LXIV. Note by the Editor on the Disease of Sheep termed Pining, 706 LXV. On the Economy of Labour by the general adoption of Two- LXVI. Hints on the most Economical Manner of Feeding Horses, 721 LXVII. On Trifolium Incarnatum, or Crimson Clover, Hints on the Planting and General Treatment of Hardy Ever- LXX. On the Commutation of Tithes, A Bill, entitled An Act for encouraging and facilitating Composi- tions for Tithes, aad other Payments arising and payable to . i. Commerce of Great Britain, 785.-ii. On a Farinaceous Ali- ment obtained from Straw, ib.-iii. The Shell-fish termed Clams, 786.-iv. Preservation of Fruit-trees from Hares, ib. v. Preservation of Potatoes from Frost, ib.-vi. Preparation of Sugar from Starch, ib.-vii. Indigenous Scotch Fir, ib.- viii. Aversion of some Graminivorous Animals to Particular Plants, 787.-ix. Protraction of Vegetable Life in a Dry LXXIII. Tables of the Prices of Grain, Butcher Meat, and Wool; LXXVI. On preparing Large Trees intended to be Transplanted, by Cutting or Shortening their Roots. By Mr Macnab, of the Royal LXXVII. Remarks on Certain Strictures on his Treatise on Plant- LXXXII. Essays on the Origin and Natural History of Domestic Animals. By James Wilson, Esq. F. R. S. E., M. W. S., &c. 5. On the Origin and Natural History of the Domestic Hog. LXXXIII. On Determining the Weight of Fat Cattle by Measure- 1. The Farmer's Assistant, or Ready Reckoner, and Land, Hay, and Cattle Measurer. By James M'Derment, Teacher of Mathematics, Navigation, and Landsurveying, Ayr. 1830. LXXXV. Note on the Commercial System of France, as affecting the Manufacture of Beet-root Sugar, i. On the Farinaceous Aliment obtained from Straw, 936.-ii. Natural Provision for maintaining the Proportion of the Sexes, 937.-iii. On the Substance termed Ulmin, ib.-iv. Agriculture of Africa, ib.—v. Pruning of certain kinds of Trees, 939.—vi. Italian Ryegrass, ib,-vii. On a supposed means of improving the Quantity and Quality of Wool, ib.— viii. Extraction of Potash from certain Minerals, 940. LXXXVIII. Quarterly Agricultural Report, LXXXIX. Tables of the Prices of Grain, Butcher Meat, and Wool; THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. ON THE AGRICULTURE OF THE ROMANS. THE HE subject of Roman Agriculture is one of great interest and extent. It is extensive, as it embraces almost as wide a field as the same subject does even at the present day; it is interesting, as forming a system wrought out almost entirely by the perseverance and labour of this extraordinary people; it is instructive also, inasmuch as it presents us with many examples of diligence and economy, and with many practices of excellent husbandry, which, even with all the acquisition of modern times, our farmers would do well to imitate. We excel them, no doubt, in our implements and machinery, but in the various operations of agriculture, whether we regard their knowledge of what ought to be done, or the exactness with which it was executed, they are at all times our equals, and frequently our superiors. Such practices as are common to both, were performed by them with a greater degree of care, and with attention to minuter circumstances which are by us often overlooked. There are many things in their system of husbandry, especially in the management of manure, to which we are still practically strangers. And it is somewhat extraordinary, that, in most of the improvements, which, by the application of experiment and science, have been adopted in modern agriculture, we had long ago been anticipated by the industry of Campania and Latium. But our eulogy must be confined to knowledge which was strictly practical, and to the careful and practical use they made of it. Science, or philosophy of any kind, long shared little of VOL. II. NO. VII. their attention; and the physical sciences were especially neglected. On the conquest of Greece, her arts and civilization were imported into the conquering country; but her sciences were chiefly metaphysical or mathematical. And the subtle logic and ingenious speculations of the Greek philosophers took a firmer hold of the minds of the Romans, than the attainments which some of their philosophers had made in natural knowledge. They knew nothing of chemistry or physiology, and their progress, therefore, in the practical arts was entirely the result of observation, experience, or accident. Seldom do their agricultural writers attempt to give the rationale of the practices they describe; or, when they do, they commonly fail. Absolute directions are either given, as is usual with Virgil and Columella, or the historical method is adopted, and we are told what is done by certain persons in certain places, as is commonly the case with Varro and Pliny. But where there is no science to account for the phenomena of nature, they have usually been resolved into supernatural causes. The Romans made few acquisitions in science, and therefore made little change on the casual agency which had been handed down from their ancestors. Superstition entered into all their actions and all their arts, and into none more largely than into agriculture. The spontaneous generation and transmutation of plants, the impregnation of animals by particular winds, the influence of lunar days and other such things, are stated by their agricultural writers as facts which no one doubted. It is curious to notice part of the religious economy of Cato; after ordering the master of the family to be regular in performing his devotions, he expressly forbids the rest of the family to perform any, either by themselves or others, as they were to consider that the master performed sufficient devotions for them all. This was probably with the view of saving time, and also from an apprehension, that some slaves, with more susceptible imaginations, might become religious enthusiasts. The sources whence our information is derived on the subject of Roman agriculture, are the six Roman authors who have treated of this subject, and whose works have come down to us-Cato, Varro, Virgil, Columella, Pliny, and Palladius. Cato the earliest of the Roman writers on husbandry, lived in the seventh century of Rome, and died at an extreme old age, B. C. 150. He distinguished himself at the age of seventeen, in a battle against Hannibal, and afterwards rose through all the honours of the state. He obtained the name of Cato the Censor, by the impartiality with which he discharged that office, by the remarkable severity of his own morals, and by the opposition which he gave to all luxury and dissipation. He wrote several works, some fragments of which only remain, under the titles of Origines and De Re Rustica. The latter is the oldest Roman work on agriculture, and is rather more valued for the account which it gives of Roman customs and sacrifices, than for its agricultural merits. M. Terentius Varro, died B. C. 28, in the eighty-eighth year of his age. Besides being a distinguished soldier both by sea and land, and a consul, he was a grammarian, a philosopher, a historian and astronomer, and is said to have written 500 volumes on different subjects, none of which, except his treatise De Re Rustica, are extant. This is a complete system of directions on the proper seasons for, and on the various departments of, rural labour; on the management of live stock also, and on the villa and offices. As he was for some time Lieutenant-General in Spain and Africa, and afterwards retired to cultivate his own estate, his experience and observation must have well fitted him for the task he undertook.. P. Virgilius Maro was born at a village near Mantua, in Lombardy, about 70 B. C., and died in the fifty-second year of his age. 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 Georgics form a poetical compendium of agriculture, taken from the Greek and Roman authors then extant, but chiefly from Varro. Columella was a native of Gades, now Cadiz, in Spain, but spent most of his life in Italy. He is supposed to have lived under Claudius in the first century. His work On Rural Affairs is a complete treatise on the subject, including the management of timber-trees and gardens. Pliny, surnamed the elder, was born at Verona, in Lombardy, and perished at the same eruption of Mount Vesuvius which overwhelmed Pompeii, A. D. 79, in the fifty-sixth year of his age. He |