AGRICULTU´RA
AGRICULTU´RA agriculture.
Authorities.--When we remember that agriculture, in the most
extended acceptation of the term, was for many centuries the chief, we may
say almost the sole, peaceful occupation followed by any large portion of
the free population in those European nations which first became highly
civilised, we shall not be surprised to find that Varro (
R.
R. 1.1.7 foll.) was able to mention upwards of fifty Greek writers
who had contributed to this science. But although the Homeric poems are
filled with a series of the most charming pictures derived from the business
of a country life; although Hesiod supplies abundance of wise saws and pithy
aphorisms, the traditional wisdom accumulated during many successive
generations; although Xenophon has bequeathed to us a most graceful essay on
the moral beauty of rustic pursuits, interspersed with not a few instructive
details; and although much that belongs to the Natural History of the
subject will be found treasured up in the vast store-houses of Aristotle and
Theophrastus, yet nothing which can be regarded in the light of a formal
treatise upon the art, as exhibited in the pastures and cornfields of
Hellas, has descended to us, except a volume, divided into twenty books,
commonly known as the
Geoponica (
*gewponika/), whose history is somewhat obscure, but which,
according to the account commonly received, was drawn up at the desire of
Constantine VI. (A.D. 780-802) by a certain Cassianus Bassus, and consists
of extracts from numerous writers, chiefly Greek, many of whom flourished in
the second, third, and fourth centuries. This collection is systematically
arranged, and comprehends all the chief branches; but it has never been
considered of much value, except in so far as it tends to confirm or
illustrate the statements found elsewhere. The information conveyed by it
is, upon many points, extremely meagre, the materials were worked up at a
late period by an editor with whose history and qualifications for his task
we are altogether unacquainted, while the most important quotations are
taken from authors of whom we know little or nothing, so that we cannot tell
whether their precepts apply to the same or to different climates, whether
they give us the fruit of their own experience, or, as we have great reason
to suspect in many instances, were themselves mere compilers.
The Romans, during the brightest periods of their history, were devotedly
attached to the only lucrative profession in which any citizen could embark
with honour; and from the first dawn until the decline of their literature,
rural economy formed a favourite theme for composition both in prose and
verse. The works of the Sasernae, father and son, those of Tremellius
Scrofa, of Julius Hyginus, of Cornelius Celsus, of Julius Atticus, and of
Julius Graecinus, have perished; but we still possess, in addition to
Virgil, four “Scriptores de Re Rustica,” two at least of whom
were practical men. We have, in the first place, 162 chapters from the pen
of the elder Cato (B.C. 234-149), a strange medley, containing many valuable
hints for the management of the farm, the olive garden, and the vineyard,
thrown together without order or method, and mixed up with medical
prescriptions, charms for dislocated and broken bones, culinary receipts,
and sacred litanies, the whole forming a remarkable compound of simplicity
and shrewdness, quaint wisdom and blind superstition, bearing, moreover, a
strong impress of the national character; in the second place, we have the
three books of Varro (B.C. 116-28), drawn up at the age of eighty, by one
who was not only the most profound scholar of his age, but likewise a
soldier, a politician, an enthusiastic and successful farmer; in the third
place, the thirteen books of Columella (A.D. 40 [?]), more minute than the
preceding, especially in all that relates to the vine, the olive, gardening,
and fruit-trees, but evidently proceeding from one much less familiar with
his subject; and, lastly, the fourteen books of Palladius (a writer of the
fourth century who closely copies Columella), of which twelve form a
farmer's calendar, the different operations being ranged according to the
months in which they ought to be performed. Besides the above, a whole book
of Pliny and many detached chapters are devoted to matters connected with
the labours of the husbandman; but in this, as in the other portions of that
remarkable encyclopaedia, the assertions must be received with caution,
since they cannot be regarded as exhibiting the results of original
investigation, nor even a very correct representation of the opinions of
others.
We ought not here to pass over unnoticed the great work of Mago the
Carthaginian, who, as a native of one of the most fertile and carefully
cultivated districts of the ancient world, must have had ample opportunities
for acquiring knowledge. This production, extending to twenty-eight books,
had attained such high fame that, after the destruction of Carthage, it was
translated into Latin by orders of the senate; a Greek version, with
additions from the Greek authorities and omissions, was executed by Cassius
Dionysius of Utica, and published in twenty books during the century before
the commencement of our era; and this, again, was a few years afterwards
condensed into six books by Diophanes of Nicaea, and presented to King
Deiotarus. In what follows, Cato, Varro, and Columella will be our chief
supports, although references will be made to and illustrations drawn from
the other sources indicated above. (Varr.
R. R. 1.1; Col.
R. R. 1.1;
Plin. Nat.
18.9 foll.; Proleg.
ad Geopon. in ed. Niclas; cf.
Teuffel,
Roman Lit. i. p. 73 foll.)
Division of the Subject.
Rural Economy may be treated of under two distinct heads--
A. Agriculture proper (
Agricultura), or the art
of tilling the soil.
B. The management of stock (
Pastio.）
A. AGRICULTURA.
Agriculture proper teaches the art of raising the various crops necessary
for the sustenance and comfort of man and of the domestic animals, in
such a manner that the productive energies of the soil may be fully
developed but not exhausted or enfeebled, and teaches, further, how this
may be accomplished with the least possible
[p. 1.56]expenditure of capital. The crops to which the Greeks and Romans
chiefly directed their attention were--
- 1. Different kinds of grain, such as wheat and barley;
leguminous vegetables cultivated for their seeds, such as beans,
peas, and lupines; herbs cut green for forage, such as grass,
tares, and lucerne ; and plants which furnished the raw material
for the textile fabrics, such as hemp and flax.
- 2. Fruit trees, especially the vine, the olive, and the fig.
- 3. Garden stuffs.--For the second of these divisions we refer
to the articles OLEA
and VINEA; and we shall not touch at
all upon gardening, since the minute details connected with this
topic are of little or no service in illustrating the classics
generally.
Agriculture in its restricted sense comprehends a knowledge--
- I. Of the subject of our operations, that is, the farm
(fundus, praedium), which must
be considered: a. with reference to
its situation and soil (quo loco et
qualis), and b. with reference to the dwelling-house
and steading (villa et stabula.）
- II. Of the instruments (instrumenta) required to perform the various
operations (quae in fundo opus sint ac
debeant esse culturae causa,) these instruments
being twofold: a. men (homines); and b. the assistants of men (adminicula hominum), viz. domestic animals
(boves, equi, canes,
&c.), together with tools (instrumenta), properly so called, such as ploughs
and harrows. (Varro, 1.18.)
- III. Of the operations themselves, such as ploughing,
harrowing, and sowing (quae in fundo colendi
causa sint facienda), and of the time when they
are to be performed (quo quidquid tempore
fieri conveniat). (Varro, 1.5.)
- IV. Of the object of these operations, viz. the different
plants considered with reference to their species, varieties,
and habits. Under this head we may also conveniently include
what is termed the rotation of crops; that is, the order in
which they ought to succeed each other upon the same
ground.
I. THE FARM
a. Cognitio fundi., Knowledge
of the Farm.
In selecting a farm, the two points which first demanded
attention were: 1. The healthiness of the situation (
salubritas), a matter of the greatest
anxiety in Italy, where the ravages of malaria appear to have
been not less fatal in ancient than they have proved in modern
times; and, 2. The general fertility of the soil. It was
essential to be fully satisfied upon both of these particulars;
for to settle in a pestilential spot was to gamble with the
lives and property of all concerned (
non
aliud est atque alea domini vitae et rei
familiaris: Varro, 1.4, 5); and no man in his senses
would undertake to till land which was not likely to yield a
fair return for his outlay of money and labour (
fructus pro impensa ac labore.) The next
object of solicitude was a good aspect. The property was, if
possible, to have a southerly exposure (Cato, 1.3), to be
sheltered by a wooded hill from the sweep of boisterous and
cutting winds (Varro, 1.12), and not to be liable to sudden
misfortunes (
ne calamitosum siet),
such as inundations or violent hail-storms. It was highly
important that it should be in the vicinity of a populous town
(
oppidum validum,) or, if not,
that it should be readily accessible either by sea or by a
navigable stream (
amnis qua naves
ambulant), or by a good well-frequented road (
via bona celebrisque); that there should
be an abundant supply of water (
bonum
aquarium) ; that it should be so situated that the
proprietor, if he did not live upon the estate, might be able to
give active and constant personal superintendence; and, finally,
that it should be moderate in size, so that every portion might
be brought into full cultivation (
laudato
ingentia rura, Exiguum colito:
Verg. G. 2.412).
THE SOIL
These preliminary matters being ascertained, the soil might
be considered in reference:
a. to its general external features (
forma);
b. to its internal qualities (
qualis sit terra.）
a. In so far as its external
features were concerned it might be flat (
solum campestre), or upland rolling ground
(
collinum), or high lying
(
montanum), or might
comprise within its limits all three, which was most
desirable, or any two of them. These variations would
necessarily exercise important influence on the climate, on
the description of crops which might be cultivated with
advantage, and on the time chosen for performing the various
operations, the general rule being that as we ascend the
temperature falls, that corn and sown crops in general
(
segetes) succeed best on
plains, vineyards (
vineae) on
gentle slopes, and timber trees (
silvae) upon elevated sites, and that the
different labours of the rustic may be commenced earlier
upon low than upon high ground. When flat, it was better
that it should incline gently and uniformly in one direction
(
aequabiliter in unam partem
vergens) than be a dead level (
ad libellam aequus), for in the latter case,
the drainage being necessarily imperfect, it would have a
tendency to become swampy; but the worst form was when there
were converging slopes, for there the water collected into
pools (
lacunas). (Varro, 1.6.)
b. In so far as its internal
qualities were concerned, soil might be classed under six
heads, forming three antagonistic pairs:--
- 1. The deep and fat (pingue).
- 2. The shallow and lean (macrum, jejunum).
- 3. The loose (solutum).
- 4. The dense (spissum).
- 5. The wet (humidum, aquosum,
uliginosum).
- 6. The dry (siccum).
While the endless gradations and combinations of
which the elementary qualities were susceptible produced all
the existing varieties. These are named sometimes from their
most obvious constituents: the stony (
lapidosum), the gravelly (
glareosum), the sandy (
arenosum), the mortary (
sabulosum), the chalky (
cretosum), the clayey (
argillosum); sometimes from their colour: the
black (
nigrum), the dark
(
pullum), the grey (
subalbum), the red (
rubicundum), the white (
album); sometimes from their
consistency: the crumbling (
putre,
friabile, cinericium), as opposed to the tenacious
(
densum, crassum, spissum);
sometimes from their natural products: the grassy (
graminosum, herbosum), the weedy
(
spurcum); sometimes from
their taste: the salt (
salsum),
the bitter (
amarum);
rubrica seems to have been a sort of
red chalky clay, but what the epithets
rudecta and
materina applied to earth (
terra) by Cato may indicate it is hard to
determine (Cato, 34; comp.
Plin. H.N. 18.163 ff.), probably
“poor” and “hard.” The great
object of the cultivator being to separate the particles
[p. 1.57]as finely as possible (
neque enim aliud est colere quam resolvere et
fermentare terram), high value was attached to
those soils which were not only rich, but naturally
pulverulent. Hence the first place was held by
solum pingue et putre, the second
by pinguiter densum, while the
worst was that which was at once dry, tenacious, and poor
(
siccum pariter et densum et
macrum). The ancients were in the habit of forming an
estimate of untried ground, not only from the qualities
which could be detected by sight and touch, but also from
the character of the trees, shrubs, and herbage growing upon
it spontaneously,--a test of more practical value than any
of the others enumerated in the second Georgic (177-258).
When an estate was purchased, the land might be either in a
state of culture (
culta
novalia), or in a state of nature (
rudis ager.）
The comparative value of land under cultivation, estimated by
the crops which it was capable of bearing, is fixed by Cato
(1), according to the following descending scale:--
- 1. Vineyards (vinea),
provided they yielded good wine in abundance.
- 2. Garden ground well supplied with water
(hortus irriguus).
- 3. Osier beds (salictum).
