This is a complete system of directions in three books, on the times proper for, and the different kinds of, rural labour; it treats also of live stock, and of the villa and offices. As Varro was for some time lieutenant-general in Spain and Africa, and afterwards retired and cultivated his own estate in Italy, his experience and observation must have been very considerable.

47. Publius Virgilius Maro, called the prince of the Latin poets, was born at a village near Mantua in Lombardy about 70 B. C., and died B. C. 19, aged 51. He cultivated his own estate till he was thirty years old, and spent the rest of his life chiefly at the court of Augustus. His works are the Bucolics, Georgics, and Æneid. The Georgics is to be considered as a poetical compendium of agriculture, taken from the Greek and Roman writers then extant, but especially from Varro.

48. Luc. Jun. Moderatus Columella was a native of Gades, now Cadiz, in Spain, but passed most of his time in Italy. The time of his birth and death are not known, but he is supposed to have lived under Claudius in the first century. His work De Re Rustica, in twelve books, of which the tenth is still extant, was a complete treatise on rural affairs, including field operations, timber trees, and gardens.

49. C. Plinius Secundus, surnamed the elder, was born at Verona in Lombardy, and suffocated at the destruction of Pompeii in his 56th year, A. D. 79. He was of a noble family; distinguished himself in the field and in the fleet; was governor of Spain; and was a great naturalist, and an extensive writer. Of the works which he composed none are extant but his Natural History in thirty-seven books; a work full of the erudition of the time, accompanied with much erroneous, useless, and frivolous matter. It treats of the stars and the heavens, of wind, rain, hail, minerals, trees, flowers, and plants; gives an account of all living animals; a geographical description of every place on the globe; and a history of commerce and navigation, and of every art and science, with their rise, progress, and several improvements. His work may be considered as a compendium of all preceding writers on these subjects, with considerable additions from his personal experience and observation.

50. Rutilius Taurus Emilianus Palladius is by some supposed to have lived under Antoninus Pius, in the second century, though others place him in the fourth. His work De Re Rustica is a poem in fourteen books, and is little more than a compendium of those works which preceded it on the same subject. The editor of the article Agriculture, in the Encyclopédie Méthodique, says it is too dull to be read as a poem, and too concise to be useful as a didactic work.

51. These works have been rendered accessible to all by translations; and a judicious and instructive treatise composed from them by Adam Dickson, a Scotch clergyman, was published in 1788, under the title of The Husbandry of the Ancients. To this latter work we are indebted for the greater part of what we have to submit on Roman agriculture.

52. The Roman authors, as Rozier has observed (Dict. de l'Agr., art. Hist.), do not enable us to trace the rise and progress of agriculture, either in Italy or in any other country under their dominion. What they contain is a picture of their rural economy in its most perfect state, delivered in precepts, generally founded on experience, though sometimes on superstition; never, however, on theory or hypothesis. For, as the Rev. Adam Dickson states," instead of schemes produced by a lively imagination, which we receive but too frequently from authors of genius unacquainted with the practice of agriculture, we have good reason to believe that they deliver, in their writings, a genuine account of the most approved practices; practices, too, the goodness of which they had themselves experienced." (Husb. of the Anc., p. 16.) He adds, that if in the knowledge of the theory of agriculture, the Roman cultivators are inferior to our modern improvers; yet in attention to circumstances and exactness of execution, and in economical management, they are greatly superior.

SECT. II. Of the Proprietorship, Occupancy, and General Management of Landed Property among the Romans.

53. The Roman nation originated from a company of robbers and runaway slaves, who placed themselves under their leader Romulus. This chief having conquered a small part of Italy divided the land among his followers, and by what is called the Agrarian Law, allowed 2 jugera or 14 acre to every citizen. After the expulsion of the kings in the 6th century B. C., 7 yoke, or 33 acres were allotted. The custom of distributing the conquered lands, by giving 7 jugera to every citizen, continued to be observed in latter times; but when each soldier had received his share, the remainder was sold in lots of various sizes, even to 50 jugera; and no person was prevented from acquiring as large a landed estate as he could, till a law passed by Stolo, the second plebeian consul, B. C. $77, that no one should possess more than 500 jugera. This law appears to have remained in force during the greater period of the Roman power. Whatever might be the size of

any superior power; and passed to his successors, agreeably to testament, if he made one; or if not, by common law to his nearest relations.

54. In the first ages of the commonwealth, the lands were occupied and cultivated by the proprietors themselves; and as this state of things continued for four or five centuries, it was probably the chief cause of the agricultural eminence of the Romans. When a person has only a small portion of land assigned to him, and the maintenance of his family depends entirely upon its productions, it is natural to suppose that the culture of it employs his whole attention. A person who has been accustomed to regular and systematic habits of action, such as those of a military life, will naturally carry those habits into whatever he undertakes. Hence, it is probable, a degree of industrious application, exactness, and order in performing operations, in a soldier-agriculturist, which would not be displayed by men who had never been trained to any regular habits of action. The observation of Pliny confirms this supposition: he asserts that the Roman citizens, in early times, “ploughed their fields with the same diligence that they pitched their camps, and sowed their corn with the same care that they formed their armies for battle." (Nat. Hist., lib. xviii. c. 3.) Corn, he says, was then both abundant and cheap.

55. Afterwards, when Rome extended her conquests, and acquired large territories, rich individuals purchased large estates; the culture of these fell into different hands, and was carried on by bailiffs and farmers much in the same way as in modern times. Columella informs us that it was so in his time, stating, that "the men employed in agriculture are either farmers or servants; the last being divided into free servants and slaves." (Col., lib. i. cap. 7.) It was a common practice to cultivate land by slaves during the time of the elder Pliny; but his nephew and successor let his estates to farmers.

56. In the time of Cato the Censor, the author of The Husbandry of the Ancients observes, though the operations of agriculture were generally performed by servants, yet the great men among the Romans continued to give particular attention to it, studied its improvement, and were very careful and exact in the management of all their country affairs. This appears from the directions given them by this most attentive farmer. Those great men had both houses in town, and villas in the country; and, as they resided frequently in town, the management of their country affairs was committed to a bailiff or overseer. Now their attention to the culture of their lands and to every other branch of husbandry, appears, from the directions given them how to behave upon their arrival from the city at their villas. After the landlord," says Cato," has come to the villa, and performed his devotions, he ought that very day, if possible, to go through his farm; if not that day, at least the next. When he has considered in what manner his fields should be cultivated, what work should be done, and what not; next day he ought to call the bailiff, and enquire what of the work is done, and what remains; whether the labouring is far enough advanced for the season, and whether the things that remain might have been finished; and what is done about the wine, corn, and all other things. When he has made himself acquainted with all these, he ought to take an account of the workmen and working days. If a sufficiency of work does not appear, the bailiff will say that he was very diligent, but that the servants were not well; that there were violent storms; that the slaves had run away; and that they were employed in some public work. When he has given these and many other excuses, call him again to the account of the work and the workmen. When there have been storms, enquire for how many days, and consider what work might be done in rain; casks ought to have been washed and mended, the villa cleaned, corn carried away, dung carried out, a dunghill made, seed cleaned, old ropes mended, new ones made, and the servant's clothes mended. On holidays, old ditches may have been scoured, a highway repaired, briars cut, the garden digged, meadows cleared from weeds, twigs bound up, thorns pulled, far (bread-corn, maize) pounded, all things made clean. When the servants have been sick, the ordinary quantity of meat ought not to have been given them. When he is fully satisfied in all these things, and has given orders that the work that remains be finished, he should inspect the bailiff's accounts, his account of money, of corn, fodder, wine, oil, what has been sold, what exacted, what remains, what of this may be sold, whether there is good security for what is owing. He should inspect the things that remain, buy what is wanting for the year, and let out what is necessary to be employed in this manner. He should give orders concerning the works he would have executed, and the things he is inclined to let out, and leave his orders in writing. He should inspect his flocks, make a sale, sell the superfluous oil, wine, and corn; if they are giving a proper price, sell the old oxen, the refuse of the cattle and sheep, wool, hides, the old carts, old iron tools, and old and discased slaves. Whatever is superfluous he ought to sell; a farmer should be a seller, not a buyer." (Cat., cap. ii.)

57. The landlord is thus supposed by Cato to be perfectly acquainted with every kind of work proper on his farm, and the seasons for performing it, and also to be a perfect judge how much work, both without and within doors, ought to be performed by any number of servants and cattle in a given time; the knowledge of which is highly useful to a farmer, and what very few perfectly acquire. It may be observed, likewise, that the landlord is here supposed to enquire into all circumstances, with a minuteness of which there is scarcely even an actual farmer in this age who has any conception.

58. Varro complains that, in his time, the same attention to agriculture was not given as in former times; that the great men resided too much within the walls of the city, and employed themselves more in the theatre and circus, than in the corn fields and vineyards. (Var. de R. R., lib. i. præf.)

59. Columella complains that, in his time, agriculture was almost entirely neglected. However, from the directions which he gives to the proprietors of land, it appears that there were still a few who continued to pay a regard to it; for, after mentioning some things, which he says, by the justice and care of the landlord, contribute much to improve his estate, he adds, " But he should likewise remember, when he returns from the city, immediately after paying his devotions, if he has time, if not, next day, to view his

marches, inspect every part of his farm, and observe whether in his absence any part of discipline or watchfulness has been dispensed with; and whether any vine, any other tree, or any fruits are missing. Then likewise he ought to review the cattle and servants, all the instruments of husbandry, and the household furniture. If he continue to do all these things for some years, he will find a habit of discipline established when he is old; and at no age will he be so much impaired with years as to be despised by his servants." (Cal., lib. i. cap. 9.)

60. The earliest farmers among the Romans seem not to have been upon the same footing as in Britain. The stock on the farm belonged to the landlord, and the farmer received a certain proportion of the produce for his labour. The farmer, who possessed · a farm upon these terms, was called politor or polintor, from his business, being the dresser of the land; and partuarius, from his being in a kind of copartnership with his landlord, and his receiving a part of the produce of the farm for his labour. Cato takes notice of this kind of farmers only, and it is probable that there were no others in his time. "The terms," says he, "upon which land ought to be let to a politor: in the good land of Casinum and Venafrum, he receives the eighth basket; in the second kind of land he receives the seventh; in the third kind he receives the sixth. In this last kind, when the grain is divided by the modius, he receives the fifth part; in the very best kind of land about Venafrum, when divided by the basket, he receives only the ninth.... If the landlord and politor husk the far in common, the politor receives the same proportion after as before; of barley and beans divided by the modius, he receives a fifth." (Ch. xl. xli.) The small proportion of the produce that the politor received, makes it evident that he was at no expense in cultivating the land, and that he received his proportion clear of all deductions.

61. The coloni or farmers mentioned by Columella, seem to have paid rent for their farms in the same manner as is done by the farmers in Britain. The directions given by this author to landlords, concerning the mode of treating them, are curious as well as important. A landlord, he says, " ought to treat his tenants with gentleness, should show himself not difficult to please, and be more vigorous in exacting culture than rent, because this is less severe, and upon the whole more advantageous. For, where a field is carefully cultivated, it for the most part brings profit, never loss, except when assaulted by a storm or pillagers; and therefore the farmer cannot have the assurance to ask any ease of his rent. Neither should the landlord be very tenacious of his right in every thing to which the farmer is bound, particularly as to days of payment, and demanding the wood and other small things which he is obliged to, besides paying his rent, the care of which is a greater trouble than expense to the rustics. Nor is every penalty in our power to be exacted, for our ancestors were of opinion, that the rigour of the law is the greatest oppression. On the other, the landlord ought not to be entirely negligent in this matter; because it is certainly true, what Alpheus the usurer used to say, that good debts become bad ones, by being not called for," &c. (Col., lib. i. cap. 7.)

62. These directions are valuable even with reference to the present times; and they instruct us respecting the general management of landed property among the Romans. It appears that the landlord was considered as understanding every thing respecting the husbandry of his estate himself; and that there was no agent, or intermediate person, between him and the farmer. The farmers paid rent for the use of their farms, and were bound to a particular kind of culture, according to the conditions of their lease; but they were perfectly free and independent of their landlords; so much so, as sometimes to enter into lawsuits with them. On the whole, they seem to have been upon the same footing as the farmers of Britain in modern times.

SECT. III. Of the Surface, Soil, Climate, and other Agricultural Circumstances of Italy, during the Time of the Romans.

63. The agriculture of any country must necessarily take its character from the nature of that country. The extent and manner of cultivating the soil, and the kind of plants cultivated, or animals reared, must necessarily be regulated by the surface of the soil, the natural productions, the climate, the artificial state, and the habits of the people.

64. The climate of Italy is regular, dry, clear, and considerably warmer than that of Britain. At the bottoms of the mountains, it is subject to severe storms of hail in summer, and snow in winter, which often do considerable damage; but these are only accidental disadvantages; and in the champaign lands and gentle declivities, the vine, the fig, and the olive, ripened anciently, as now, in open plantations, from one extremity of Italy to the other.

65. The surface of Italy is very irregular. A ridge of hills, and mountains passes through its whole length, forming numerous valleys of different degrees of extent; some elevated and narrow, others low and watered by a river, a stream, or by lakes. The immense plain of the Po constitutes a capital feature towards the north-east; the

the rocky coast of Genoa, towards the western shore. Columella and Palladius agree in stating, that the best situation for lands is, not so much on a level as to make the water stagnate, nor so steep as to make it run off with violence; nor so low as to be buried in the bottom of a valley, nor so exposed as to feel the violence of storms and heats; for in these a mediocrity is always best: but champaign lands exposed, and whose declivity affords the rain a free passage; or a hill whose sides gently decline; or a valley not too much confined, and into which the air has easy access; or a mountain defended by a higher top, and thereby secured from the winds that are most pernicious, or, if high and rugged, at the same time covered with trees and grass. (Col., lib. ii. cap. 2.; Pallad., lib. i. cap. 5.) The situation of lands which Cato reckons the best, is at the foot of a mountain with a south exposure. Varro and Pliny concur in this opinion, and the latter states that the best lands in Italy are so situated.

66. The soil of Italy is as varied as the surface. About Genoa a yellow marly clay forms a base to schistous cliffs and hilly slopes; a blue clay containing sulphur and alum on the west coast between Florence and Venice; volcanic earth about Rome and Naples; sand about Florence, and at the estuaries of most of the rivers; rich black loam in the central parts of Tuscany; and rich, deep, soft, moist earth, and mild marly clay, in Lombardy. Columella divides the soils of Italy into six kinds; fat and lean, free and stiff, wet and dry: these mixed with one another, he says, make great varieties. In common with all the other writers, he prefers a free soil.

67. The native productions of Italy, in an agricultural point of view, are, timber on the mountains, pastures on the hill sides, and meadow or very luxuriant grass-lands in the alluvial plains. The rich, low, and yet dry lands do not produce a close pasture, but a rough herbage, unless they are covered with trees; the sandy soils produce little of any thing; and the fens and marshes reeds and other coarse aquatics. Such were the productions of Italy antecedent to culture.

68. The artificial state of the country, in respect to agriculture, during the time of the Romans, seems to have differed less from its present state than will be imagined. The cultivated lands were open, and enclosures only to be seen near the villas. These were of small size, and chiefly gardens and orchards, except in the case of parks for game, formed by the wealthy, which never were very numerous. With the exception of part of Tuscany and Lombardy, this is still the case; and the landscape, as Daniel Malthus has observed (Introd. to Girardin's Essay), which Pliny observes as seen from his villas, does not appear to have been different two thousand years ago, from what it is at this day. But the roads, canals, markets, and artificial water-courses for the irrigation both of arable and grass-lands, are undoubtedly greatly increased since the time of the Romans: though they also practised irrigation.

69. The habits of a people take their rise, in a great degree, from the climate in which they live, and the native or cultivated productions with which the country abounds. As respects agriculture, it may be sufficient to mention, that the great heat of the climate, by relaxing the frame, naturally produces indolence in many, and leads to a life of plunder in some. Hence then, as now, the danger from thieves and robbers in that country; and hence, also, the custom of performing field labours early in the morning, and in the evening, and resting during the mid-day heat. The general use of oil and wine as food and drink, and also of the fig as an article of nourishment, are habits which arise immediately from the circumstance of these articles being the artificial produce of the country; but are ultimately, like most other habits, to be referred to the climate.

70. These hints respecting the natural and agricultural geography of Italy, during the time of the Romans, are confessedly too scanty to be of more use than to recal to the reader's recollection the information on the same subject with which his mind is already stored; and by this means to enable him to form a due estimate of the nature and merits of the agriculture which we are about to describe.

SECT. IV. Of the Culture and Farm Management of the Romans.

71. The Roman authors are much more copious in describing farm culture and economy, than in relating the state of landed property as to extent and proprietorship. Their directions, being founded on experience, are in great part applicable at the present day: they are remarkable for their minuteness; but we can only give a very brief compendium, beginning with some account of the farm and the villa, or farmery, and taking in succession the servants, beasts of labour, implements, operations, crops cultivated, animals reared, and profit produced.

SUBSECT. 1. Of the Choice of a Farm, and of the Villa or Farmery.

72. In the choice of a farm, Cato recommends a situation where there are plenty of artificers and good water; which has a fortified town in its neighbourhood; is near the sea or a navigable river, or where the roads are easy and good. (Cat., cap. 1.) To these requisites Varro adds, a proper market for buying and selling, security from thieves and

robbers, and the boundaries planted with useful trees. The interior of the farm was not subdivided by enclosures, which were seldom used but for their gardens, and to form parks in the villas of the wealthy.

73. The soil preferred by Columella and all the Roman authors is the fat and free, as producing the greatest crops, and requiring the least culture; next, fat stiff soil; then stiff and lean soil, that can be watered; and, last of all, lean dry soil.

74. The state of a farm preferred by Cato and some other writers is that of pasture, meadow, and watered grass-lands, as yielding produce at least expense; and lands under vines and olives, as producing the greatest profit according to the expense. The opinions of the Roman agriculturalists, however, seem to disagree on the subject of meadows, apparently from confounding a profitable way of management, with a capacity of yielding great profit with superior management, and none without.

75. The word Villa originally denoted a farm-house and its appurtenances. In the first age of the commonwealth, these were very plain and small, suitable to the plain manners of the people, and adapted to the small size of their farms: but, when the Romans had extended their empire, when they had become rich and luxurious, and particular persons were possessed of large landed estates, then the villas became large and magnificent. In the time of Valerius Maximus, there were villas that covered more ground than was in the estates of some of the ancient nobles. "Now," says he, "those think themselves very much confined, whose houses are not more extensive than the fields of Cincinnatus.” (Val. Mar., lib. iv. cap. 4. sect. 7.) In the days of Cato, it is probable that they had begun to extend their villas considerably, which makes him give a caution to the proprieters of land not to be rash in building. He recommends to them to sow and plant in their youth, but not to build till somewhat advanced in years. His words are remarkable: "A landholder," says he, " should apply himself to the planting of his fields early in his youth; but he ought to think long before he builds. He ought not to think about planting; but he ought to do it. When he is about thirty-six years of age, he may build, provided his fields are planted." (Cat., cap. 3.)

76. Men should plant in their youth, and not build till their fields are planted; and even then ought "not to be in a hurry, but take time to consider. It is best, according to the

proverb, to profit by the folly of others." (Plin. Nat. Hist., lib. xviii. cap. 5.) The reason why these authors recommend greater attention to planting than building is, that the labouring oxen in Italy, in the time of the Romans, were fed, for several months in the year, with leaves and mast; and the vine, the fig, the olive, and other trees, were cultivated for their fruit.

"In

Some

One

77. Build in such a manner that your villa may not be too small for your farm, nor your farm too small for your villa. (Cat., cap. 3.) Varro assigns proper reasons for this. not attending," says he, "to the measure of the farm, many have gone wrong. have made the villa much smaller, and others much larger than the farm required. of these is contrary to a man's interest, and the other hurtful to the produce of his lands. For we both build and repair the larger buildings at a greater expense than is necessary; and, when the buildings are less than what the farm requires, the fruits are in danger of being destroyed." (Var. de R. R., lib. i. cap. 11.) Columella expresses himself to the same purpose, and mentions two persons in particular who had fallen into each of the "I remember," says he, " that many have erred in this point, as these most excellent men did, L. Lucullus and Q. Scævola, one of whom built a villa much larger, and the other much less than the farm required." (Col., lib. i. cap. 4.)

extremes.

78. Pliny, noticing the above remark of Cato's, observes that Lucullus had thereby rendered himself hable to the chastisement of the censors, having less occasion to plough his lands than to clean his house. * In this case," says he, "to plough less than to sweep, was a foundation for the chastisement of the censors." (Plin. Nat. Hist., lib. xviii. cap. 6.)

79. Proportion the expense of the building to the rent, or the profits arising from the farm. "An edifice should be built according to the value of the farm and fortune of the master, which, immoderately undertaken, it is commonly more difficult to support than to build. The largeness of it should be so estimated, that, if any thing shall happen to destroy it, it may be rebuilt by one, or at most by two years' rent or profits of the farm in which it is placed." (Pal., lib. i. tit. 8.)

80. The position of the villa, and the situation of its different parts, are also noticed by some of these authors. "Some art," says Pliny," is required in this. C. Marius, of a

very mean family, seven times consul, placed a villa in the lands of Misenum, with such skill in the contrivance, that Sylla Felix said, that all others in this respect were blind, when compared to him." (Plin. Nat. Hist., lib. xviii. cap. 7.) All of them advise that it shall not be placed near a marsh, nor fronting a river. Pliny cites the authority of Homer for this. Varo says, that such a situation is cold in winter and unhealthful in summer; that, in such a place, there are many small insects which, though invisible, enter the body at the mouth and nostrils, and occasion diseases. (Var. de R. R., lib. i. tit. 12.) Palladius gives reasons of the same kind. (Pal., lib. i. tit. 7.) Besides this, Varro