Columella, De Re Rustica

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§ 1.6.10 But the granaries, as I have said, should be reached by ladders and should receive ventilation through small openings on the north side; for that exposure is the coolest and the least humid, and both these considerations contribute to the preservation of stored grain.
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§ 1.6.11 The same reason holds true in the placing of the wine-room on the ground floor; and it should be far removed from the baths, oven, dunghill, and other filthy places which give off a foul odour, and no less so from cisterns and running water, from which is derived a moisture that spoils the wine.
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§ 1.6.12 And I am not unaware that some consider the best place for storing grain to be a granary with a vaulted ceiling, its earthen floor, before it is covered over, dug up and soaked with fresh and unsalted lees of oil and packed down with rammers as is Signian work.
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§ 1.6.13 Then, after this has dried thoroughly, it is overlaid in the same way with a pavement of tiles consisting of lime and sand mixed with oil lees instead of water, and these are beaten down with great force by rammers and are smoothed off; and all joints of walls and floor are bound together with a bolstering of tile, for usually when buildings develop cracks in such places they afford holes and hiding-places for underground animals. But granaries are also divided into bins to permit the storage of every kind of legume by itself.
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§ 1.6.14 The walls are coated with a plastering of clay and oil lees, to which are added, in place of chaff, the dried leaves of the wild olive or, if these are wanting, of the olive. Then, when the aforesaid plastering has dried, it is again sprinkled over with oil lees: and when this has dried the grain is brought in.
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§ 1.6.15 This seems to be the most advantageous method of protecting stored produce from damage by weevils and like vermin, and if it is not carefully laid away they quickly destroy it. But the type of granary just described, unless it be in a dry section of the steading, causes even the hardest grain to spoil with mustiness; and if it were not for this, it would be possible to keep grain even buried underground, as in certain districts across the sea where the earth, dug out in the manner of pits, which they call siri, takes back to itself the fruits which it has produced.
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§ 1.6.16 But we, living in regions which abound in moisture, approve rather the granary that stands on supports above the ground and the attention to pavements and walls as just mentioned, because, as I have said, the floors and sides of storerooms so protected keep out the weevil. Many think that when this kind of pest appears it can be checked if the damaged grain is winnowed in the bin and cooled off, as it were.
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§ 1.6.17 But this is a most mistaken notion; for the insects are not driven off by so doing, but are mixed through the whole mass. If left undisturbed, only the upper surface would be attacked, as the weevil breeds no more than a palm's breadth below; and it is far better to endanger only the part already infested than to subject the whole amount to risk. For it is easy, when occasion demands it, to remove the damaged portion and use the sound grain underneath. But these latter remarks, though brought in extraneously, I nevertheless seem to have introduced not unseasonably at this point.
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§ 1.6.18 The press-rooms especially and the store-rooms for oil should be warm, because every liquid is thinned with heat and thickened by great cold; and if oil freezes, which seldom happens, it becomes rancid. But as it is natural heat that is wanted, arising from the climate and the exposure, there is no need of fire or flame, as the taste of oil is spoiled by smoke and soot. For this reason the pressing-room should be lighted from the southern side, so that we may not find it necessary to employ fires and lamps when the olives are being pressed.
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§ 1.6.19 The cauldron-room, in which boiled wine is made, should be neither narrow nor dark, so that the attendant who is boiling down the must may move around without inconvenience. The smoke-room, too, in which timber not long cut may be seasoned quickly can be built in a section of the rural establishment adjoining the baths for the countryfolk; for it is important also that there be such places in which the household may bathe — but only on holidays;
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§ 1.6.20 for the frequent use of baths is not conducive to physical vigour. Storerooms for wine will be situated to advantage over these places from which smoke is usually rising, for wines age more rapidly when they are brought to an early maturity by a certain kind of smoke. For this reason there should be another loft to which they may be removed, to keep them from becoming tainted, on the other hand, by too much smoking. As for the situation of the villa and the arrangement of its several parts, enough has been said.
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§ 1.6.21 It will be necessary, next, that the villa have the following near it: an oven and a gristmill, of such size as may be required by the number of hands that are to be employed; at least two ponds, one to serve for geese and cattle, the other in which we may soak lupines, elm-withes, twigs, and other things which are adapted to our needs. There should also be two manure-pits, one to receive the fresh dung and keep it for a year, and a second from which the old is hauled; but both of them should be built shelving with a gentle slope, in the manner of fish-ponds, and built up and packed hard with earth so as not to let the moisture drain away.
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§ 1.6.22 For it is most important that manure shall retain its strength with no drying out of its moisture and that it be soaked constantly with liquids, so that any seeds of bramble or grass that are mixed in the straw or chaff shall decay, and not be carried out to the field to fill the crops with weeds. And it is for this reason that experienced farmers, when they carry out any refuse from folds and stables, throw over it a covering of brush and do not allow it to dry out or be burned by the beating of the sun.
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§ 1.6.23 The threshing-floor is to be so placed, if possible, that it can be viewed from above by the master, or at least by the farm-manager. Such a floor is best when paved with hard stone, for the reason that the grain is threshed out quickly, since the ground does not give under the beating of hoofs and threshing-sledges, and the winnowed grain is cleaner and free from small stones and clods which a dirt floor nearly always casts up during the threshing.
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§ 1.6.24 Adjoining this there should be a shed (and especially in Italy, because of the changeableness of the weather), in which the half-threshed grain may be stacked under cover if a sudden shower comes up. In certain districts across the sea, where there is no rain in summer, this is unnecessary. The orchards, too, and the gardens should be fenced all around and should lie close by, in a place to which there may flow all manure-laden sewage from barnyard and baths, and the watery lees squeezed from olives; for both vegetables and trees thrive on nutriment of this sort too.
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§ 1.7.1 After all these arrangements have been acquired or contrived, especial care is demanded of the master not only in other matters, but most of all in the matter of the persons in his service; and these are either tenant-farmers or slaves, whether unfettered or in chains. He should be civil in dealing with his tenants, should show himself affable, and should be more exacting in the matter of work than of payments, as this gives less offence yet is, generally speaking, more profitable. For when land is carefully tilled it usually brings a profit, and never a loss, except when it is assailed by unusually severe weather or by robbers; and for that reason the tenant does not venture to ask for reduction of his rent.
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§ 1.7.2 But the master should not be insistent on his rights in every particular to which he has bound his tenant, such as the exact day for payment, or the matter of demanding firewood and other trifling services in addition, attention to which causes country-folk more trouble than expense; in fact, we should not lay claim to all that the law allows, for the ancients regarded the extreme of the law as the extreme of oppression. On the other hand, we must not neglect our claims altogether; for, as Alfius the usurer is reported to have said, and with entire truth, “Good debts become bad ones if they are not called”.
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§ 1.7.3 Furthermore, I myself remember having heard Publius Volusius, an old man who had been consul and was very wealthy, declare that estate most fortunate which had as tenants natives of the place, and held them, by reason of long association, even from the cradle, as if born on their own father's property. So I am decidedly of the opinion that repeated letting of a place is a bad thing, but that a worse thing is the farmer who lives in town and prefers to till the land through his slaves rather than by his own hand.
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§ 1.7.4 Saserna used to say that from a man of this sort the return was usually a lawsuit instead of revenue, and that for this reason we should take pains to keep with us tenants who are country-bred and at the same time diligent farmers, when we are not at liberty to till the land ourselves or when it is not feasible to cultivate it with our own servants; though this does not happen except in districts which are desolated by the severity of the climate and the barrenness of the soil.
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§ 1.7.5 But when the climate is moderately healthful and the soil moderately good, a man's personal supervision never fails to yield a larger return from his land than does that of a tenant — never than that of even an overseer, unless the greatest carelessness or greed on the part of the slave stands in the way. There is no doubt that both these offences are either committed or fostered through the fault of the master, inasmuch as he has the authority to prevent such a person from being placed in charge of his affairs, or to see to it that he is removed if so placed.
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§ 1.7.6 On far distant estates, however, which it is not easy for the owner to visit, it is better for every kind of land to be under free farmers than under slave overseers, but this is particularly true of grain land. To such land a tenant farmer can do no great harm, as he can to plantations of vines and trees, while slaves do it tremendous damage: they let out oxen for hire, and keep them and other animals poorly fed; they do not plough the ground carefully, and they charge up the sowing of far more seed than they have actually sown; what they have committed to the earth they do not so foster that it will make the proper growth; and when they have brought it to the threshing-floor, every day during the threshing they lessen the amount either by trickery or by carelessness.
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§ 1.7.7 For they themselves steal it and do not guard it against the thieving of others, and even when it is stored away they do not enter it honestly in their accounts. The result is that both manager and hands are offenders, and that the land pretty often gets a bad name. Therefore my opinion is that an estate of this sort should be leased if, as I have said, it cannot have the presence of the owner.
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§ 1.8.1 The next point is with regard to slaves — over what duty it is proper to place each and to what sort of tasks to assign them. So my advice at the start is not to appoint an overseer from that sort of slaves who are physically attractive, and certainly not from that class which has busied itself with the voluptuous occupations of the city.
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§ 1.8.2 The lazy and sleepy-headed class of servants, accustomed to idling, to the Campus, the Circus, and the theatres, to gambling, to cookshops, to bawdy-houses, never ceases to dream of these follies; and when they carry them over into their farming, the master suffers not so much loss in the slave himself as in his whole estate. A man should be chosen who has been hardened by farm work from his infancy, one who has been tested by experience. If, however, such a person is not available, let one be put in charge out of the number of those who have slaved patiently at hard labour;
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§ 1.8.3 and he should already have passed beyond the time of young manhood but not yet have arrived at that of old age, that youth may not lessen his authority to command, seeing that older men think it beneath them to take orders from a mere stripling, and that old age may not break down under the heaviest labour. He should be, then, of middle age and of strong physique, skilled in farm operations or at least very painstaking, so that he may learn the more readily; for it is not in keeping with this business of ours for one man to give orders and another to give instructions,
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§ 1.8.4 nor can a man properly exact work when he is being tutored by an underling as to what is to be done and in what way. Even an illiterate person, if only he have a retentive mind, can manage affairs well enough. Cornelius Celsus says that an overseer of this sort brings money to his master oftener than he does his book, because, not knowing his letters, he is either less able to falsify accounts or is afraid to do so through a second party because that would make another aware of the deception.
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§ 1.8.5 But be the overseer what he may, he should be given a woman companion to keep him within bounds and yet in certain matters to be a help to him; and this same overseer should be warned not to become intimate with a member of the household, and much less with an outsider, yet at times he may consider it fitting, as a mark of distinction, to invite to his table on a holiday one whom he has found to be constantly busy and vigorous in the performance of his tasks. He shall offer no sacrifice except by direction of the master.
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§ 1.8.6 Soothsayers and witches, two sets of people who incite ignorant minds through false superstition to spending and then to shameful practices, he must not admit to the place.b He must have no acquaintance with the city or with the weekly market, except to make purchases and sales in connection with his duties.
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§ 1.8.7 For, as Cato says, an overseer should not be a gadabout; and he should not go out of bounds except to learn something new about farming, and that only if the place is so near that he can come back. He must allow no foot-paths or new crosscuts to be made in the farm; and he shall entertain no guest except a close friend or kinsman of his master.
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§ 1.8.8 As he must be restrained from these practices, so must he be urged to take care of the equipment and the iron tools, and to keep in repair and stored away twice as many as the number of slaves requires, so that there will be no need of borrowing from a neighbour; for the loss in slave labour exceeds the cost of articles of this sort.
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§ 1.8.9 In the care and clothing of the slave household he should have an eye to usefulness rather than appearance, taking care to keep them fortified against wind, cold, and rain, all of which are warded off with long-sleeved leather tunics, garments of patchwork, or hooded cloaks. If this be done, no weather is so unbearable but that some work may be done in the open.
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§ 1.8.10 He should be not only skilled in the tasks of husbandry, but should also be endowed, as far as the servile disposition allows, with such qualities of feeling that he may exercise authority without laxness and without cruelty, and always humour some of the better hands, at the same time being forbearing even with those of lesser worth, so that they may rather fear his sternness than detest his cruelty. This he can accomplish if he will choose rather to guard his subordinates from wrongdoing than to bring upon himself, through his own negligence, the necessity of punishing offenders.
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§ 1.8.11 There is, moreover, no better way of keeping watch over even the most worthless of men than the strict enforcement of labour, the requirement that the proper tasks be performed and that the overseer be present at all times; for in that case the foremen in charge of the several operations are zealous in carrying out their duties, and the others, after their fatiguing toil, will turn their attention to rest and sleep rather than to dissipation.
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§ 1.8.12 Would that those well-known precepts, old but excellent in morality, which have now passed out of use, might be held today: That an overseer shall not employ the services of a fellow-slave except on the master's business; that he shall partake of no food except in sight of the household, nor of other food than is provided for the rest; for in so doing he will see to it that the bread is carefully made and that other things are wholesomely prepared. He shall permit no one to pass beyond the boundaries unless sent by himself, and he shall send no one except there is great and pressing need.
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§ 1.8.13 He shall carry on no business on his own account, nor invest his master's funds in livestock and other goods for purchase and sale; for such trafficking will divert the attention of the overseer and will never allow him to balance his accounts with his master, but, when an accounting is demanded, he has goods to show instead of cash. But, generally speaking, this above all else is to be required of him — that he shall not think that he knows what he does not know, and that he shall always be eager to learn what he is ignorant of;
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§ 1.8.14 for not only is it very helpful to do a thing skilfully, but even more so is it hurtful to have done it incorrectly. For there is one and only one controlling principle in agriculture, namely, to do once and for all the thing which the method of cultivation requires; since when ignorance or carelessness has to be rectified, the matter at stake has already suffered impairment and never recovers thereafter to such an extent as to regain what it has lost and to restore the profit of time that has passed.
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§ 1.8.15 In the case of the other slaves, the following are, in general, the precepts to be observed, and I do not regret having held to them myself: to talk rather familiarly with the country slaves, provided only that they have not conducted themselves unbecomingly, more frequently than I would with the town slaves; and when I perceived that their unending toil was lightened by such friendliness on the part of the master, I would even jest with them at times and allow them also to jest more freely. Nowadays I make it a practice to call them into consultation on any new work, as if they were more experienced, and to discover by this means what sort of ability is possessed by each of them and how intelligent he is. Furthermore, I observe that they are more willing to set about a piece of work on which they think that their opinions have been asked and their advice followed.
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§ 1.8.16 Again, it is the established custom of all men of caution to inspect the inmates of the workhouse, to find out whether they are carefully chained, whether the places of confinement are quite safe and properly guarded, whether the overseer has put anyone in fetters or removed his shackles without the master's knowledge. For the overseer should be most observant of both points — not to release from shackles anyone whom the head of the house has subjected to that kind of punishment, except by his leave, and not to free one who he himself has chained on his own initiative until the master knows the circumstances;
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§ 1.8.17 and the investigation of the householder should be the more painstaking in the interest of slaves of this sort, that they may not be treated unjustly in the matter of clothing or other allowances, inasmuch as, being liable to a greater number of people, such as overseers, taskmasters, and jailers, they are the more liable to unjust punishment, and again, when smarting under cruelty and greed, they are more to be feared.
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§ 1.8.18 Accordingly, a careful master inquires not only of them, but also of those who are not in bonds, as being more worthy of belief, whether they are receiving what is due to them under his instructions; he also tests the quality of their food and drink by tasting it himself, and examines their clothing, their mittens, and their foot-covering. In addition he should give them frequent opportunities for making complaint against those persons who treat them cruelly or dishonestly. In fact, I now and then avenge those who have just cause for grievance, as well as punish those who incite the slaves to revolt, or who slander their taskmasters; and, on the other hand, I reward those who conduct themselves with energy and diligence.
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§ 1.8.19 To women, too, who are unusually prolific, and who ought to be rewarded for the bearing of a certain number of offspring, I have granted exemption from work and sometimes even freedom after they had reared many children. For to a mother of three sons exemption from work was granted; to a mother of more her freedom as well. Such justice and consideration on the part of the master contributes easily to the increase of his estate.
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§ 1.8.20 But he should also bear in mind, first to pay his respects to the household gods as soon as he returns from town; then at once, if time permits, if not, on the next day, to inspect his lands and revisit every part of them and judge whether his absence has resulted in any relaxation of discipline and watchfulness, whether any vine, any tree, or any produce is missing; at the same time, too, he should make a new count of stock, slaves, farm-equipment, and furniture. If he has made it a practice to do all this for many years, he will maintain a well-ordered discipline when old age comes; and whatever his age, he will never be so wasted with years as to be despised by his slaves.
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§ 1.9.1 Something should be said, too, as to what tasks we think each kind of body or mind should be assigned. As keepers of the flocks it is proper to place in charge men who are diligent and very thrifty. These two qualities are more important for this task than stature and strength of body, since this is a responsibility requiring unremitting watchfulness and skill.
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§ 1.9.2 In the case of the ploughman, intelligence, though necessary, is still not sufficient unless bigness of voice and in bearing makes him formidable to the cattle. Yet he should temper his strength with gentleness, since he should be more terrifying than cruel, so that the oxen may obey his commands and at the same time last longer because they are not worn out with the hardship of the work combined with the torment of the lash. But what the duties of shepherds and herdsmen, I shall treat again in their proper places;
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§ 1.9.3 for the present it is sufficient to have called to mind that strength and height are of no importance in the one, but of the greatest importance in the other. For, as I have said, we shall make all the taller ones ploughmen, both for the reason I have just given and because in the work of the farm there is no task less tiring to a tall man; for in ploughing he stands almost erect and rests his weight on the plough-handle. The common labourer may be of any height at all, if only he is capable of enduring hard work.
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§ 1.9.4 Vineyards require not so much tall men as those who are broad-shouldered and brawny, for this type is better suited to digging and pruning other forms of viticulture. In this department husbandry is less exacting in the matter of honesty than in the others, for the reason that the vine-dresser should do his work in company with others and under supervision, and because the unruly are for the most part possessed of quicker understanding, which is what the nature of the work requires. For it demands of the helper that he be not merely strong but also quick-witted; and on this account vineyards are commonly tended by slaves in fetters.
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§ 1.9.5 Still there is nothing that an honest man of equal quickness will not do better than a rogue. I have inserted this that no one may think me obsessed of such a notion as to wish to till my land with criminals rather than with honest men. But this too I believe: that the duties of the slaves should not be confused to the point where all take a hand in every task.
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§ 1.9.6 For this is by no means to the advantage of the husbandman, either because no one regards any particular task as his own or because, when he does make an effort, he is performing a service that is not his own but common to all, and therefore shirks his work to a great extent; and yet the fault cannot be fastened upon any one man because many have a hand in it. For this reason ploughmen must be distinguished from vine-dressers, and vine-dressers from ploughmen, and both of these from men of all work.
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§ 1.9.7 Furthermore, squads should be formed, not to exceed ten men each, which the ancients called decuriae and approved of highly, because that limited number was most conveniently guarded while at work, and the size was not disconcerting to the person in charge as he led the way.
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§ 1.9.8 Therefore, if the field is of considerable extent, such squads should be distributed over sections of it and the work should be so apportioned that men will not be by ones or twos, because they are not easily watched when scattered; and yet they should number no more than ten, lest, on the other hand, when the band is too large, each individual may think that the work does not concern him. This arrangement not only stimulates rivalry, but also it discloses the slothful; for, when a task is enlivened by competition, punishment inflicted on the laggards appears just and free from censure.
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§ 1.9.9 But surely, in pointing out to the farmer-to-be those matters for which especial provision must be made — healthfulness, roads, neighbourhood, water, situation of the homestead, size of the farm, classes of tenants and slaves, and assignment of duties and tasks — we have now come properly, through these steps, to the actual tilling of the soil; of this we shall presently treat at greater length in the book that follows.
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§ 2.1.1 Book II You ask me, Publius Silvinus, and I have no hesitation in informing you at once, why in the preceding book I immediately at the start rejected the long-standing opinion of almost all who have discoursed on the subject of agriculture, and repudiated as mistaken the views of those who hold that the soil, wearied and exhausted by age-long wasting away and by cultivation now extending over a long period of time, has become barren.
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§ 2.1.2 And I am not unaware that you hold in reverence, not only the authority of other renowned writers, but particularly that of Tremelius, who, in handing down to posterity a very great number of agricultural precepts set forth with refinement as well as learning, being obviously misled through too great deference to the ancients who treat of a like subject, held the mistaken belief that the earth, the mother of all things, like womankind now worn out with old age, is incapable of bearing offspring. This fact I too should admit if no fruits whatever were being produced;
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§ 2.1.3 for the old age of a human being also is pronounced barren, not when a woman no longer gives birth to triplets and twins, but only when she is able to conceive and bring forth no offspring at all. Thus, after the period of youth is past, even though a long life still remains, still parturition is denied to years and is not restored. But on the contrary, when the soil, whether abandoned deliberately or by chance, is cultivated anew, it repays the farmer with heavy interest for its periods of idleness.
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§ 2.1.4 The antiquity of the earth, therefore, is not the reason for the scantiness of her fruits — if, I mean, when once old age sets in, it takes no backward step and has no power to grow vigorous and young again — but not even the weariness of the soil lessens its fruits for the farmer. For it is not like a man of intelligence to be persuaded that, as in the case of human beings exhaustion follows immoderate physical exertion or the bearing of some heavy burden, just so does it follow cultivation and activity on the part of the land.
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§ 2.1.5 What then, you say, does Tremelius mean by his assertion that virginal and wooded areas, when they are first cultivated, yield abundantly, but soon thereafter are not so responsive to the toil of those who work them? He observes, undoubtedly, what occurs, but does not understand thoroughly why it happens. For ground that is new and but recently taken out of its wooded state and brought under cultivation should not be regarded as more fruitful on this account, because it has lain fallow longer and is younger; but because, in the leaves and herbage of many years, which it has kept producing naturally, fattened, so to speak, with more plentiful nourishment, it more readily satisfies the requirements for bringing forth crops and supporting them.
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§ 2.1.6 But when the roots of the plants, broken by mattocks and ploughs, and when the trees, cut down by the axe, cease to nourish their mother with their foliage; when the leaves which fell from bushes and trees in the autumn season and which were spread over her are presently turned under by the ploughshare and mixed with the subsoil, which is usually thinner, and are used up, the result is that the soil, being deprived of its old-time nourishment, grows lean.
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§ 2.1.7 It is not, therefore, because of weariness, as very many have believed, nor because of old age, but manifestly because of our own lack of energy that our cultivated lands yield us a less generous return. For we may reap greater harvests if the earth is quickened again by frequent, timely, and moderate manuring. As I promised in the preceding book to speak of its cultivation, I shall now begin the discussion.
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§ 2.2.1 Those who are most experienced in agricultural affairs have said, Silvinus, that there are three kinds of terrain — champaign, hilly, and mountainous. Of champaign land they favoured especially that lying, not in a perfectly even and level plain, but in a somewhat sloping one; of hilly land, that with a gentle and gradual rise; of mountainous land, the high and rugged, but wooded and grassy.
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§ 2.2.2 Furthermore, under each of these classes there fall six species of soil — fat or lean, loose or compact, moist or dry; and these qualities, in combination and in alternation with one another, produce a very great variety of soils. To enumerate them is not the mark of a skilled farmer; for it is not the business of any art to roam about over the species, which are countless, but to proceed through the classes, for these can readily be connected in the imagination and brought within the compass of words.
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§ 2.2.3 We must have recourse, then, to certain unions, as we may call them, between qualities which are at variance with each other — what the Greeks call συζυγίαι ἐναντιοτήτων, and which we may fairly render “the couplings of opposites.” Furthermore, it must be pointed out that, of all things which the earth brings forth, more thrive better on a plain than on a hill, and more in fat land than in lean.
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§ 2.2.4 As to dry ground and wet ground, we have not ascertained which of these excels in number, since there are, in each case, almost limitless things which thrive in dry places, and the same in wet areas; but of this number there is nothing that does not grow better in loose soil than in dense. This, too, our own Vergil said when, after recounting the other good points of a fruitful field, he added: and one of crumbling soil; for this is what we rival when we plough. For cultivation is nothing else than the loosening and breaking up of the ground;
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§ 2.2.5 and on this account a field which is both rich and mellow yields the greatest returns, because in producing most it demands least, and what it does require is supplied with trifling labour and expense. Such a soil may therefore with justice be called the very best. Next in order to this is the combination of rich and dense, a soil which rewards the expense and toil of the husbandman with rich increase.
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§ 2.2.6 Third in rank is a well-watered place, because it can produce fruits without expense. Cato, who rated the yield of meadow lands far ahead of other returns, used to say that this kind of land was first; but we are now speaking of land under cultivation, not of that left untilled.
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§ 2.2.7 No kind is considered worse than that which is at the same time dry, stiff, and lean; for not only is it worked with difficulty, but even when worked it makes no recompense, and when left idle it is not altogether adequate for meadows or for grazing land. Therefore this type, whether in tillage or fallow, is a source of grief to the husbandman and should be shunned as if it were plague-ridden ground; for the one type brings death, and this brings starvation, that most frightful attendant of death, if we may trust the Grecian Muses, who cry: To die of hunger is the bitterest of fates.
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§ 2.2.8 But now we shall turn our attention rather to the more fertile soil, and our treatment of this is to be set forth under two heads — land in tillage, and woodland. We shall first speak of reducing a wooded area to an arable state, for the reason that the preparation of a field comes before its cultivation. As to an untilled piece of ground, then, let us consider whether it is dry or damp, shaded with trees or rough and stony; whether it is covered with rushes and grass or encumbered with fern-brakes or other bushy growth.
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§ 2.2.9 If it is damp, the superfluous moisture must first be drained off with ditches. Of these we are familiar with two kinds — blind and open. In tracts of hard-packed and chalky soil they are left open; but where the ground is of looser texture some are made open and some of them, too, are covered over, though in such a way as to connect with the mouths of the open ditches. But it will be best to make open drains wider at the top, and sloping and narrowing together at the bottom, like inverted roof-tiles; for those whose sides are perpendicular are quickly eroded by water and are filled in by the slipping of the earth above.
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§ 2.2.10 The covered ones, on the other hand, are to be blinded by sinking trenches to a depth of three feet, and then, after they have received a filling half way up of small stones or clean gravel, levelling them off by throwing over them the dirt that was dug out. Or, if stones and gravel are not available, a sort of cable of entwined brushwood will be fashioned of such a thickness as the bottom of the narrow trench may receive when it is fitted, so to speak, and pressed down close.
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§ 2.2.11 This will then be stretched along the bottom, to be covered over with earth after cypress or pine foliage — or, failing this, other boughs — has been trampled down over it; there being, both at the beginning and at the outlet of the ditch, two stones set up, merely by way of supports, with one stone laid on top of them in the fashion of little bridges, that this sort of structure may hold the banks in place and prevent the stoppage of water at inlet and outlet. There are two methods of handling a wooded and bushy stretch of land: either by tearing out the trees by the roots and removing them or, if they are few, by simply cutting them down, burning them, and ploughing them under.
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§ 2.2.12 It is easy to clear stony ground by gathering up the stones; and if there is a great quantity of them, parts of the field must be used for building them into piles of some sort, so that the other parts may be cleared off, or the stones will have to be buried in a deep-dug trench. This should be done, however, only if the cheapness of labour makes it advisable.
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§ 2.2.13 The bane of rushes and grass is repeated grubbing, of the fern it is constant uprooting, which may be done also with the plough; for it dies out within two years' time if torn up repeatedly, and even sooner if at the same time you apply manure and sow with lupines or beans so as to have some return while remedying the defects of the field. For it is agreed that the fern is more easily destroyed by sowing and manuring; but even if you cut it down with the sickle (which is work even a child could do) as it sprouts out from time to time, within the aforesaid period its vigour is spent.
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§ 2.2.14 But now, after a consideration of the clearing of unbroken ground, comes the management of land newly brought under cultivation; and I shall set forth presently my own views on this, after I have given to those who are concerned with land in tillage some precepts on matters which must be learned first. I recall that very many of the ancients who have written on agricultural topics have laid down as acknowledged and unquestioned evidence of fat and fertile grain-land the natural sweetness of the soil, its growth of herbage and trees, and its black or ashy colour.
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§ 2.2.15 As to the other points I have no doubt; but in the matter of colour I cannot marvel enough, not only that other writers but especially that Cornelius Celsus, a man of discernment not merely in husbandry but also in nature as a whole, went so far astray, both in his thinking and in his observation, that the many marshes and the many stretches of salt meadows, in which the above-mentioned colours are usually present, did not attract his notice.
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§ 2.2.16 For our casual observations reveal no place, provided it contains stagnant water, which is not of a black or ashy colour; unless perhaps I am myself mistaken in thinking that luxuriant grain crops cannot be produced in the soil of slimy swamp and brackish marshland or in a region of salt deposits along the seacoast. But this mistake of the ancients is too apparent to require refutation by further argument. It is not the colour, then, that is, so to speak, the infallible voucher and witness of goodness of ploughland;
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§ 2.2.17 and for that reason grain-land, that is rich land, is to be judged rather by other qualities. For, as the sturdiest of farm animals have been allotted different and almost countless colours, just so the strongest soils have them in very great number and variety. Accordingly, we must take care that the soil which we intend to cultivate is rich.
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§ 2.2.18 Still this of itself is not sufficient if it lacks sweetness; and we may come to know both qualities by a very easy method. For a clod is sprinkled with a little water and kneaded in the hand, and if it is viscous and cohesive when firmed with the slightest touch and, in the manner of pitch is shaped to the fingers in handling, as Vergil says, and does not crumble when dashed to the ground, this test informs us that there is in such earth a natural moistness and fatness.
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§ 2.2.19 But when you try to put back and tread down in trenches the earth that has been removed, if there is an excess as by some sort of leavening, it will be a sure sign that the soil is fat; if it is insufficient, that it is poor; if it makes an even fill, that it is ordinary. And yet the statements which I have just now made may seem not so trustworthy in the case of blackish earth (pulla), which is better tested by its yield of crops.
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§ 2.2.20 We shall also make distinctions of taste as follows: from that part of the field which displeases us most, clods should be dug and soaked in an earthen vessel, then thoroughly mixed with fresh water and, after careful straining in the manner of dreggy wine, examined by tasting; for, whatever is the taste transmitted from the clods to the water, such we shall take to be the taste of that soil. But, apart from this experiment, there are many signs which show that ground is sweet and suitable for grain — for example, the rush, the reed, grass, trefoil, the dwarf-elder, bramble bushes, wild plums, and many other things which are well known also to searchers for springs, and which are not nourished except by veins of sweet water in the ground.
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§ 2.2.21 And we should not be content with the first appearance of surface soil, but should take pains to investigate the character of what lies beneath — whether it is earthy or not. It will be satisfactory for grain, however, if the soil below is equally good to a depth of two feet; for trees, a depth of four feet is sufficient. When we have investigated these points as stated, we shall put our field in readiness for planting; and it yields no trifling increase if it is worked with care and understanding. For this reason it is a matter of first importance to put a plan of this kind of work in writing, that husbandmen may adhere to it as a pattern and a law in the breaking up of their fields.
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§ 2.2.22 To proceed then, it is proper to have oxen closely yoked while at work, so that they will move with a more stately gait, with lofty bearing and heads held high; also that their necks may be galled less, and that the yoke may sit more closely on their shoulders. This method of yoking is most approved; for the method in use in some provinces — fastening the yoke to the horns — has been condemned by almost all who have written precepts for husbandmen, and not without reason.
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§ 2.2.23 For cattle can put forth more effort with neck and shoulders than with the horns, and in this way they exert themselves with the entire bulk of the body and its whole weight; but in the other way, with their heads pulled back and faces turned upward, they are tortured, and barely scratch the surface of the ground with a very light ploughshare. And it is for this reason that they work with smaller ploughs, because they are unable to tear up the surface of new ground and dig it deep; but when this is done, all growing things are greatly benefited, for when ploughlands are deeply furrowed the fruits of crops and trees swell with greater increase.
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§ 2.2.24 On this point, therefore, I disagree with Celsus, who, shrinking from the expense which is undoubtedly greater in the case of larger cattle, advises the breaking up of land with small shares and share-beams, so that it may be accomplished with oxen of smaller size; disregarding the fact that revenue in fruitfulness of crops outweighs the expense of buying heavier draught animals, and especially in Italy, where the land, being planted with vineyards and olives, wants to be broken and worked rather deep, so that the uppermost roots of vines and olives, which are detrimental to the yield if they are left, may be cut off by the ploughshares, and that the deeper roots may receive the nourishment of moisture more readily when the ground is deeply worked.
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§ 2.2.25 Still Celsus' method may be suited to Numidia and Egypt, where, as a rule, the land is destitute of trees and is sown with grain; and soil of that sort, crumbling with fat sands, and like loose ashes, is stirred sufficiently with the lightest plough-point (dens). The ploughman, moreover, must walk upon the broken ground and in every other furrow must hold his plough upright and at its full depth, but in such a way as not to leave anywhere any solid and unbroken ground, which farmers call scamnum.
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§ 2.2.26 When the oxen come to a tree, he must keep them firmly in hand and check their pace, for fear that the driving of the ploughshare with too great force against a root may jolt their necks, and so that an ox may not strike a horn violently against the bole of the tree, or graze the trunk or break off a branch with the end of the yoke. He should keep them in dread of his voice rather than of his lash, blows being his last resort when they balk at a task. He should never urge a bullock with a goad, for this makes him irritable and inclined to kick; yet he may urge him on now and then with a whip.
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§ 2.2.27 He should not stop in the middle of the furrow, but should allow a rest at the end of it, so that the ox will exert himself more energetically the whole way in the hope of stopping. But to run a furrow more than one hundred and twenty feet in length is injurious to a beast, for he is wearied more than is right when he goes beyond this limit.
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§ 2.2.28 When the turning-point is reached, the ploughman should push the yoke forward and hold the oxen back, to allow their necks to cool off; for these quickly become inflamed if they are constantly bound, and as a result their arises a swelling and then running sores. And the ploughman should use the mattock no less than the ploughshare, and should dig up and hunt out all the broken stumps and surface roots with which a field is infested when it is planted with trees for supporting vines.
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§ 2.3.1 When the ploughman has unyoked his oxen after work, he should rub the lower parts that were bound, knead the upper part with his hands, and pull up the skin and not allow it to cling to the body; for this, too, is a kind of ailment very injurious to cattle.
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§ 2.3.2 He should rub down their necks and pour unmixed wine down their throats if they are heated; and it is enough to give a pint of wine to each. But it is not proper for oxen to be tied to their cribs before they have stopped sweating and panting. Then, when they are in the proper condition for feeding, it is best not to give them much feed, and not the whole amount at once, but to portion it out, a little at a time. When they have consumed this, they should be led to water and enticed by whistling to drink more freely, and then at length taken back to eat their fill of a more generous allowance of fodder. It is enough to have discussed the duties of the ploughman up to this point. Our next step is to give directions also as to the seasons for breaking up ploughland.
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§ 2.4.1 Rich plains which hold water for a considerable length of time are to be broken at a time of year when it is growing warm, after they have put forth all their vegetation and while the seeds of this vegetation have not yet ripened; but they should be ploughed with furrows so numerous and close together that it can hardly be told in what direction the ploughshare has been driven, for in this way all the roots of the growth are broken off and killed.
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§ 2.4.2 But fallow land should be so pulverized by much re-ploughing that it will require no harrowing, or very little, after we have put in the seed. For the ancient Romans said that a field was poorly prepared when it had to be harrowed after the crop was in the ground.
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§ 2.4.3 Furthermore, a farmer should examine it frequently to see whether it is properly ploughed — and not merely by sight, which is sometimes mistaken when earth is scattered over unploughed skips that lie hidden, but also by touch, which is deceived the less when a strong and stiff pole is put to use and pushed into the furrows crosswise. If it goes in to a uniform depth and without striking anything, it is clear that all the ground has been stirred in turn; but if some harder spot obstructs its entrance, it shows that there is unbroken fallow. When ploughmen observe that this is done rather frequently, they are not guilty of leaving skips. Wet champaign lands, then, should be broken after the Ides of April.
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§ 2.4.4 When they are ploughed at this time, they should be gone over a second time after the passing of the twenty days around the solstice — which falls on the ninth or eighth day before the Calends of July — and then a third time in the neighbourhood of the Calends of September; for it is agreed among experts in husbandry that no ploughing should be done from the summer solstice up to this time, unless, as sometimes happens, the earth is soaked with heavy and sudden showers as if by winter rains.
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§ 2.4.5 In this case there is no objection to breaking fallow land in the month of July. But whenever the ploughing is done, we must be careful not to let a field be worked when it is muddy or half soaked from light rains — a condition of soil which farmers call varia and cariosa; that is, when, after a long drought, a light rain wets the upper surface of the clods but does not reach the lower part. For ploughlands which are turned over when they are muddy cannot be worked for a whole year, and they are not fit for sowing or harrowing or planting; but, on the other hand, those which are ploughed when they are varia are visited with barrenness for three successive years.
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§ 2.4.6 Let us, then, above all, follow a middle course in ploughing our lands, that they may neither be entirely wanting in dampness nor immoderately wet; for too much moisture, as I have said, makes them sticky and muddy, while those that are parched with drought cannot be properly loosened. For either the point of the plough is rejected by the hardness of the ground or, if it does enter at some spot, it does not break the soil into fine particles, but tears up huge clods; and when these lie in the way, the plough-land is under a handicap and cannot be properly worked at the second ploughing, because the ploughshare is thrown out of the furrow by the weight of the clods as though by some deep-seated obstructions, with the result that hard skips are left even in the re-ploughing and that the oxen are severely injured by the unevenness of the strain.
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§ 2.4.7 Added to this is that all ground, though it be never so rich, still has poorer soil underneath, and when the larger clods are turned up they bring this with them; the result being that the less productive soil, mixed with the richer, grows a less bountiful crop, and in addition the accounting of the farmer is made more difficult by the poor progress of his work; for the proper tasks cannot be completed when the ground is hard.
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§ 2.4.8 For this reason my advice is, in dry weather, to replough ground already broken, and to wait for rain which, by its soaking of the earth, makes cultivation easy for us. But a iugerum of such land is prepared with four days' labour; for it is broken easily in two days, gone over a second time in one, a third time in three-fourths of a day, and is formed into ridges and sown in one-fourth of a day. These ridges, moreover, country folk call porcae when the ground is ploughed in such a way that the earth heaped between two widely separated furrows affords a dry bed for the grain.
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§ 2.4.9 Hillsides where the soil is rich should be broken after the sowing of the three-months crops is completed, in the month of March; or, if the warmth of the climate and the dryness of the region make it advisable, even in February. Then between the middle of April and the solstice they should be gone over a second time, and a third time in September around the equinox; and a iugerum of such ground is prepared with the same number of days labour as wet champaign land.
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§ 2.4.10 But especial care must be taken in the ploughing always to run the furrow crosswise to the slope; for by this method the difficulty of the ascent is mitigated, and the toil of man and beast is thereby lessened most handily. Still, whenever it is reworked, the furrows should be run somewhat obliquely, now uphill, now downhill, so that we may tear up the ground in both directions and not work it in the same track.
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§ 2.4.11 Lean land which lies level and is well watered should be ploughed for the first time during the latter part of the month of August, then gone over again a second time in September, and put in readiness for sowing about the time of the equinox. In ground of this sort, moreover, the work is easier, and for this reason fewer days of labour are expended; for three days are sufficient for one iugerum. Lean and sloping ground, likewise, is not to be ploughed in summer, but around the calends of September; for if it is broken before this time, the earth, being exhausted and destitute of moisture, is burned by the summer sun and has no reserves of strength. Therefore it is best to plough it between the Calends and the Ides of September, and then to work it again immediately, so that it may be sown during the first rains of the equinox; and such land is to be sown, not in the ridges, but in the furrows.
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§ 2.5.1 Still, before we give lean land its second ploughing, it will be best to manure it; for on such food, so to speak, it grows fat. On level ground piles of manure, about five modii to the pile, should be placed farther apart, and on hilly land closer together: on the level it will suffice to leave an interval of eight feet each way, on a slope two feet less. My own preference is that this be done when the moon is waning, for this frees the crops from weeds. Furthermore, one iugerum, if manured heavily, requires twenty-four loads; if lightly, eighteen.

Via ToposText (topostext.org), a project of the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation created by Brady Kiesling. Translated by Harrison Boyd Ash (1891-1944). Composed ca. 50 CE. Licence: public domain. Source.