\GRII iy! 32 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. Parr I. 168. The farmer’s profit cannot be correctly ascertained; but, according toa calculation gt VUE made by the Rev. A. Dickson, the surplus produce of good land in the time of Varro, was about fifteen pecks of wheat per acre; and in the time of Columella, lands being worse wu Teart cultivated, it did not exceed three and one-third pecks per acre. What proportion of this- rs practise

went to the landlord cannot be ascertained. Corn, in Varro’s time, was from 4d. to 53d. per peck: seventy years afterwards, in the time of Columella, it had risen to 1s. 9d. per‘ya$1 peck. Vineyards were so neglected in the time of this author, that they did not yield spy avanced more to the landlord as rent, than 14s. or 15s. per acre. vad elon)

169. The price of land, in the time of Columella and Pliny, was twenty-five years’ pur- 3 chase. It was common, both these writers inform us, to receive 4 per cent. for capital so invested. The interest of money was then 6 percent.; but this 6 per cent. was not what 2 we would call legal interest; money among the Romans being left to find its value, like“i oretised other commodities, of course the interest was always fluctuating.— Such is the essence of what is known as to the produce, rent, and price of lands among the Romans.

Sect. VI. Of the Roman Agriculturists, in respect to general Science, and the Advancement of the Art.

170. The sciences cultivated by the Greeks and Romans were chiefly of the mental and ere mathematieal kind. They knew nothing of chemistry or physiology, and very little of sean other branches of natural philosophy; and hence their progress in the practical arts was Ages entirely the result of observation, experience, or accident. In none of their agricultural writers is there any attempt made to give the rationale of the practices described; abso- lute directions are either given, as is frequently the case in Virgil and Columella; or the INN ie historical relation is adopted, and the reader is informed what is done by certain persons, jag| or in certain places; as is generally the case with Varro and Pliny. Th

171. Wherever the phenomena of nature are not accounted Jor scientifically, recourse is ¢ Inbute of a had to supernatural causes; and the idea of this kind of agency once admitted, there is uty, as Itt no limit that can be set to its influence over the mind. In the early and ignorant ages ni fe eXAND| good and evil spirits were supposed to take a concern in every thing; and hence the endless and absurd superstitions of the Egyptians, some of which have been already noticed, and the equally numerous though perhaps less absurd rites and ceremonies of the Greeks, to procure their favor, or avert their evil influence. Hesiod considered it of abt hundred sh not less importance to describe what works were to be done, than to describe the iline, where it wa lucky and unlucky days for their performance. Homer, Aristotle, Theophrastus, and all the Greek authors, are more.or less tinctured with this religion, or superstition as we are pleased to call it, of their age.

172. As the Romans made few advances in science, consequently they made equally few in| thers, in want of divesting themselves of the superstitions of their ancestors. These, as most readers know, entered into every action and art of that people, and into none more than agri- culture. In some cases it is of importance for the general reader to be aware of this, i spirits were hrok before perusing their rustic authors; as in the case of heterogeneous grafting, and the slndlord. The spontaneous generation and transmutation of plants, which, though stated by Virgil and Pliny, and others, as facts, are known to every physiologist to be impossible: but other relations are too gross to be entertained as truths by any one. Of these we may mention the lunar days, the impregnation of animals by particular winds,&c. It is impossible not heartily to concur with Lord Kaimes in congratulating the present age in the delivery from such“ heavy fetters.”” It is curious to observe the religious eco- nomy of Cato: after recommending the master of the family to be regular in perform- ing his devotions, he expressly forbids the rest of the family to perform any, either by themselves or others, telling them that they were to consider that the master performed sufficient devotions for the family.(Cat. cap. 43.) This was probably intended not only to save time, but also to prevent such slaves as had naturally more susceptible imaginations than the others, from becoming religious enthusiasts.}

173. What degree of improvement agriculture received Jrom the Romans, is a question

we have no means of answering. Agriculture appears obviously to have declined| Bidory of Arte from the time of Cato and Varro to Pliny; and therefore any improvement it received ie must have taken place antecedently to their era. As these authors, however, generally refer to the Greeks as their masters in this art, it appears very doubtful whether they did any thing more than imitate their practice. As a more luxurious people, they introduced new fruits, and probably improved the treatment of birds, and other minor products; but these belong more to gardening and domestic economy, than to field cultivation. In the culture of corn, herbage, plants, and fruit-trees, and in the breeding and rearing of cattle, Noah and his sons, the Jews, the Babylonians, Egyptians, and Greeks, may have been as far advanced as the Romans, for any thing that appears to the contrary. The great agricultural advantages which mankind have derived from the Romans, is the diffusion of the art by their almost universal conquests,