24 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. Parr I. Ancients, which from his practical knowledge of agriculture, and considerable classical learning, it is to be regretted he did not live to see delineated. A plough in use from time immemorial in Valentia,(fig. 12.) is supposed to come the nearest to the common Roman imple-
ment. Init we have the bu-
ris or head(a); the temo, f 12
or beam(b); the stiva, or~
handle(c); the dentales, or c share head(d); and the ro- mer or share(e). The other f
parts, the aura or mould‘ board, and the culler or coulter, composed no part of the simplest form of Ro- man plough; the plough- staff, or paddle, was a detached part; and the manicula, or part which the ploughman took hold of, was a short bar fixed across, or into the handle, and the draught pole CA) was that part to which the oxen were attached.
112. The plough described by Virgil, had a mould board, and was used for covering seed and ridging; but that which we have depicted, was the common form used in stirring the soil. To supply the place of our mould boards, this plough required either a sort of diverging stick(g), inserted in the share head, or to be held obliquely and sloping towards the side to which the earth was to be turned. The Romans did not plough their fields in beds, by circumvolying furrows, as we do; but the cattle re- turned always in the same furrow.
113. Wheel ploughs, Las- teyrie thinks, were invented in or not long before the time of Pliny, who attri- butes the invention to the inhabitants of Cisalpine Gaul. Virgil seems to
wid to have s
: ee have known such ploughs are of y he re 198 and refers to them in his Hepriale Georgics. In the Greek ayers{
more were taken favorable for bar
loughed after th
monuments of antiquity are only four or five examples of these. Lastevrie has given figures of three wheel ploughs from Caylus’s Col- lection of Antiquities( fig. 13. aand b), and from a Si-
cilian medal(c).° 114. The urper or irpex, seex
loughed in
s to have been a plank with several teeth used asour brake or cultivator, to break rough ground, and tear out roots and weeds. 14 115. The crates seems to have been a kind of harrow. 116. The rastrum, a rake used in manual labour: and ; 117. The sarculum, a hand hoe, similar to our draw hoe. 118. The marra, a hand hoe of smaller size. 119. The bidens(bi-dens) seems to have been a two-pronged hoe of large size, and with a hammer at the other end used to break clods. These were used chiefly
| | in cultivating vineyards. li 120. The ligo seems to have been aspade(fig. 14.), and the pala a shovel or sort and oren, and asse al of spade, or probably a synonyne. The ligo and pala were made of wood only, ENitako ag a 7 2 of oak shod with iron, or with the blade entirely of iron. L Danners of 0 121. The secwris seems to have been an axe, and the same term was applied to tag to th
the blade of the pruning knife, which was formed like a crescent.
122. The dolabre was a kind of adze for cutting roots in tree culture.
123. The reaping hook seems to have been the same as that in modern use: some were used for cutting off the ears of far or maize, and these, it may be presumed, were not serrated like our sickles; others for cutting wheat and barley near the ground, like our reaping hook. In the south of Gaul, Pliny informs us, they had invented a reaping ma- chine: from bis description this machine must have borne a considerable resemblance to that used in Suffolk, for cropping the heads off clover left for seed, and not un-
placed ne ar
like other modern attempts at an engine of this description.(See fig. 16.) This may seem b truly remarkable: but man is every where, and at all times, the same animal; and the bind« 4™® Wt y an mally 2 me onal= rs aera ee 6 rn_aspgi- EE a= Se: ay