28 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. Parr f.

the corn, and serves in place of sarcling. Watering grass lands was practised wherever an opportunity offered.‘As much as in your power,”’ says Cato,“ make watered meadows.”’ Land that is naturally rich and in good heart, says Columella,‘does not need to have water set over it, because the hay produced in a juicy soil is better than that excited by water; when the poverty of the soil requires it, however, water may be set over it.‘The same author likewise describes very particularly the position of the land most proper for water meadows.“ Neither a low field,” says he,“ with hollows, nor a field broken with steep rising grounds, are proper.‘The first because it contains too long the water collected in the hollows; the last, because it makes the water to run too quickly over it. A field, however, that has a moderate descent, may be made a meadow, whether it is rich or poor, if so situated as to be watered. But the best situation is, where the surface is smooth, and the descent so gentle, as to prevent either showers, or the rivers that overflow it, from remaining long; and, on the other hand, to allow the water that comes over it gently to glide off. Therefore, if in any part of a field intended for a meadow, a pool of water should stand, it must be let off by drains; for the loss is

equal, either from too much water or too little grass.”’(Col. lib. ii. cap. 17.)

142. Old water meadows were renewed by breaking up and sowing them with corn for three years; the third year they were laid down with vetches and grass seeds, and then watered again, but“ not with a great force of water, till the ground had become firm and bound together with turf.”(Col. lib. ii, cap. 18.)| Watering, Pliny informs us, was commenced immediately after the equinox, and restrained when the grass sent up flower stalks; it was recommenced in mowing grounds, after the hay season, and in pasture lands at intervals,

143. Draining, though an operation of an opposite nature to watering, is yet essential

to its success. It was particularly attended to by the Romans, both to remove surface water, and to intercept and carry off under the surface the water of springs. Cato gives directions for opening the furrows of sown fields, and clearing them so as the water might find its way readily to the ditches; and for wet-bottomed lands he directs to make drains three feet broad at top, four feet deep, and one and a quarter feet wide at the bottom; to lay them with stones; or if these cannot be got, with willow rods, placed contrary ways, or twigs tied together.(Cap. 43.) Columella directs both open and covered drains to be made sloping at the sides, and in addition to what Cato says respecting the water way of covered drains, directs to make the bottom narrow, and fit a rope made of twigs to it, pressing the rope firmly down, and putting some leaves or pine branches over it before throwing in the earth. Pliny says, the ropes may be made of straw, and that flint or gravel may be used to form the water-way, filling the excavation half full, or to within eighteen inches of the top.

144, Fencing was performed by the Romans, but only to a limited extent. Varro says,‘‘the limits of a farm should be fenced(rendered obvious) by planting trees, that families may not quarrel with their neighbours, and that the limits may not want the decision of a judge.”(Lib, i. 15.) directs to enclose meadows, and gardens, and orchards. Columella mentions folds for enclosing the cattle in the night-time; but the chief fences of his time were the enclosures called parks for reserving wild beasts, and forming agreeable prospects from the villas of the wealthy. Pliny mentions these, and says they were the invention of Fulvius Lupinus.(Nat. Hist. lib. vili.) Varro de. scribes fences raised by planting briars or thorns, and training them into a hedge, and these, he says, have the advantage of not being in danger from the burning torch of the wanton passenger; fences of stalks interwoven with twigs, ditches with earthen dykes and walls of stone or brick, or rammed earth and gravel.(Lib. i. cap. 14.)

145. Trees were pruned and felled at different times according to the object in view. The olive was little cut; the vine had a winter dressing and one or two summer dressings. Green branches or spray, of which the leaves were used as food for oxen and sheep, were cut at the end of summer. Copse wood for fuel in winter, and timber trees generally in that season. Cato, however, directs that trees which are to be felled for tim- ber should be cut down at different times according to their natures; such as ripen seeds, when the seed is ripe; such as do not produce seeds, when the leaves drop; such as pro- duce both flowers and seeds at the same time, also when the leaves drop, but if they are evergy eens, such as the cypress and pine, they may be felled at any time.

146. Fruits were gathered by hand.‘The ripest grapes were cut first; such as were se- lected for eating were carried home and hung up; and those for the press were put in baskets and carried to the wine-press to be picked and then pressed. Olives were plucked by hand, and some selected for ating; and the rest laid up in lofts for future bruising, or they were immediately pressed. Such as could not be reached by ladders, Varro directs to be“ struck with a reed rather than with a rod, for a deep wound requires a physician,” It does not appear that green olives were pickled and used as food as in modern times,

147. Such are the chief agricultural operations of the Romans, of which it cannot fail to be observed as most remarkable, that they differ little from what we know of the rural

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