 Snails are fattened by placing them in a jar smeared 
 with boiled must and corn meal, on which they feed, 
 and pierced with holes to admit the air, but they are 
 naturally hardy. 
 
 Of dormice 
 
 XV. Dormice * are preserved on a different sys- 
 
 ^ Reading LXXX quadrantes. A comparison may be made 
 of this capacity with that of the ordinary snail known to the 
 Romans, for their smallest unit of liquid measure was called a 
 cochlear, or snail shell, and contained .02 of a modem pint, or, 
 as we may say, a spoonful: indeed the French word cuiller is 
 derived from cochlear. 
 
 * It is perhaps well to remind the American reader that the 
 
 [327I 
 
ROxMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 tern than snails, for while the one is confined by- 
 barriers of water, the other is kept in by a wall which 
 must be coated on the inside with smooth stone or 
 stucco to prevent their escape. Young nut trees 
 should be planted in the enclosure, and when these 
 are not bearing, mast and chestnuts should be thrown 
 in to the dormice, for that is what makes them fat. 
 Roomy cages should be provided for them in which 
 to rear their young. ^ Little water is necessary, for 
 dormice do not require much water, but on the con- 
 trary affect dry places. They are fattened in jars 
 which are usually kept indoors. The potters make 
 these jars in different shapes, but with paths for the 
 dormice to use contrived on the sides and a hollow to 
 hold their food, which consists of mast, walnuts and 
 chestnuts.'' Covers are placed on the jars and there 
 in the dark the dormice are fattened." 
 
 European dormouse {Myoxus glis. Fr. loir. Ger. siebenschlafer) 
 is rather a squirrel than a mouse, and that he is still esteemed a 
 dainty edible, as he was by the Romans: indeed when fat, just 
 before he retires to hibernate, he might be preferred to 'possum 
 and other strange dishes on which some hospitable Americans 
 regale themselves and the patient palates of touring Presidents. 
 In his treatise De re culinaria Apicius gives a recipe for a ragout 
 of dormice which sounds appetizing. 
 
 * Darwin {Animals and Plants, XVIII) says: "I have never 
 heard of the dormouse breeding in captivity." 
 
 * Varro makes no mention of tea and bread and butter as part 
 of the diet of a dormouse; so we are better able to understand 
 his abstinence at the mad tea party in Alice in Wonderland. 
 
 [328I 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGKMENT 
 
 Of bees 
 
 XVI. "It remains now," said Appius, "to rehearse 
 the third and last act of our drama of the husbandry 
 of the steading and to discuss the keeping of fishes." 
 
 "The third, indeed," exclaimed Axius, "shall we 
 deprive ourselves of honey because in your youth 
 you never drank mead in your own house, such was 
 your practice of frugality?" 
 
 "He speaks the truth," said Appius, to us, "for 
 I was indeed left a poor orphan with two brothers 
 and two sisters to provide for, and it was not until 
 I had married one of them to LucuUus without por- 
 tion and he had named me his heir that I began to 
 drink mead in my own house and to supply it to my 
 household: but there never was a day when I did not 
 offer it to all my guests. But apart from that, it has 
 been my fortune, not yours, ^ Axius, to have known 
 these winged creatures whom nature has endowed so 
 richly with industry and art, and that you may ap- 
 preciate that I know more than you do of their al- 
 most incredible natural art, listen to what I am 
 
 As Martial (III, 58) calls him somniculosus, it is probable that 
 his table manners on that occasion were nothing new and that 
 his English and German names were always justified. 
 
 ' This is one of Varro's puns which requires a surgical opera- 
 tion to get it into one's head. Appius is selected to talk about 
 bees because his name has some echo of the sound of apis, the 
 word for bee. 
 
 [329] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 to say. It will then be for Merula to develop the 
 practice of the bee keeper, or, as the Greeks call 
 it, [leKLTTovpyia, as methodically as he has his other 
 subjects. 
 
 To begin then,i bees are generated partly by other 
 bees and partly from the decaying carcase of an ox : 
 so Archelaus in one of his epigrams calls them 
 
 * flitting offspring of decaying beef,' 
 and else where he says, 
 
 * wasps spring from horses, bees from calves.' 
 
 Bees are not of a solitary habit like eagles, but 
 
 are of a social nature, like men, a characteristic they 
 
 share with daws, but not for the same reason, for 
 
 bees live in colonies, the better to work and build, 
 
 while daws congregate for gossip. Thus the life of a 
 
 bee is one of intelligence and art, for man has learned 
 
 from them to manufacture, to build, and to store his 
 
 food : three occupations which are not the same but are 
 
 diverse in their nature, for it is one thing to provide 
 
 food, another to manufacture wax and honey, and 
 
 still another to build a house. Has not each cell in a 
 
 ^ The study of bees was as interesting to the ancients as it is 
 to us. There have survived from among many others the trea- 
 tises of Aristotle, Varro, Virgil, Columella and Pliny, but they 
 are all made up, as Maeterlinck has remarked, of "erreurs char- 
 mantes," and for that reason the antique lore of bees is read per- 
 haps to best advantage in the mellifluous verses of the fourth 
 Georgic, which follow Varro closely. 
 
 [330] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 honey comb six sides, or as many as a bee has feet, 
 the art of which arrangement appears in the teaching 
 of the geometricians that of all polygons the hexagon 
 covers the largest area within a circle.^ Bees feed 
 out of doors, but it is at home that they manufac- 
 ture that which is the sweetest of all things, accept- 
 able to gods and men alike: for honey comb is offered 
 on the altars and honey is served at the beginning 
 of a dinner and again at dessert. 
 
 ' He might have said also that the hexagonal form of construc- 
 tion employed by bees produces the largest possible result with 
 the least labour and material. Maeterlinck rehearses {La Vie 
 des Aheilles, 138) the result of the study of this problem in the 
 highest mathematics: 
 
 " Reaumur avait propose au celebre mathematicien Koenig le 
 problemfsuivant: 'Entre toutes les cellules hezagonales a fond 
 pyramidal compose de trois rhombes semblables et egauz, deter- 
 miner celle qui pent etre construite avec le moins de matiere?' 
 Koenig trouva qu'une telle cellule avait son fond fait de trois 
 rhombes dont chaque grand angle etait de 109 degres, 26 
 minutes et chaque petit de 70 degres, 34 minutes. Or, un autre 
 savant, Maraldi, ayant mesure aussi exactement que possible 
 les angles des rhombes construits par les abeilles fixa les grands 
 a 109 degres, 28 minutes, et les petits a 70 degres, 32 minutes. 
 II n'y avait done, entre les deux solutions qu'une difference de 
 2 minutes. II est probable que I'erreur, s'il y en a une, doit 
 etre imputee a Maraldi plutot qu'aux abeilles, car aucun instru- 
 ment ne permet de mesurer avec une precision infaillible les 
 angles des cellules qui ne sont pas assez nettlement definis." 
 
 Maclaurin, a Scotch physicist, checked Koenig's computa- 
 tions and reported to the Royal Society in London in 1743 that 
 he found a solution in exact accord with Maraldi's measure- 
 ments, thereby completely justifying the mathematics of the 
 bee architect. 
 
 [331I 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 Bees have institutions like our own, consisting of 
 royalty, government and organized society. Cleanli- 
 ness in all things is their aim: and so they never alight 
 in any place where there is filth or an evil odour, or 
 even where there is a strong savour of such an unguent 
 as we may consider agreeable. For the same reason 
 if one who approaches them is covered with perfume,^ 
 they do not lick him as flies do, but they sting him, 
 and by the same token no one ever sees bees crawling 
 on meat and blood and grease, as flies do. And so 
 they only settle in places of sweet savour. They do 
 a minimum of damage because in their harvesting 
 they leave what they touch none the worse.^ They 
 are not so cowardly as not to resist who ever attempts 
 to disturb them, and yet they are fully conscious of 
 their own weakness. They are called the Winged 
 Servants of the Muses, because when they swarm 
 they are quickly brought together by the music of 
 cymbals and the clapping of hands: and as men as- 
 sign Helicon and Olympus to be the haunts of the 
 Muses, so nature has attributed the flowery and 
 
 ^ The Romans were as curious and as constant in the use of 
 perfumes as we are of tobacco. It is perhaps well to remember 
 that they might find our smoke as offensive as we would their 
 unguents. 
 
 ^ Indeed one of the marvels of nature is the service which 
 certain bees perform for certain plants in transferring their 
 fertilizing pollen which has no other means of transportation. 
 Darwin is most interesting on this subject. 
 
 [332] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 uncultivated mountains to the bees. They follow 
 their king ' wheresoever he goes, supporting him when 
 he is tired and even taking him upon their backs 
 if he is unable to fly, so do they wish to serve him.'^ 
 As they are not idlers themselves, so do they hate 
 those who are, and thus driving out the drones, they 
 exclude them from the hive, because they are of no 
 service but merely consume honey: and it happens 
 
 * The ancients, even Aristotle, did not know that the queen 
 bee is the common mother of the hive. They called her the king, 
 and it remained for Swammerdam in the seventeenth century 
 to detennine with the microscope this important fact. From 
 that discovery has developed our modem knowledge of the bee; 
 that the drones are the males and are suffered by the (normally) 
 sterile workers to live only until one of them has performed his 
 office of fertilizing once for all the new queen in that nuptial 
 flight, so dramatically fatal to the successful swain, which 
 Maeterlinck has described with wonderful rhetoric, whereupon 
 the workers massacre the surviving males without mercy. This 
 is the "driving out" which Varro mentions. 
 
 ^This picture of the queen bee is hardly in accord with 
 modem observations. It seems that while the queen is treated 
 with the utmost respect, she is rather a royal prisoner than a 
 ruler, and, after her nuptial flight, is confined to her function of 
 laying eggs incessantly unless she may be unwillingly dragged 
 forth to lead a swarm. Maeterlinck thus pictures {La Vie des 
 Abeilles, 174) her existence with a Gallic pencil: 
 
 " Elle n'aura aucune des habitudes, aucunes des passions que 
 nous croyons inherentes a I'abeille. Elle n'eprouvera ni le desir 
 du soleil, ni le besoin de I'espace et mourra sans avoir visite une 
 fleur. Elle passera son existence dans I'ombre et I'agitation 
 de la foule a la recherche infatigable de berceaux a peupler. En 
 revanche, elle connaitra seule I'inquietude de I'amour." 
 
 [333] 
 
ROMAN FARiM MANAGEMENT 
 
 that a few bees, buzzing with wrath, will drive out a 
 number of drones. 
 
 They smear every thing about the entrance to the 
 hive with a gum which is found between the cells 
 which the Greeks call ipiOdieri. They live under the 
 discipline of an army, taking turns in resting and 
 all doing their equal share of work, and they send 
 out colonies and carry out the orders of their leaders, 
 given with the voice, but as it were with a trumpet: 
 and in like manner they have signs of peace and of 
 war. 
 
 But, Merula, now in my course I pass on the torch 
 to you, as our Axius here is doubtless languishing 
 while he has listened to all this natural history, for I 
 have said nothing of profit." 
 
 "I do not know," said Merula, "whether what I 
 can say on the subject of the profit to be derived from 
 bees will satisfy you, Axius, but I have as my authori- 
 ties not only Seius, who takes five thousand pounds 
 of honey every year from the hives he leases, ^ but 
 also our friend Varro here, for I have heard him tell 
 of two brothers Veiani, from the Falerian territory, 
 
 ' It would have interested Azius to know that the annual 
 consumption of honey in the United States today is from loo to 
 125 million pounds and that the crop has^ money value of at 
 least ten million dollars. To match Seius, we might put forward 
 a bee farmer in California who produces annually 150,000 
 pounds of honey from 2,000 hives. 
 
 [334] 
 
ROMAN FARM xVIANAGEMENT 
 
 whom he had under his command in Spain and who, 
 although their father left them only a small house 
 with a curtilage of not exceeding a jugerum in ex- 
 tent, nevertheless made themselves rich. They set 
 bee hives all about the house and planted part of the 
 land in a garden and filled up the rest with thyme 
 and clover and that bee plant known to us as api- 
 astrum, though some call it /teXu^vXXoi', others 
 fieXXurcrd<^vXXov and still others meliticsna: and by 
 this means they were wont to derive, as they esti- 
 mated, an average income of not less than ten thou- 
 sand sesterces per annum from honey; but they did 
 this by being willing to wait until they could sell at 
 their own time and price rather than by forcing the 
 market." 
 
 "Tell me," exclaimed Axius, "where and how I 
 should establish a bee-stand to make such a hand- 
 some profit." 
 
 "The apiary," replied Merula, "which some call 
 
 by the Greek names fieki/ntov and iiekirrarpwfxiov, and 
 
 others mellarium, should preferably be placed near 
 
 the house ^ in a location where there is no echo (for 
 
 ' Maeterlinck has made a charming picture of this habit of 
 propinquity of the bee-stand to the human habitation. He 
 describes {La Vie des Abeilles, 14) the old man who taught him 
 to love bees when he was a boy in Flanders, an old man whose 
 entire happiness "consistait aux beautes d'un jardin et parmi 
 ces beautes la mieux aimee et la plus visitees etait un roucher, 
 compose de douze cloches de paille qu'il avait peint, les unes de 
 
 [335] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 such sounds are deemed to put them to flight, as 
 timid men are by the din of a battle) and where the 
 temperature is mild, exposed neither to the heat of 
 summer nor the cold of winter, giving preferably to 
 the Southeast and near of access to places where 
 their food is abundant and there is a supply of fresh 
 water. If there is no natural supply of food available 
 you should plant such things as best serve bees for 
 pasture, namely: roses, thyme, bee balm,^ poppies, 
 beans, lentils, peas, basil, gladiolus, alfalfa, and es- 
 pecially clover which is of great service to the bees 
 which are sick, for it begins to bloom at the vernal 
 equinox and lasts until that of autumn. As clover is 
 the best food for sick bees, so thyme is the best for 
 making honey, and it is because Sicily abounds in 
 good thyme that it takes the palm for producing 
 honey. On this account some men bruise thyme in 
 a mortar and mix warm water with it and then spray 
 
 rose vif, les autres de jaune clair, la plupart d'un bleu tendre, car 
 il avait observe, bien avant les experiences de Sir John Lubbock, 
 que le bleu est la couleur preferee des abeilles. II avait installe 
 ce roucher contre le mur blanchi de la maison, dans Tangle que 
 formait une des ces savoureuses et fraiches cuisines hoUondaises 
 aux dressoirs de faience ou etincalaient les etains et les cuivres 
 qui, par la porte ouverte, se refletaient dans un canal paisible. 
 Et I'eau charges d'images famili^res, sous un rideau de peupliers, 
 guidait les regards jusqu'au repos d'un horizon de moulins et 
 de pres." 
 
 ^ Reading Apiastro. This is the Melissa officinalis of Lin- 
 nsus. Cf. Pliny, XX, 45 and XXI, 86, 
 
 [336] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 all their nursery plants with it for the sake of the 
 bees. 
 
 The hives should be set as near the house as con- 
 venient: some men even put them under the very 
 portico for greater safety. Hives are made in various 
 shapes and sizes and of different material; ^ thus 
 some make them round out of wicker work: others 
 of frame covered with bark: others use hollow tree 
 trunks: others vessels of pottery: some even build 
 them square out of rods, allowing about three feet in 
 length and a foot in height, but these dimensions 
 should be reduced where you have not enough bees 
 to fill a hive of that size, for fear that the bees might 
 become discouraged by too large an empty space. 
 
 The bee hive derives its name alvus, which is the 
 same as our word for belly, from the fact that it 
 holds food, that is to say, honey; and it is on this 
 analogy that hives are usually shaped to imitate the 
 form of the belly, small in the waist and bulging out 
 below. When the hives are made of wicker work 
 they should be coated evenly within and without 
 
 ^ Bee keepers attribute to Reaumur the invention of the 
 modem glass observation hive, which has made possible so 
 much of our knowledge of the bee, but it may be noted that 
 Pliny (H. N. XXI, 47) mentions hives of "lapis specularis," 
 some sort of talc, contrived for the purpose of observing bees 
 at work. The great advance in bee hives is, however, the sec- 
 tional construction attributed to Langstroth and developed in 
 America by Root. 
 
 [337] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 with ox dung ^ so that the bees may not be driven 
 away by the roughness of their roof. The hives 
 should be so ordered under the shelter of a wall that 
 they may not be disturbed nor touch one another 
 when arranged in ranks, for it is the practice to place 
 hives in two and some times three separated ranks, 
 but the opinion is that it is better to reduce the ranks 
 to two than to increase them to four. In the middle 
 of the hive small openings are made on the right and 
 the left to serve as entrances for the bees, and on 
 top is placed a practicable cover, which may be re- 
 moved to give access to the honey comb. This is 
 best when made of bark, and worst of pottery, be- 
 cause that is strongly affected both by the cold of 
 winter and the heat of summer. In spring and sum- 
 mer the bee keeper should inspect each hive at least 
 three times a month, fumigating them lightly, clean- 
 ing and throwing out dirt and worms. At the same 
 time he should take precautions to keep down the 
 number of princes, for they keep the bees from work 
 by stirring up sedition. There are said to be three 
 
 * G>lumella, (IX, 14) referring to the myth of the generation 
 of bees in the carcase of an ox (out of which Virgil made the 
 fable of the pastor Aristaeus in the Fourth Georgic), explains 
 the practice mentioned in the text with the statement "hie 
 enim quasi quadam cognatione generis maxime est apibus 
 aptus." The plastering of wicker hives with ox dung persisted 
 and is recommended in the seventeenth century editions of the 
 Maison Rustique. 
 
 [338] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGHMENT 
 
 kinds of royalties among the bees: the black, the 
 red and the mottled, or, as Menecrates writes, two: 
 the black and the mottled: and as the latter is the 
 better it behooves the bee keeper, when he finds 
 both kinds in a hive, to kill the black one, as he is 
 forever playing politics ^ against the other king, 
 whereby the hive must suffer, for inevitably one of 
 the kings will flee or be driven out, in either case 
 taking his party with him. 
 
 Of working bees the small round mottled variety 
 is considered the best. The drone, or, as some call 
 him, the thief,* is black with a large belly. The wasp, 
 which has some resemblance to a bee, is not, however, 
 a fellow labourer, but attacks the bees with his sting, 
 wherefore the bees keep him at a distance. 
 
 Bees are themselves distinguished as wild and 
 tame. I call those wild which feed in the forests, and 
 those tame which feed in cultivated places. The 
 forest bees are smaller in size and hairy but better 
 workmen. 
 
 In buying bees it behooves the purchaser to see 
 whether they are well or ailing. The signs of health 
 are a thick swarm, well groomed appearance and a 
 hive being filled in a workmanlike manner. The 
 
 ^ Reading seditiosum. 
 
 ^ This is a mistake upon which Aristotle could have corrected 
 Varro. 
 
 [339] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 signs of lack of condition on the other hand are a 
 hairy and bristling appearance and a dusty coat, 
 unless this last is caused by a pressure of work, for 
 under such circumstances they often wear them- 
 selves down and become thin. 
 
 If the hives are to be transferred from one place 
 to another it is necessary to choose a fit time to make 
 the move and a suitable place to receive them. As 
 to time, spring is preferable to winter because in 
 winter they have difficulty in adjusting themselves 
 to a new location and so often run away, as they do 
 also if you move them from a good location to a 
 place where proper pasture is not available. Nor 
 is a transfer from one hive to another in the same 
 place to be undertaken carelessly, but that to which 
 the bees are to be transferred should be rubbed with 
 bee balm, which will serve as a bait for them, and 
 some pieces of honey comb should be placed in it, 
 not far from the entrances, for fear that the bees 
 might run away if they found the larder of their new 
 home empty. 
 
 Menecrates says that bees contract a malady of 
 the bowels from their first spring pasture on the 
 blossoms of the almond and the cornel cherry and are 
 cured by giving them urine to drink.' 
 
 ' After studying the commentators on this obscure passage, 
 I have elected to follow the emendation of Ursinus, which, al- 
 
 [340I 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 That gummy substance which the bees use, chiefly 
 in summer to construct a sort of curtain between 
 the entrance and the hive, is called propolis, and 
 by the same name is used by physicians in making 
 plasters: by reason of which use it sells in the Via 
 Sacra for more than honey itself. That substance 
 which is called erithacen, and is used to glue the cells 
 together, is different from both honey and propolis: 
 it is supposed to have a quality of attraction for bees 
 and is accordingly mixed with bee balm and smeared 
 on the branch or other place on which it is desired to 
 have a swarm light. The comb is made of wax and 
 is multicellular, each cell in it having six sides or as 
 many as nature has given the bee feet. It is said 
 that bees do not gather from the same plants all the 
 materials which enter in these four substances which 
 they manufacture, namely: propolis, erithacen, wax 
 and honey. Thus from the pomegranate and the 
 asparagus they gather food alone, wax from the 
 olive tree, honey from the fig, but not of good quality: 
 other plants like the bean, the bee balm, the gourd 
 and the cabbage serve a double purpose and yield 
 both wax and food: while the apple and the wild pear 
 serve a similar double purpose but for food and 
 honey and the poppy again for wax and honey. 
 
 though Keil sneers at its license, has the advantage of making 
 sense. 
 
 [341I 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 Others again provide material for three purposes, 
 food, honey and wax, such as the almond and the 
 charlock.^ In like manner there are flowers from 
 each of which they derive a different one of these 
 substances, and others from which they derive several 
 of them: while they make distinctions in respect of 
 plants according to the quality of the product they 
 yield, — or rather the plants make the distinction for 
 them — as with respect to honey, some yield liquid 
 honey, like the skirwort, ^ and others thick honey 
 like the rosemary. So again honey of insipid flavour 
 is made from the fig, good honey from clover, and the 
 best of all from thyme. 
 
 And since drink is part of a bee's diet and water 
 is the liquid they use, there should be provided near 
 the stand a place for them to drink, which may be 
 either a running stream or a reservoir not more than 
 two or three fingers deep in which bricks or stones are 
 placed in such a way as to project a little from the 
 water, and so furnish a place for the bees to sit and 
 drink; but the greatest care must be taken to keep 
 this water fresh, as it is of high importance to the 
 making of good honey. 
 
 As the bees cannot go out to distant pasture in 
 all weathers, food must be prepared for them, as 
 
 ^ Sinapis arvensis, Linn. 
 ^ Sium sisarum, Linn. 
 
 [342I 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 otherwise they will live on their supply of honey and 
 so deplete the store in the hive. For this purpose 
 ten pounds of ripe figs may be boiled in six congii of 
 water and bits of the paste thus prepared should be 
 set out near the hives. Others provide honey water 
 in little dishes and float flocks of clean wool on them 
 through which the bees may suck without risk of 
 either getting more than is good for them or of being 
 drowned. One such dish should be provided for 
 each hive and they should be kept filled. Others 
 again bray dried grapes and figs together and, mix- 
 ing in some boiled must, make a paste of which bits 
 are exposed near the hives during such part of the 
 winter as the bees are still able to go forth in search 
 of food. 
 
 When a swarm is about to come out of the hive 
 (which happens when a number of young bees have 
 matured, and the hive determines to send their youth 
 out to found a colony, as formerly the Sabines often 
 were compelled to do on account of the number of 
 their children)* there are two signs by which the 
 
 * The philosophy of the bee is not as selfish as that human 
 principle which Varro attributes to them. The hive does not 
 send forth its "youth" to found a colony, but, on the contrary, 
 abandons its home and its accumulated store of wealth to its 
 youth and itself ventures forth under the leadership of the old 
 queen to face the uncertainties of the future, leaving only a 
 small band of old bees to guard the hive and rear the young 
 until the new queen shall have supplied a new population. 
 
 [343] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 intention may be known: one that for several days 
 before hand, and especially in the evening, many 
 bees weave themselves together and hang upon the 
 entrance of the hive like grapes : the other that when 
 they are about to go forth or have already begun 
 to go they buzz together lustily, as soldiers do when 
 they break camp. Those who have come forth first 
 fly about the hive waiting for the others, who have 
 not yet collected, to join them. When the bee keeper 
 notices this he has only to throw dust on them and 
 at the same time beat upon some copper vessel to 
 collect them, thoroughly frightened, where he desires 
 in some nearby place on which he has smeared eritha- 
 cen and bees' balm and other things in which they 
 delight. When they have settled down he should 
 place near them a hive smeared within with the same 
 baits, and then, by blowing a light smoke around 
 them, compel them to enter the hive. When thus 
 introduced into their new abode the swarm makes 
 itself at home cheerfully, so that even if placed next 
 to the parent hive they will prefer their new colonial 
 settlement. 
 
 And now, having told you all I know about the 
 care of bees, I will speak of that for which the in- 
 dustry is carried on, that is to say, of the profit. 
 
 The honey is taken off when the hive is full, as 
 may be determined by removing the cover of the 
 
 [344] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 hive, for if the openings of the combs are seen to be 
 sealed, as it were with a skin, then the hive is full of 
 honey: but the bees themselves give notice of this 
 condition by keeping up a loud buzzing within, by 
 their agitation when they go in and out and by driv- 
 ing out the drones. 
 
 In taking off honey some say that you should be 
 content with nine parts, leaving the tenth, because 
 if you take it all the bees will desert the hive: others 
 leave a still larger proportion than I have mentioned. 
 
 As those who crop their com land every year ob- 
 tain good yields only at intervals, so it is with bee 
 hives : you will have more industrious and more profit- 
 able bees if you do not exact of them the same tribute 
 every year. 
 
 It is considered that honey should be taken off 
 for the first time at the rising of the Pleiades, for the 
 second time at the end of summer before Arcturus 
 has reached the zenith, and for the third time after 
 the setting of the Pleiades, but this last time be- 
 ware not to take more than one-third of the store 
 even if the hive is full, leaving the other two-thirds 
 for the winter supply, but if the hive is only partially 
 filled nothing should be taken off. In any event, 
 when a large amount of honey is to be taken off a 
 hive it should not be done all at once or ostentatiously 
 less the bees be discouraged. Those combs which, 
 
 [345] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 on being taken off, are found to be partly unfilled 
 with honey or to be soiled, should be pared with a 
 knife. 
 
 Care must be taken that the weaker bees in a 
 hive are not oppressed by the stronger, for this 
 diminishes the profit: to this end the minority party * 
 may be colonized under another king. When bees 
 are given to fighting with one another, you should 
 sprinkle them with honey water, upon which they 
 will not only cease fighting but will crowd together 
 and kiss one another: and this will prove the case 
 even more if they are sprinkled with mead, for the 
 savour of the wine in it will cause them to apply them- 
 selves so greedily that they will fuddle themselves 
 in sucking it. If the bees seem lazy about coming 
 out to work and any part of them get the habit of 
 remaining in the hive, they should be fumigated and 
 odoriferous herbs, like bees' balm and thyme, should 
 be placed near the hive. Watchful care is necessary 
 to protect them from ruin by heat or cold. If the 
 bees are overtaken by a sudden rain or cold while at 
 pasture (which rarely happens for they usually fore- 
 see such things) and are stricken down by the heavy 
 rain drops and laid low and stunned, you should 
 gather them in a dish and place them under cover in 
 a warm place until the weather has cleared, when 
 ^ Reading imbecilliores. 
 [346] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 they should be sprinkled with ashes of fig wood 
 (making sure that the ashes are rather hot than warm) 
 the dish should then be shaken gently without touch- 
 ing the bees with your hand, and placed in the sun. 
 When the bees feel this warmth they revive and get 
 on their feet again, just as flies do after they have 
 been apparently drowned. This should be done 
 near the hive so that when the bees have come to 
 themselves they may return home and to work." 
 
 Of fish ponds 
 
 XVII. Here Pavo returned and said: "You may 
 weigh anchor now if you wish. The drawing of the 
 lots of the tribes to determine a tie vote is over and 
 the herald is announcing the result of the election." 
 
 Appius arose without delay and went to congratu- 
 late his candidate, and escort him home. 
 
 Merula said: "I will leave the third act of our 
 drama of the husbandry of the steading to you, 
 Axius," and went out with the others, leaving Axius 
 with me to wait for our candidate whom we knew 
 would come to join us. Axius said to me: "I do not 
 regret Merula's departure at this point, for I am quite 
 well up on the subject of fish ponds, which still re- 
 mains to complete our programme. 
 
 There are two kinds of fish ponds, of fresh water 
 and salt water. The former are commonly main- 
 
 [347] 
 
ROMAN FARM xMANAGEMENT 
 
 tained by farmers and without much expense, for 
 the Lymphse, the homely goddesses of the Foun- 
 tains, supply the water for them, while the latter, 
 the sea ponds, are the play things of our nobles and 
 are furnished with both water and fishes, as it were 
 by Neptune himself: serving more the purposes of 
 pleasure than of utility, their accomplishment being 
 rather to empty than to fill the exchequers of their 
 lords. For in the first place they are built at great 
 expense, then they are stocked at great expense, and 
 finally they are maintained at great expense. 
 
 Hirrus was wont to derive an income of twelve 
 thousand sesterces from the buildings surrounding 
 his fish ponds, all of which he spent for food for his 
 fishes: and no wonder, for I remember that on one 
 occasion he lent two thousand murerue to Caesar ^ 
 by weight (stipulating for their return in kind), so 
 that his villa (which was not otherwise extraordinary) 
 sold for four million sesterces on account of the stock 
 of fish. 
 
 In sooth, the inland ponds of our farmer folk may 
 well be called dulcis, and those other amara.^ 
 
 ^ Pliny {H. N. IX, 8i) relates that this loan was made to 
 supply the banquet on the occasion of one of the triumphs of 
 Czsar the dictator, but Pliny puts the loan at six thousand 
 fishes. 
 
 ^ It is impossible to translate this pun into English, dulcis 
 being the equivalent of both "fresh" and "agreeable," and 
 
 [348] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGExMENT 
 
 A single fish pond suffices us simple folk, but 
 those amateurs must have a series of them linked 
 together: for as Pausias and other painters of his 
 school have boxes with as many compartments as 
 they have different coloured wax, so must they fain 
 have as many ponds as they have different varieties 
 of fish. 
 
 These fish are furthermore sacred, more sacred, 
 indeed, than those fish which you, Varro, say you 
 saw in Lydia, (at the same time that you saw the 
 dancing isles) * which came to the shore, where the 
 altar was erected for a sacrifice, in shoals at the sound 
 of the Greek pipe, because no one ever ventured to 
 molest them; so no cook has ever been known to 
 have 'sauced' one of these fishes,* 
 
 "When our friend Hortensius had those fish ponds 
 
 at Baulii, which represented so large an investment, 
 
 he was wont to send to Puteoli to buy the fish he 
 
 served on his table, as I have often seen when I was 
 
 amara of "salt" and "disagreeable." A French translator 
 would have at his command doux and amer. 
 
 1 Cf. Pliny (H. N. II, 96): "In Lydia the islands called Cala- 
 minae are not only driven about by the wind, but may even be 
 pushed at pleasure from place to place, by which means many 
 people saved themselves in the Mithridatic war. There are 
 some small islands in the Nymphseus called the Dancers, be- 
 cause, when choruses are sung, they move in tune with the 
 measure of the music." 
 
 * Reading in ius vocare, with the double entendre of service in a 
 sauce and bringing to justice. 
 
 [349] 
 
ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT 
 
 visiting him. And it was not enough that his fishes 
 did not supply his table, but he was at pains to sup- 
 ply theirs, taking greater precautions lest his mullets 
 (mulli) should go hungry than I do for my mules in 
 Rosea, and it was not at less cost that he supplied 
 meat and drink to his stock than I do to mine. For 
 I raise my asses, which bring such fancy prices, at 
 the cost of one servant, a little barley and the water 
 which springs from my land, while Hortensius must 
 needs maintain a fleet of fishermen to keep him sup- 
 plied with small fry to feed to his fish, or, when the 
 sea runs high and such deep sea forage is cut off by a 
 storm, and it is not possible even to draw live bait 
 ashore in a net, he is fain to buy in the market for 
 the delectation of the denizens of his ponds the very 
 salt fish which is the food of the people." 
 
 "Doubtless," said I,. "Hortensius would prefer to 
 have you take the carriage mules out of his stable 
 than one of his barbel mules from the fish pond." 
 
 "Yes, indeed," agreed Axius, "and he would 
 rather have a sick slave drink cold water than that 
 his beloved fish should be risked in that which is 
 fresh. On the other hand, M. Lucullus was reputed 
 to be so careless and neglectful of his fish ponds that 
 he did not provide any suitable quarters for his fishes 
 in hot weather, but permitted them to remain in ponds 
 which were unhealthy with stagnant water: a practice 
 
 [350] 
 
ROMAN FARxM MAN'AGExMEN i 
 
 very different from that of his brother L. LucuUus, 
 who yielded nothing to Neptune himself in his care 
 of his fishes, for he pierced a mountain at Naples, 
 and so contrived that the sea water in his fish ponds 
 should be renewed by the action of the tides. Further- 
 more, he has arranged that his beloved fishes may be 
 driven into a cool place during the heait of the day, 
 just as the Apulian shepherds do when they drive 
 their flocks along the drift ways to the Sabine moun- 
 tains : for so great was his ardour for the welfare of 
 his fishes that he gave a commission to his architect 
 to drive at his sole cost a tunnel from his fish ponds 
 at Baise to the sea, and by throwing out a mole con- 
 trived that the tide should flow in and out of his 
 fish ponds twice a day, from moon to moon, and so 
 cool them off." 
 
 At this moment, while we were talking, there 
 was a sound of foot steps on the right and our candi- 
 date came into the villa publica arrayed in the broad 
 purple of his new rank as an sedile. We went to 
 meet him and, after congratulations, escorted him 
 to the Capitol, whence he departed for his home and 
 we to ours. 
 
 So there, my dear Pinnius, is the brief record of 
 our discourse on the husbandry of the steading. 
 
 1 351] 
 
INDEX 
 
 Actus {actus guadratus), unit 
 of area in land measure- 
 ment, 92. 
 
 ^gean Sea, derivation of name, 
 186. 
 
 JEsop's fable of the fox, 
 87 n. 
 
 Agriculture, distinguished 
 from grazing, pottery-mak- 
 ing, etc., 65-71 ; definition of 
 scope of, 72; purposes of, are 
 profit and pleasure, 73-76; 
 four divisions for the study 
 of, 76-78; effect of con- 
 formation of the land on, 
 78-81 ; effect of character of 
 soil, 82-85, 88 ff. 
 
 Albutius, L., 281. 
 
 Alfalfa, advice concerning, 149 
 -150. 
 
 Alfius, Roman farmer banker, 
 19 n. 
 
 Alpine hares, 323. 
 
 Amurca, farm uses of, 46; 
 used for anointing threshing 
 floors, 162; waste of, by 
 Romans, 167 n.; method of 
 preserving, 171; condens- 
 ing, 172-173. 
 
 Apiaries, location of, 335-337- 
 See Bees, 
 
 Apicius, recipe for ragout of 
 dormice by, 328 n. 
 
 Appian, quoted, 180 n. 
 
 Appius Claudius Pulcher, 
 273 n. 
 
 Apples, storing, 169-170. 
 
 Apulian breed of horses, 239, 
 240 n. 
 
 Aquinas, Thomas, 291 n. 
 
 Arbusta, the Italian, 30 n., 86. 
 
 Arista, etymology of word, 
 156. 
 
 Aristotle, on blindness of pup- 
 pies, 25 n.; cited, 183; on 
 goats' breathing through 
 their ears, 210 n.; on exercis- 
 ing of pregnant mares, 237; 
 on breeding of mares, 242 n.; 
 story related by, 245 n. 
 
 Arpent, derivation of, 92 n. 
 
 Asparagus planting, 124-125. 
 
 Asses, use of, as compared with 
 other draught animals, 117; 
 manure of, 141; certain 
 choice breeds of, 189; buy- 
 ing, breeding, care of, etc., 
 234-236; milk of, 262. 
 
 Atticus, T. Pomponius, 197. 
 
 Augeas, King, tradition con- 
 cerning, 179 n. 
 
 Augustine, St., on Varro, 7-8; 
 indebtedness of, to works 
 of Varro, 9. 
 
 [353] 
 
INDEX 
 
 Aviaries, profits flrom, 280- 
 281; two classes of, 287; 
 those kept for profit, 288- 
 290; those kept for pleasure, 
 291-296. 
 
 Aviary, Varro's, at Casinum, 
 291-296. 
 
 B 
 
 Bakewell, breeding of sheep 
 by, 199 n. 
 
 Barbers, the first, in Italy, 266. 
 
 Barn yards, arrangement of, 
 96-97. 
 
 Barrows, hogs called, 224. 
 
 Bavaria, agriculture in Iowa 
 contrasted with that in, 
 72 n. 
 
 Beans, use of, for green manur- 
 ing, 122 n.; storing, 169. 
 
 Beauderk, W. N., on agricul- 
 ture in modern Italy, 60 n.; 
 quoted, 201 n. 
 
 Bees, eggs of unfertilized 
 queen, 192 n.; the keeping 
 of, 329 S.; theories concern- 
 ing generation of, 330; trea- 
 tises on, by ancient writers, 
 330 n.; habits and houses 
 of, 330-334; money to be 
 made from, 334-335; loca- 
 tion of stands for, 335-336; 
 
 food for, 336-337, 341-343; 
 structure and care of hives, 
 337-338; kinds of, 338-339; 
 selection of, 339-340; mov- 
 ing, 340; swarming of, 343- 
 
 344; removal of honey, 344- 
 346; general care of, 346- 
 
 347- 
 Benson, William, edition of 
 
 GeoTgics by, quoted, 127 n. 
 Birds, manure of, 140-141. 
 Blackbirds, houses for keeping, 
 
 288-290. 
 Blackstone, opinion by, cited, 
 
 176 n. 
 Bleat, etymology of word, 185, 
 Blood, use of, in composts, 
 
 98 n. 
 Boars, advice concerning, 215- 
 
 217; altering, 224; wild, 324. 
 Boissier, Gaston, 9; quoted and 
 
 cited, 12, 15, 180, 181 n. 
 Boke of Husbandry, Fitzher- 
 
 bert's, 35 n. 
 Bologna sausages, 218 n. 
 Bones, remedy for injuries to, 
 
 47- 
 Borden, Spencer, The Arab 
 
 Horse by, quoted, 237. 
 Boundaries, protection of 
 
 farm, 100-103. 
 Buffon, quotations from, 108 
 
 n., 307; cited, 313 n., 315 n. 
 Bugs, recipe for exterminating, 
 
 70. 
 Buildings on farm, 28. 
 
 Cabbage, Cato's advocacy of 
 the, 30 n., 72; planting, 121, 
 125; seeding, 151. 
 
 Cakes, recipes for, 48. 
 
 [354] 
 
INDEX 
 
 Calendar of agricultural bpera- 
 
 tions, 129-139. 
 Capons, chickens called, 244; 
 
 method of caponizing cocks, 
 
 307. 
 Capra, goats, derivation of 
 
 word, 210. 
 Capreolus, a spiral tendril, 
 
 133- 
 
 Cascate delle Marmore, 274 n. 
 
 Casinum, Varro's estate of, 
 291, 292 n. 
 
 Cassius, quoted, 107—108. 
 
 Cassius Dionysius, 56. 
 
 Cat, the modern household, 
 unknown to Varro, 319 n. 
 
 Cato, Marcus Porcius, 4, 5-6; 
 the De re rustica of, 5-6; 
 literary style of, compared 
 with Varro, 9. 
 
 Cats, contrasted with dogs 
 in relations with man, 250 n. 
 
 Cattle, leaves as fodder for, 
 30, 43, 44, 124; feeding of, 
 43-45; care of, 45-47; num- 
 ber and selection of, for a 
 farm, 114-117; honour paid 
 to, in naming Zodiacal signs 
 and the constellations, 185- 
 186; advice on breeding and 
 feeding, 188 ff.; number of, 
 to be kept, 195-196; advice 
 on neat cattle, 225-233. 
 
 Centuria, defined, 93, 113. 
 
 Chaff, derivation of word, j6i. 
 
 Cheese, varieties and qualities 
 of, 263-264. 
 
 Cheese cake, 48. 
 
 Chestnuts as food in Italy, 
 80 n. 
 
 Child, R., quoted, 202 n. 
 
 Cicero, quoted concerning 
 Varro, 8; verse from, 225 n. 
 
 Cleaning grain, 172. 
 
 Clement-Mullet, J. J., transla- 
 tion by, 97 n. 
 
 Climate, choice of, in buying 
 a farm, 21; connection be- 
 tween conformation of land 
 and, 79. 
 
 Clover, advice on seeding, 
 
 Cobum, book on alfalfa by, 
 149 n. 
 
 Colours of horses, significance 
 of, 239 n. 
 
 Columella, 4; cited, 19 n., 29 n., 
 281 n., 303, 309, 316 n.; on 
 ploughing, 38 n.; rules about 
 the compost heap, 40 n.; on 
 soil improvement with leg- 
 umes, 42 n.; on dangers from 
 mosquitoes, 95 n.; on alfalfa, 
 149 n.; quoted, 304 n.^ 
 
 Comedy of Errors, origin of, 
 193 n. 
 
 Compost heap, rules concern- 
 ing the, 40, 98 n. 
 
 Concrete, fences of, lOl. 
 
 Conformation of land, effect 
 of, on agriculture, 7&-81. 
 
 Constellations, names of cattle 
 given to, 186. 
 
 Coots, 320. 
 
 Com, structure of plant, 156; 
 storing, 167-168. S^^ Grain. 
 
 [355] 
 
INDEX 
 
 Corn land as distinguished 
 
 from plough land, 130. 
 Corsican honey, 278. 
 Cotton seed, utilization of, 
 
 167 n. 
 Country life, antiquity of, 
 
 269-271. 
 Cowper and Cowley, lines by, 
 
 270 n. 
 Crescenzi, Pietro, cited, 80 n. 
 Cultivating time, 153 ff. 
 Curing hams, 49-50. 
 Cuttage of plants, 144. 
 Cyrrhestes, Tower of the 
 
 Winds built by, 295-296. 
 
 Dante, quotation from, 203 n. 
 
 Darwin, Charles, Animals and 
 Plants by, quoted, 235 n., 
 319 n.; on dormice, 328 n. 
 
 Dates, eating preserved, 174. 
 
 Denarius, value of the, 212 n. 
 
 Dennis, Cities and Cemeteries 
 of Etruria by, quoted, 257 n. 
 
 De re rustica, Cato's, 5-6. 
 
 Desmolins, Edmond, cited, 
 217 n. 
 
 Dickson, Andrew, quoted, 3 n.; 
 cited, 130 n. 
 
 Diophanes of Bithynia, 90. 
 
 Disease in cattle, and reme- 
 dies, 194. 
 
 Dislocations of bones, remedy 
 for, 47. 
 
 Dogs, watch, 116, 118; herd, 
 247-254. 
 
 [356] 
 
 Donaldson's Agricultural Bi- 
 ography, quoted, 114 n. 
 
 Dondlinger, Book of Wheat by, 
 quoted, 159 n. 
 
 Dormice, enclosures for, feed- 
 ing, etc., 327-328. 
 
 Draining, 37-38; period for, 
 
 137- 
 Draught animals on farm, 3 1- 
 
 32; number and choice of, 
 
 H4-117. 
 Dry farming, 127 n. 
 Ducks, housing, care of, etc., 
 
 319-320. 
 Dunghill fowl, 306-312. 
 Dusting yard for poultry, 308. 
 
 Eggs, the first course in Roman 
 
 dinners, 65 n.; barren, 192; 
 
 number for setting, 309-3 10; 
 
 preserving, 3 10-3 11. 
 Elm trees, planting of, 30; 
 
 for marking boundaries, 102. 
 Endive, as food for geese, 317. 
 Ensilage, question of use of, 
 
 by ancients, 43 n. 
 Equipment of a farm, 106 ff. 
 
 Fallow, as managed by the 
 Romans, 3. 
 
 Farm, buying a, 20-22; laying 
 out of the, 27-31; stocking 
 the, 31-32; as a source of 
 both profit and pleasure, 
 
INDEX 
 
 73-76; effect of conforma- 
 tion of the land, 78-81; 
 effect of character of the 
 soil, 82-85. 
 
 Farm hands, allowances for, 
 3S~37; selection, treatment, 
 number of, etc., 107-114. 
 
 Farrago, mixed fodder, 133; 
 as food for geese, 317, 318. 
 
 Feast days, observance of, 
 36. 
 
 Feed racks, construction of, 
 44. 
 
 Fences, loo-ioi. 
 
 Ferrero, cited, 10, 27 n. 
 
 Field crops, planting of, 121- 
 123. 
 
 Figs, season for propagating, 
 146-147; eadng preserved, 
 174. 
 
 Fining the soil, 132. 
 
 Fishes, feeding and care of, 
 
 349-351- 
 
 Fish ponds, 97, 283, 284-285, 
 286; fresh-water and salt- 
 water, 347-348; number of, 
 on one estate, 349. 
 
 Fitzherbert, Sir Anthony, 31 n; 
 quoted, 35 n.; cited, 83 n., 
 319 n.; on combining two 
 kinds of husbandry, 85 n.; 
 on greasing of sheep, 264 n. 
 
 Flagellum, flag, 132-133. 
 
 Flock masters, duties of, 257- 
 259. 
 
 Forage, derivation from far- 
 rago, 133 n. 
 
 Forage crops, 42-43, 133, 
 
 Foremen of farm hands, quali- 
 fications of, 108. 
 
 Fowl. See Poultry. 
 
 Fowler, Social Life at Rome by, 
 quoted, 176 n. 
 
 France, yields of wine in, 61 n. 
 
 Freemen as agricultural la- 
 bourers, 107. 
 
 Fruits, preserving, 169-171; 
 time for using stored, 174. 
 
 Furlong, derivation of, 92 n. 
 
 Game preserves, 321, 324-325. 
 
 Gauls, pre-eminence of, in 
 growing and making of pork, 
 217-218; high qualities as 
 shepherds, 256. 
 
 Geese, selection of, breeding, 
 care, etc., 315-318. 
 
 Geldings, horses called, 244. 
 
 Geoponica, the, 4 n.; cited, 
 70 n. 
 
 Georgics, Virgil's, passages 
 based on information from 
 Varro, 10 ff. 
 
 Gestation, periods of, 191. 
 
 Gleaning of grain fields, 163- 
 164. 
 
 Gluma, etymology of word, 
 156. 
 
 Goats, as foes of agriculture, 
 67-68 ; characteristics, breed- 
 ing, and handling, 207-212; 
 milk of, 262; use of hair and 
 skins of, 266; shearing of, 
 266-267. 
 
 [357] 
 
INDEX 
 
 Googe, Barnaby, translation 
 of Heresbach by, 159 n. 
 
 Graftage of plants, 145, 147- 
 148. 
 
 Grain, advice on seeding, 151- 
 153; storing of, 167-168; 
 cleaning, when taken out of 
 storage, 172; time for mar- 
 keting, 174-175- 
 
 Granaries, varieties of, 168. 
 
 Granum, etymology of word, 
 156. 
 
 Grapes, harvesting of, 164- 
 165; advice on storing, 
 169. 
 
 Grapevines, trellises and props 
 for, 86-88. 
 
 Grazing, to be distinguished 
 from agriculture, 65-69, 178 
 -180. 
 
 Greek writers on agriculture, 
 
 ^ 4, 54- 
 
 Green manuring, 2, 122, 219 n. 
 
 Guano, 141 n. 
 
 Guinea fowl, 313. 
 
 H 
 
 Haredium, defined, 92-93. 
 
 Hair, removal of supedBuous, 
 70. 
 
 Hams, recipes for curing and 
 cooking, 49-50. 
 
 Hares, varieties of, 322-323. 
 See Rabbits. 
 
 Harte, Walter, Essays on Hus- 
 bandry by, 9, 63 n.; on 
 alfalfa, 149 n.; quoted, 152. 
 
 Hartlib, Samuel, ii; quoted, 
 55 n.; on pasture vs. arable 
 land, 85 n. 
 
 Harvester, ancient forerunners 
 of the modern, 158 n. 
 
 Harvest time, 157 ff. 
 
 Hay, harvesting the, 157-158; 
 storing of, 167. 
 
 Haymaking, 42. 
 
 Health, location of farm stead- 
 ing with regard to, 94-96. 
 
 Healthfulness of farms, im- 
 portance of, 75-76. 
 
 Hedges, myrtle, 31. 
 
 Heliotrope, habits of the, 155. 
 
 Hens, 306-312. 
 
 Herd dogs, 247-254. 
 
 Heresbach, Conrad, cited, 
 159 n. 
 
 Herrick, Robert, quoted, 152. 
 
 Hesiod, 4; quoted and cited, 
 26 n., 3 1 n. 
 
 Hinnies, 245, 247. 
 
 Hives for bees, location and 
 structure, 337; inventors of 
 modern devices, 337 n. 
 
 Hogs, 212-225. 
 
 Homer, quoted, 23 n.; on use 
 of mules, 245 n. 
 
 Honey, Sicilian and Cbrsican, 
 278; profits from, 334-335; 
 removal of, from hive, 344- 
 346. 
 
 Honeycomb, structure of the, 
 
 330-331, 341. 
 Horace, cited, 23 n., 30 n., 
 
 32 n.; quoted, 318 n. 
 Horses, oxen vs., 31 n.; ma- 
 
 [358] 
 
INDEX 
 
 pure of, 141 ; breeding, feed- 
 ing, care of, etc., 236-244. 
 
 House for residence on farm, 
 29. 
 
 Housekeeper, duties of the, 
 35-36. 
 
 Ibn-al-Awam, book of agri- 
 culture by, 97 n. 
 
 Implements, farming, 118-120. 
 
 Inarching, propagation by, 
 146. 
 
 Incantations as cures, 47. 
 
 Interamna, town of, 274 n. 
 
 Iowa, farming in Bavaria and, 
 72 n. 
 
 Italy, agriculture in modern, 
 60 n. 
 
 Johnson, Samuel, on Harte's 
 
 Husbandry, 64 n.; quoted 
 
 on Shenstone, 74 n. 
 Joigneaux, P., on yields of 
 
 wine in France, 61 n. 
 Jones, W. H., on malaria in 
 
 the Roman Campagna, 95 n. 
 Jugerum, defined, 92. 
 Jugum, defined, 92. 
 Jungle fowl, 312-313. 
 
 Kames, Lord, quoted, 31 n. 
 Keil, quoted, 129 n.; cited, 
 252 n., 29s n., 319 n. 
 
 Keller, cited, 319 n. 
 Kitab al-felahah of Ibn-al- 
 Awam, 97 n. 
 
 Labourers, agricultural, 36- 
 
 37, 107-114. 
 Lanciani, cited, 95 n. 
 Land, effect of conformation 
 
 of, on agriculture, 78-81. 
 Leaves as fodder for cattle, 30, 
 
 43. 44. 124- 
 
 Legumes, soil improvement 
 with, 41 ; storing, 169. 
 
 Leporaria, 321. 
 
 Library, public, at Rome, 7 n. 
 
 Literature of farm manage- 
 ment, ancient, 4. 
 
 Live stock, feeding, 43; care 
 of, 45-47; origin and impor- 
 tance of husbandry of, 181 ff. 
 See Cattle. 
 
 Lombardy, agriculture in an- 
 cient and modern, 218 n. 
 
 M 
 
 Machiavelli, quoted, 60. 
 
 Maeterlinck, quoted on dogs, 
 249 n.; on uie antique lore 
 of bees, 330 n.; on the math- 
 ematics of the honeycomb, 
 331 n.; on the queen bee's 
 life, 333 n.; on the nearness 
 of the bee-stand to the 
 dwelling-house, 335 n. 
 
 Mago the Carthagenian, trea- 
 
 [359] 
 
INDEX 
 
 tise on farm management 
 
 by, 4; quoted, 27 n., 29 n.; 
 
 Varro's account of, 55-56. 
 Maison Rustique, cited and 
 
 quoted, 251 n., 261 n., 338 n. 
 Malaria in Roman Campagna, 
 
 94 n. 
 Manure, preparation of, 40, 
 
 98 n. ; best kinds of, 140- 
 
 141. 
 Manure pits, arrangement of, 
 
 97-98, 141. 
 Manuring, importance of, 38; 
 
 green, 2, 122, 219 n. 
 Maremma sheep dogs, 249 n. 
 Mares, use of, for war horses, 
 
 237; milk of, 262. 
 Market day among the Ro- 
 mans, 177. 
 Marl, use of, as manure, 83. 
 Marrying the vine, 86. 
 Martial, quotation from, 279 n. 
 Meadows, protection of, 155- 
 
 156; irrigated, of Lombardy, 
 
 218 n. 
 Measurement of land, units 
 
 of area used in, 92-93. 
 Mile, the Roman, 321 n. 
 Military fences, loo-ioi. 
 Milk and milking, advice on, 
 
 262-263. 
 Minerval, a, 282. 
 Mitchell, Donald G., 6 n. 
 Mommsen, quoted, 25 n., 27 n. 
 Montesquieu, quoted, 85 n. 
 Moon, influence of, on agri- 
 culture, 137-139. 
 Moryson, Fynes, quoted, 80 n. 
 
 Mosquitoes, perception by 
 
 Varro of damages from, 94. 
 Mules, remarks on foaling by, 
 
 196; uses, care of, etc., 244- 
 
 247. 
 Murray, Gilbert, translation 
 
 of Euripides by, 68 n. 
 Must cake, 48. 
 Myers, F. W. H., cited, 13. 
 
 N 
 
 Neat cattle, buying, breeding, 
 
 feeding, etc., 225-233. 
 Neighbourhood, considerations 
 
 of, in locating farm, 20, 103- 
 
 106. 
 Neighbours, treatment of 
 
 one's, 26. 
 Nummus, a "nickel," 280 n. 
 Nundinum, the Roman week, 
 
 177 n. 
 Nurseries, protection of, 155. 
 Nuts, eating preserved, 174. 
 
 O 
 
 Oaks, efFect of, on olive trees, 
 
 106. 
 Obcerati, class of bondservants 
 
 called, 107. 
 Ocinum, basil, 133. 
 Oil, manufacture of, from 
 
 olives, 166. 
 Oil-making implements, 119. 
 Olive farm, number of hands 
 
 for working an, no. 
 Olives, allowances of, for 
 
 [360] 
 
INDEX 
 
 farm hands, 37; reasons for 
 growth in Attica, 68 n.; 
 effect of oaks in neighbour- 
 hood of, 106; advice on 
 planting, 123-125; propa- 
 gating from truncheons, 144, 
 148; harvesting of, 165-167; 
 methods of preserving, 171; 
 eating preserved, 173. 
 
 Olive salad, 48. 
 
 Onager, wild ass, 235. 
 
 Orchards, laying out and plant- 
 ing of, 30, 81; olive, 123- 
 
 Ornithones, 285, 287, 288 ff. 
 See Aviaries. 
 
 Ortolans, houses for keeping, 
 288-290. 
 
 Overseer, duties of the, 32-34; 
 location of room of, 96. 
 
 Ovid, quoted, 227 n. 
 
 Oxen, selling of worn-out, 25; 
 comparison of horses and, 
 31 n.; care of hoofs of, 45; 
 treatment of sick, 46; num- 
 ber of, suitable for a farm, 
 114-I15; qualities of, to be 
 considered, 116; breaking of, 
 117; respect in which held 
 by ancient Romans, 227. 
 
 Palladius, 4-5; quoted, 29 n.; 
 
 on the Gallic harvester, 
 
 iS9n. 
 Palma, palm, 132-133. 
 Partridges, 320. 
 
 [36 
 
 Pastures, care of, 43 ; vs. arable 
 
 land, 84-85. 
 Pate de foie gras, known 
 
 and prized by Romans, 
 
 318 n. 
 Peacocks, discussion of, 297- 
 
 Perfumes among the Romans, 
 
 33.2 n- . 
 
 Persius, cited, 225 n. 
 
 Petrarch, on Varro, 6; on 
 the loss of Varro's books, 
 52 n. 
 
 Philippus, L. Marcius, 286. 
 
 Pigeon houses, 300-301. 
 
 Pigeons, manure of, 151; kinds 
 and care of, 299-305. 
 
 Pigs, weanling, called "sa- 
 cred," 193. 
 
 Planting, 43; field crops, 121- 
 123; olives, 123-125; vines, 
 125; time of, 141-153. 
 
 Plants, four methods of prop- 
 agating, 141-142; trans- 
 planting, 144; cuttage, 144; 
 graftage, 145, 147-148; in- 
 arching, 146; time for using 
 different methods of propa- 
 gation, 146-148; mechanical 
 action of, 155. 
 
 Plautus, Menachmi of, 193 n.; 
 quoted, 221. 
 
 Plautius, 228. 
 
 Pleasure as a main purpose of 
 agriculture, 73. 
 
 Pliny, 4; quoted, 22 n., 29 n., 
 Z17 n., 349 n.; use of marl 
 as manure noted by, 83 n.; 
 
 I] 
 
INDEX 
 
 on the Gallic harvester, 
 
 158 n.; cited, 179 n., 190 n., 
 
 237 n., 253 n-. 266, 313 n., 
 
 317 n., 321, 337 n., 348 n. 
 Pliny the Younger, study in 
 
 garden of, 292 n. 
 Ploughing, importance of 
 
 thorough, 38, 127 n.; of 
 
 rotten land, 38-39. 
 Plough land, as distinguished 
 
 from com land, 130. 
 Polecats, 319. 
 PoUio, Asinius, library at 
 
 Rome founded by, 7 n. 
 Polybius, quoted, 223 n. 
 Pome fruits, storing, 169- 
 
 171. 
 Pomegranates, preserving, 
 
 170-171. 
 Poultry, kinds, feeding, and 
 
 care of, 306-315. 
 Poultry houses, 283, 285, 308- 
 
 309, 31^17, 319- 
 Protection of nurseries and 
 
 meadows, 155-156. 
 Prothero, quoted, 198 n. 
 Punning, Varro's use of, 54 n., 
 
 329 n. 
 Pythagoras, 183. 
 
 Quail, houses for keeping, 288; 
 migrations of, 290. 
 
 Queen bees, recency of knowl- 
 edge about, 333 n. 
 
 Quinces, storing, 169. 
 
 Quintilian, on Varro, 6. 
 
 [36 
 
 Rabbits, warrens for, 283, 285, 
 321-322; breeding and feed- 
 ing of, 322-323; derivation 
 of Latin name for, 323. 
 
 Racking wine, 173. 
 
 Reate, asses from, 234, 246. 
 
 Recipes, 48-50. 
 
 Rerum Rusticarum of Varro, 
 6, 9 ff.; Virgil's indebted- 
 ness to, 10 ff. 
 
 Rest room for farm hands, 96. 
 
 Ridgeway, quoted, 192 n.; 
 on markings of horses, 239 n. 
 
 Ridging land, custom of, 130. 
 
 Rogers, Thorold, quoted, 55 n. 
 
 Roman fever, 94 n. 
 
 Rome, insecurity of life in 
 ancient, 176 n. 
 
 Rosea, drainage of, by arti- 
 ficial canals, 274 n. 
 
 Rosean breed of horses, 239, 
 240 n. 
 
 Rotten land, precautions re- 
 garding, 38. 
 
 Sacred pigs, 193, 221. 
 
 Salad, olive, 48. 
 
 Salt, allowance of, for farm 
 hands, 37. 
 
 Saltus, defined, 93. 
 
 Salutations, Greek, as used 
 by Romans, 225 n. 
 
 Saserna, as a writer on agri- 
 culture, 69-71 ; quoted, 105 ; 
 
 2] 
 
INDEX 
 
 on number of farm hands 
 necessary, iio-iii; on se- 
 curing allegiance of dogs, 
 250-251. 
 
 Sausages, 218. 
 
 Scab among sheep and cattle. 
 
 Scratches in horses, remedy 
 
 for, 46 n. 
 Scratching pen for hens, 309 n. 
 Scripulum, defined, 92. 
 Scrofa, Tremelius, 63 n.; origin 
 
 of name, 213. 
 Sea birds, manure of, 140-141. 
 Seasons, agricultural, 126-129. 
 Seed, selection of, 142-143. 
 Seed bed, preparing the, 38- 
 
 Sellar, cited, 10. 
 
 Seneca, on Vir^'s fanning, 13. 
 
 Sestertitis, value of the, 28io n. 
 
 Sheep, value of, for their 
 manure, 41, 115-116, 141; 
 buying of, 198-200; feeding, 
 breeding, and care of, 200- 
 207; shearing of, 264-266. 
 
 Sheep dogs, 247-254. 
 
 Shepherds, distinguished from 
 farmers, 178-180; number 
 and kind of, requisite, 255, 
 261—262; purchase of slaves 
 for, 256-257; life of, 257- 
 261. 
 
 Sicilian honey, 278. 
 
 Silos, 168, 172. 
 
 Size of farm, 27. 
 
 Slaves, selling of old and sick, 
 25; importance of food to 
 
 contentment of, 32; selec- 
 tion of, for farm hands, 108; 
 number of, for operating a 
 farm, 110-114; buying, to 
 act as shepherds, 256-257. 
 
 Snails, recipe for preparing 
 cooked, 325 n.; method of 
 keeping in enclosures, 325- 
 326; varieties of, 327; fatten- 
 ing of, 327. 
 
 Snakebite, remedy for, 46. 
 
 Soil, improvement of, 41-42; 
 effect of character of, on 
 agriculture, 82-85; different 
 kinds of, 88-91; fining the, 
 132. 
 
 Solar measure of year, 126 ff. 
 
 Solomon, quotation on plough- 
 ing from, 126 n. 
 
 Sour land, treatment of, 
 84 n. 
 
 Sowing, period for, 135-136. 
 
 Spring ploughing, 126-128. 
 
 Squabs, 303-304. 
 
 Stables for live stock, 44. 
 
 Steading, building a, 93-99; 
 husbandry of the, 269 n.; 
 development of the indus- 
 tries of the, 283-486. 
 
 Stamen, etymology of, 161. 
 
 Stocking a farm, 31-32. 
 
 Storing crops, 167-171. 
 
 Strabo, inventor of aviaries, 
 291; cited, 323 n. 
 
 Straw, derivation of word, 
 161. 
 
 Swine, selecting, feeding, 
 breeding, etc., 212-225. 
 
 [363] 
 
INDEX 
 
 Tarquinii, ancient Etruscan 
 
 city, 321. 
 Taylor, John, Arator by, 
 
 quoted, 32 n. 
 Teals, 320. 
 Teeth, telling age of animals 
 
 by the, 238. 
 Terra, different senses of word, 
 
 88-90. 
 Thales of Miletus, 183. 
 Thebes, derivation of name, 
 
 271. 
 Theophrastus, works by, 76- 
 
 77; cited, 122 n., 143, 144; 
 
 quoted, 126 n.; on honey of 
 
 Corsica, 278 n. 
 Thessalian horses, 239. 
 Thinning vines, 132. 
 Threshing, 162-163. 
 Threshing floor, the, 161-162. 
 Thrushes, profits from, 280; 
 
 houses for keeping, 288-290. 
 Tillage, advice on, 139-140. 
 Time, standards of, 126-129; 
 
 the Roman week, 177 n. 
 Tools, farming, 11 8-1 20. 
 Toulouse, production of pate 
 
 de foie gras in, 318 n. 
 Transplanting, 144. 
 Transportation, importance of 
 
 ease of, 105. 
 Trellises in vineyards, 86. 
 Trumpet, training hogs to 
 
 obey sound of, 223; as- 
 sembling wild boars and 
 
 roebucks by the, 324. 
 
 Tull, Jethro, 114 n., 128 n. 
 
 Turkeys, fattening, 314 n.; 
 effect of introduction into 
 Europe, on geese, 315 n. 
 
 Turtle doves, housing and care 
 oi, 305-306. 
 
 V 
 
 Varro, Marcus Terentius, 4, 
 6 ff.; the Rerum Rusticarum 
 of, 6, 9 ff.; works of, besides 
 Rerum Rusticarum, 9; activi- 
 ties of, in war against pi- 
 rates, 180 n.; estate and 
 museum of, 291, 292 n. 
 
 Vegetable gardens, 30. 
 
 Versus, the, defined, 92. 
 
 Vetch, derivation of name. 
 
 Veterinary science of ancient 
 
 Romans, 47, 194. 
 Villa, discussion of the Roman, 
 
 273-282. 
 Vines, for marking farm 
 
 boundaries, 102; advice on 
 
 planting, 125; thinning, 132. 
 Vineyards, the maintenance 
 
 of, 85-88; implements for, 
 
 119-120. 
 Vintage, work of the, 164- 
 
 165. 
 Virgil, 4; indebtedness of, to 
 
 Varro, 10 ff.; formula for 
 
 testing sour land by, 84 n.; 
 
 advice on ploughing, 127 n.; 
 
 cited, 222 n.; on colours of 
 
 horses, 239 n. 
 
 [364] 
 
INDEX 
 
 Vitruvius, quoted on Cyr- 
 rhestes' Tower of the Winds, 
 296 n. 
 
 W 
 
 Walnut trees, eflFect of, on 
 surrounding land, 106. 
 
 Walter of Henley, 31 n.; quot- 
 ed, 74 n., Ill n., 130 n.; 
 on use of marl as manure, 
 83 n. 
 
 Warrens, defined, 283, 285, 
 321. 
 
 Watch dogs, 116, 118. 
 
 Water for cattle, 45. 
 
 Water supply for a steading, 
 
 93-94- , 
 Weaning, of young cattle, 193 ; 
 
 of lambs, 206. 
 Weanling pigs, 193. 
 Week, the Roman, 177 n. 
 Wheat, seeding, 151; yields of, 
 
 151 n.; structure of plant, 
 
 156-157; harvesting of, 158. 
 Wild asses, 235. 
 Wild boars, keeping of, in 
 
 game preserves, 324. 
 Wind, impregnating of mares 
 
 by the, 192. 
 Wind breaks for olive orchards, 
 
 124. 
 Wine, cabbage as an ofiFset to 
 
 effects of, 30 n., 72; allow- 
 
 ances of, for farm hands, 37; 
 
 yields of, in ancient Italy, 
 
 61; racking, 173; used in 
 
 cramming fowls, 3 14. 
 Winnowing, 163. 
 Winnowing basket, use of, for 
 
 a cradle, 163 n. 
 Winter ploughing, 126 n. 
 Wood pigeons, cramming and 
 
 fattening, 315. 
 Wool, shearing sheep for, 264- 
 
 265. 
 
 Xenophon, as a writer on 
 agriculture, 4; quoted, 21 n., 
 29 n. 
 
 Year, solar measure of the, 
 126-128. 
 
 Young, Arthur, 22 n.; inscrip- 
 tion on tombstone of wife, 
 83 ; fences recommended by, 
 loi n.; on necessary number 
 of farm labourers, 1 1 1 n. 
 
 Zeno of Citium, 183. 
 Zodiacal signs, honour paid to 
 cattle in, 185-186. 
 
 [365]