Chaps. 38-48.

Chap. 38.—The Fitch.

The cultivation of the fitch, [Or orobus, the Ervum ervilia of Linnæus.] too, is attended with no difficulty. It requires weeding, however, more than the vetch. Like it, the fitch has certain medicinal [It is thought by many that the ervum is unwholesome, being productive of muscular weakness. The blade of it is said to act as a poison on pigs. However, we find the farina, or meal, extolled by some persons for its medicinal qualities; and if we are to trust to the advertisements in the newspapers, it is rising rapidly in esteem. See B. xxii. c..] properties; for we find the fact still kept in remembrance by some letters of his, that the late Emperor Augustus was cured by its agency. Five modii will sow as much ground as a yoke of oxen can plough in a day. If sown in the month of March, [From Columella, B. ii. c. 11.] it is injurious, they say, to oxen: and when sown in autumn, it is apt to produce head-ache. If, however, it is put in the ground at the beginning of spring, it will be productive of no bad results.

Chap. 39. (16.)—Silicia.

Silicia, [Trigonella fœnum Græcum of Linnæus.] or, in other words, fenugreek, is sown after a light ploughing [“Scarificatio.”] merely, the furrows being no more than some four fingers in depth; the less the pains that are bestowed upon it the better it will thrive—a singular fact that there should be anything that profits from neglect. The kinds, however, that are known as “secale” and “farrago” require harrowing only.

Chap. 40.—Secale or Asia.

The people of Taurinum, at the foot of the Alps, give to secale [Probably the Secale cereale of Linnæus, cultivated rye.] the name of “asia;” it is a very inferior [It is now held in high esteem in many parts of Europe.] grain, and is only employed to avert positive famine. It is prolific, but has a straw of remarkable thinness; it is also black and sombre-looking, but weighs extremely heavy. Spelt is mixed with this grain to modify its bitterness, [Rye has no bitterness, and this assertion has led some to doubt if it is identical with the “secale” of Pliny.] and even then it is very disagreeable to the stomach. It will grow upon any soil, and yields a hundred-fold; it is employed also as a manure for enriching the land.

Chap. 41.—Farrago: The Cracca.

Farrago, a mixture made of the refuse of “far,” or spelt, is sown very thick, the vetch being sometimes mingled with it; in Africa, this mixture is sometimes made with barley. All these mixtures, however, are only intended for cattle, and the same is the case with the cracca, [Perhaps identical with the Vicia cracca of Linnæus.] a degenerate kind of leguminous plant. Pigeons, it is said, are so remarkably fond of this grain, that they will never leave the place where it has been given to them.

Chap. 42.—Ocinum: Ervilia.

Among the ancients there was a sort of fodder, to which Cato [In c. 54 and 60, and elsewhere. See B. xvii. c. 35.] gives the name of “ocinum;” it was employed by them to stop scouring in oxen. This was a mixture of various kinds of fodder, cut green before the frosts came on. Mamilius Sura, however, explains the term differently, and says that ten modii of beans, two of vetches, and the same quantity of ervilia, [Probably, fitches.] were mixed and sown in autumn on a jugerum of land. He states, also, that it is a still better plan to mix some Greek oats [Fée suggests that this may be the Avena sterilis, or else the Avena fatua of Linnæus.] with it, the grain of which never falls to the ground; this mixture, according to him, was ocinum, and was usually sown as a food for oxen. Varro [De Re Rust. B. i. c. 31.] informs us that it received its name on account of the celerity with which it springs up, from the Greek ὠκέως, “quickly.”

Chap. 43.—Lucerne.

Lucerne [“Medica,” in Latin, a kind of clover, the Medicago sativa of Linnæus.] is by nature an exotic to Greece even, it having been first introduced into that country from Media, [Fée is inclined to doubt this.] at the time of the Persian wars with King Darius; still it deserves to be mentioned among the very first of these productions. So superior are its qualities, that a single sowing will last more than thirty [Pliny exaggerates here: Columella, B. ii. c. 11, says, only “ten:” a field, however, sown with it will last, with a fresh sowing, as long as twenty years.] years. It resembles trefoil in appearance, but the stalk and leaves are articulated. The longer it grows in the stalk, the narrower is the leaf. Amphilochus has devoted a whole book to this subject and the cytisus. [See B. xiii. c. 47.] The ground in which it is sown, being first cleaned and cleared of stones, is turned up in the autumn, after which it is ploughed and harrowed. It is then harrowed a second and a third time, at intervals of five days; after which manure is laid upon it. This seed requires either a soil that is dry, but full of nutriment, or else a well-watered one. After the ground has been thus prepared, the seed is put in in the month of May; [Columella, B. ii. c. 11, says April.] for if sown earlier, it is in danger from the frosts. It is necessary to sow the seed very thick, so that all the ground may be occupied, and no room left for weeds to shoot up in the intervals; a result which may be secured by sowing twenty modii to the jugerum. The seed must be stirred at once with the rake, to prevent the sun from scorching it, and it should be covered over with earth as speedily as possible. If the soil is naturally damp or weedy, the lucerne will be overpowered, and the spot degenerate into an ordinary pasture; it is necessary, therefore, directly the crop is an inch in height, to disengage it from all weeds, by hand, in preference to the weeding-hook.

It is cut when it is just beginning to flower, and this is repeated as often as it throws out new blossoms; which happens mostly six [By the aid of careful watering, as many as eight to fourteen cuttings are obtained in the year, in Italy and Spain. In the north of Europe there is but one crop.] times in the year, and four at the very least. Care should be taken to prevent it from running to seed, as it is much more valuable as fodder, up to the third year. It should be hoed in the spring, and cleared of all other plants; and in the third year the surface should be well worked with the weeding-hook. By adopting this method, the weeds will be effectually destroyed, though without detriment to the lucerne, in consequence of the depth of its roots. If the weeds should happen to get ahead of it, the only remedy is to turn it up repeatedly with the plough, until the roots of the weeds are thoroughly destroyed. This fodder should never be given to cattle to satiety, otherwise it may be necessary to let blood; it is best, too, when used while green. When dry, it becomes tough and ligneous, and falls away at last into a thin, useless dust. As to the cytisus, which also occupies the very foremost rank among the fodders, we have already spoken [In B. xiii. c. 47.] of it at sufficient length when describing the shrubs. It remains for us now to complete our account of all the cereals, and we shall here devote a portion of it to the diseases to which they are subject.

Chap. 44. (17.)—The Diseases of Grain: The Oat.

The foremost feature of disease in wheat is the oat. [He borrows this notion of the oat being wheat in a diseased state, from Theophrastus. Singularly enough, it was adopted by the learned Buffon.] Barley, too, will degenerate into the oat; so much so, in fact, that the oat has become an equivalent for corn; for the people of Germany are in the habit of sowing it, and make their porridge of nothing else. This degeneracy is owing more particularly to humidity of soil and climate; and a second cause is a weakness in the seed, the result of its being retained too long in the ground before it makes its appearance above it. The same, too, will be the consequence, if the seed is decayed when put in the ground. This may be known, however, the moment it makes its appearance, from which it is quite evident that the defect lies in the root. There is another form of disease, too, which closely resembles the oat, and which supervenes when the grain, already developed to its full size, but not ripe, is struck by a noxious blast, before it has acquired its proper body and strength; in this case, the seed pines away in the ear, by a kind of abortion, as it were, and totally disappears.

The wind is injurious to wheat and barley, at three [From Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. viii. c. 10.] periods of the year in particular: when they are in blossom, directly the blossom has passed off, and just as the seed is beginning to ripen. In this last case, the grain wastes away, while in the two former ones it is prevented from being developed. Gleams of sunshine, every now and then, from the midst of clouds, are injurious to corn. Maggots, too, breed [This but rarely happens in our climates, as Fée remarks.] in the roots, when the rains that follow the seed-time are succeeded by a sudden heat, which encloses the humidity in the ground. Maggots make their appearance, [The grains are sometimes, though rarely, found devoured on the stalk, by a kind of larvæ.] also, in the grain, when the ear ferments through heat succeeding a fall of rain. There is a small beetle, too, known by the name of “cantharis,” [Some coleopterous insect, probably, now unknown, and not the Cantharis vesicatoria, or “Spanish fly,” as some have imagined. Dioscorides and Athenæus state to the same effect as Pliny.] which eats away the blade. All these insects die, however, as soon as their nutriment fails them. Oil, [The proper influence of the humidity of the earth would naturally be impeded by a coating of these substances.] pitch, and grease are prejudicial to grain, and care should be taken not to let them come in contact with the seed that is sown. Rain is only beneficial to grain while in the blade; it is injurious to wheat and barley while they are in blossom, but is not detrimental to the leguminous plants, with the exception of the chick-pea. When grain is beginning to ripen, rain is injurious, and to barley in particular. There is a white grass [This plant has not been identified; but none of the gramineous plants are noxious to cattle, with the exception of the seed of darnel.] that grows in the fields, very similar to panic in appearance, but fatal to cattle. As to darnel, [Lolium temulentum of Linnæus.] the tribulus, [See B. xxi. c. 58.] the thistle, [“Carduus.” A general term, probably including the genera Centaurea (the prickly kinds), Serratula, Carduus, and Cnicus. The Centaurea solstitialis is the thistle most commonly found in the south of Europe.] and the burdock, [Gallium Aparine of Linnæus.] I can consider them, no more than the bramble, among the maladies that attack the cereals, but rather as so many pests inflicted on the earth. Mildew, [Barley, wheat, oats, and millet have, each its own “rubigo” or mildew, known to modern botany as uredo.] a malady resulting from the inclemency of the weather, and equally attacking the vine [The Erineum vitis of botanists.] and corn, is in no degree less injurious. It attacks corn most frequently in localities which are exposed to dews, and in vallies which have not a thorough draught for the wind; windy and elevated spots, on the other hand, are totally exempt from it. Another evil, again, in corn, is over-luxuriance, when it falls to the ground beneath the weight [This rarely happens except through the violence of wind or rain.] of the grain. One evil, however, to which all crops in common, the chick-pea even, are exposed, is the attacks of the caterpillar, when the rain, by washing away the natural saltness of the vegetation, makes it [See c. of this Book.] all the more tempting for its sweetness.

There is a certain plant, [The Cuscuta Europæa, probably, of Linnæus; one of the Convolvuli.] too, which kills the chick-pea and the fitch, by twining around them; the name of it is “orobanche.” In a similar manner, also, wheat is attacked by darnel, [“Æra.” It is generally considered to be the same with darnel, though Pliny probably looked upon them as different.] barley by a long-stalked plant, called “ægilops,” [The Ægilops ovata, probably, of Linnæus. Dalechamps and Hardouin identify it with the barren oat, the Avena sterilis of Linnæus.] and the lentil by an axe-leafed grass, to which, from the resemblance [To the Greek πελέκυς, or battle-axe. It is probably the Biserrula pelecina of Linnæus, though the Astragalus hamosus and the Coronilla securidaca of Linnæus have been suggested.] of the leaf, the Greeks have given the name of “pelecinon.” All these plants, too, kill the others by entwining around them. In the neighbourhood of Philippi, there is a plant known as ateramon, [Pliny has here committed a singular error in translating from Theophrastus, de Causis, B. iv. c. 14, who only says that a cold wind in the vicinity of Philippi makes the beans difficult to cook or boil, ἀτεράμονες. From this word he has coined two imaginary plants, the “ateramon,” and the “teramon.” Hardouin defends Pliny, by suggesting that he has borrowed the passage from another source, while Fée doubts if he really understood the Greek language.] which grows in a rich soil, and kills the bean, after it has been exposed, while wet, to the blasts of a certain wind: when it grows in a thin, light soil, this plant is called “teramon.” The seed of darnel is extremely minute, and is enclosed in a prickly husk. If introduced into bread, it will speedily produce vertigo; and it is said that in Asia and Greece, the bath-keepers, when they want to disperse a crowd of people, throw this seed upon burning coals. The phalangium, a diminutive insect of the spider genus, [More probably one of the Coleoptera. He borrows from Theophrastus, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 10.] breeds in the fitch, if the winter happens to be wet. Slugs, too, breed in the vetch, and sometimes a tiny snail makes its way out of the ground, and eats it away in a most singular manner.

These are pretty nearly all the maladies to which grain is subject.

Chap. 45.—The Best Remedies for the Diseases of Grain.

The best remedy for these maladies, so long as grain is in the blade, is the weeding-hook, and, at the moment of sowing, ashes. [This will only prevent the young plants from becoming a prey to snails and slugs.] As to those diseases which develope themselves in the seed and about the root, with due care precautions may be effectually employed against them. It is generally supposed that if seed has been first steeped in wine, [This plan is attended with no good results.] it will be less exposed to disease. Virgil [Georg. i. 193. It is generally said that if seed is steeped in a solution of nitre, and more particularly hydrochloric acid, it will germinate with accelerated rapidity; the produce, however, is no finer than at other times.] recommends that beans should be drenched with nitre and amurca of olives; and he says that if this is done, they will be all the larger. Some persons, again, are of opinion, that they will grow of increased size, if the seed is steeped for three days before it is sown in a solution of urine and water. If the ground, too, is hoed three times, a modius of beans in the pod, they say, will yield not less than a modius of shelled [“Fractæ.” Perhaps, more properly “crushed”] beans. Other seeds, again, it is said, will be exempt from the attacks of maggots, if bruised cypress [The odour of cypress, or savin, Fée thinks, might possibly keep away noxious insects.] leaves are mixed with them, or if they are sown just at the moon’s conjunction. Many persons, for the more effectual protection of millet, recommend that a bramble-frog should be carried at night round the field before the hoeing is done, and then buried in an earthen vessel in the middle of it. If this is done, they say, neither sparrows nor worms will attack the crop. The frog, however, must be disinterred before the millet is cut; for if this is neglected, the produce will be bitter. It is pretended, too, that all seeds which have been touched by the shoulders of a mole are remarkably productive.

Democritus recommends that all seeds before they are sown should be steeped in the juice of the herb known as “aizoüm,” [The “always living,” or perennial plant, our “house-leek,” the Sedum acre of Linnæus. See B. xxv. c. 102.] which grows on tiles or shingles, and is known to us by the Latin name of “sedum” or “digitellum.” [“Little finger,” from the shape of the leaves.] If blight prevails, or if worms are found adhering to the roots, it is a very common remedy to sprinkle the plants with pure amurca of olives without salt, and then to hoe the ground. If, however, the crop should be beginning to joint, it should be stubbed at once, for fear lest the weeds should gain the upper hand. I know for certain [He must have allowed himself to be imposed upon in this case.] that flights of starlings and sparrows, those pests to millet and panic, are effectually driven away by means of a certain herb, the name of which is unknown to me, being buried at the four corners of the field: it is a wonderful thing to relate, but in such case not a single bird will enter it. Mice are kept away by the ashes of a weasel or a cat being steeped in water and then thrown upon the seed, or else by using the water in which the body of a weasel or a cat has been boiled. The odour, however, of these animals makes itself perceived in the bread even; for which reason it is generally thought a better plan to steep the seed in ox-gall. [Fée thinks that this may possibly be efficacious against the attacks of rats, as the author of the Geoponica, B. x., states.] As for mildew, that greatest curse of all to corn, if branches of laurel are fixed in the ground, it will pass away from the field into the leaves of the laurel. Over-luxuriance in corn is repressed by the teeth of cattle, [Virgil, Georg, i. 111, recommends the same plan, and it is still followed by agriculturists. It is not without its inconveniences, however.] but only while it is in the blade; in which case, if depastured upon ever so often, no injury to it when in the ear will be the result. If the ear, too, is once cut off, the grain, it is well known, will assume a larger [This is not consistent with truth, for no fresh ear will assume its place.] form, but will be hollow within and worthless, and if sown, will come to nothing.

At Babylon, however, they cut the blade twice, and then let the cattle pasture on it a third time, for otherwise it would run to nothing but leaf. Even then, however, so fertile is the soil, that it yields fifty, and, indeed, with care, as much as a hundred, fold. Nor is the cultivation of it attended with any difficulty, the only object being to let the ground be under water as long as possible, in order that the extreme richness and exuberance of the soil may be modified. The Euphrates, however, and the Tigris do not deposit a slime, in the same way that the Nilus does in Egypt, nor does the soil produce vegetation spontaneously; but still, so great is the fertility, that, although the seed is only trodden in with the foot, a crop springs up spontaneously the following year. So great a difference in soils as this, reminds me that I ought to take this opportunity of specifying those which are the best adapted for the various kinds of grain.

Chap. 46.—The Crops That Should Be Sown in the Different Soils.

This, then, is the opinion expressed by Cato [De Re Rust. c. 6.] on the subject: “In a dense and fertile soil wheat should be sown: but if the locality is subject to fogs, rape, radishes, millet, and panic. Where the land [De Re Rust. c. 34.] is cold and moist, sowing should be commenced earlier; but where it is hot, at a later period. In a red, black, or gravelly soil, provided it is not watery, lupines should be sown; but in chalk, red earth, or a watery soil, spelt. [“Ador.” See c. of this Book.] Where a locality is dry, free from weeds, and not overshadowed, wheat should be put in; and where the soil is strong and powerful, beans. Vetches should be grown in a soil as free from water and weeds as possible; while wheat and winter wheat are best adapted to an open, elevated locality, fully exposed to the warmth of the sun. The lentil thrives best in a meagre, red earth, free from weeds. Barley is equally suited for fallow land and for a soil that is not intended to be fallow, and three-month wheat, for a soil upon which a crop of ordinary wheat would never ripen, but strong enough to bear.”

The following, too, is sound advice: [From Varro; De Re Rust. i. 23.] Those plants should be sown in a thin soil which do not stand in need of much nutriment, the cytisus, for instance, and such of the leguminous plants, with the exception of the chick-pea, as are taken up by the roots and not cut. From this mode of gathering them—“legere”—the legumina derive their name. Where it is a rich earth, those plants should be grown which require a greater proportion of nutriment, coleworts for instance, wheat, winter-wheat, and flax. The result, then, will be, that a light soil will be given to barley—the root of that grain standing in need of less nutriment—while a more dense, though easily-worked soil, will be assigned to wheat. In humid localities spelt should be sown in preference to wheat; but where the soil is of moderate temperature, either wheat or barley may be grown. Declivities produce a stronger growth of wheat, but in smaller quantities. Spelt and winter-wheat adopt a moist, cretaceous soil in preference to any other.

(18.) The only occasion on which there ever was a prodigy connected with grain, at least that I am aware of, was in the consulship of P. Ælius and Cneius Cornelius, the year [A.U.C. 553.] in which Hannibal was vanquished: on that occasion, we find it stated, corn was seen growing upon trees. [There is nothing wonderful in a few grains of corn germinating in the cleft of a tree.]

Chap. 47.—The Different Systems of Cultivation Employed by Various Nations.

As we have now spoken at sufficient length of the several varieties of grain and soil, we shall proceed to treat of the methods adopted in tilling the ground, taking care, in the very first place, to make mention of the peculiar facilities enjoyed by Egypt in this respect. In that country, performing the duties of the husbandman, the Nile begins to overflow, as already stated, [In B. v. c. 10.] immediately after the summer solstice or the new moon, gradually at first, but afterwards with increased impetuosity, as long as the sun remains in the sign of Leo. When the sun has passed into Virgo, the impetuosity of the overflow begins to slacken, and when he has entered Libra the river subsides. Should it not have exceeded twelve cubits in its overflow, famine is the sure result; and this is equally the case if it should chance to exceed sixteen; for the higher it has risen, the more slowly it subsides, and, of course, the seed-time is impeded in proportion. It was formerly a very general belief that immediately upon the subsiding of the waters the Egyptians were in the habit of driving herds of swine over the ground, for the purpose of treading the seed into the moist soil—and it is my own impression that this was done in ancient times. At the present day even, the operation is not attended with much greater labour. It is well known, however, that the seed is first laid upon the slime that has been left by the river on its subsidence, and then ploughed in; this being done at the beginning of November. After this is done, a few persons are employed in stubbing, an operation known there as “botanismos.” The rest of the labourers, however, have no occasion to visit the land again till a little before the calends of April, [First of April.] and then it is with the reaping-hook. The harvest is completed in the month of May. The stem is never so much as a cubit in length, as there is a stratum of sand beneath the slime, from which last alone the grain receives its support. The best wheat of all is that of the region of Thebais, Egypt [I. e. Egypt Proper, the Delta, or Lower Egypt, Thebais being in Upper Egypt.] being of a marshy character.

The method adopted at Seleucia in Babylonia is very similar to this, but the fertility there is still greater, owing to the overflow of the Euphrates and Tigris, [The overflow of these rivers is by no means to be compared with that of the Nile.] the degree of irrigation being artificially modified in those parts. In Syria, too, the furrows are made extremely light, while in many parts of Italy, again, it takes as many as eight oxen to pant and blow at a single plough. All the operations of agriculture, but this in particular, should he regulated by the oracular precept—“Remember that every locality has its own tendencies.”

Chap. 48.—The Various Kinds of Ploughs.

Ploughs are of various kinds. The coulter [Fée remarks, that the plough here described differs but little from that used in some provinces of France.] is the iron part that cuts up the dense earth before it is broken into pieces, and traces beforehand by its incisions the future furrows, which the share, reversed, [Resupinus.] is to open out with its teeth. Another kind—the common plough-share—is nothing more than a lever, furnished with a pointed beak; while another variety, which is only used in light, easy soils, does not present an edge projecting from the share-beam throughout, but only a small point at the extremity. In a fourth kind again, this point is larger and formed with a cutting edge; by the agency of which implement, it both cleaves the ground, and, with the sharp edges at the sides, cuts up the weeds by the roots. There has been invented, at a comparatively recent period, in that part of Gaul [Gallia Togata. Rhætia is the modern country of the Grisons.] known as Rhætia, a plough with the addition of two small wheels, and known by the name of “plaumorati.” [According to Goropius Becanus, from plograt, the ancient Gallic for a plough-wheel. Hardouin thinks that it is from the Latin “plaustra rati;” and Poinsinet derives it from the Belgic ploum, a plough, and rat, or radt, a wheel.] The extremity of the share in this has the form of a spade: it is only used, however, for sowing in cultivated lands, and upon soils which are nearly fallow. The broader the plough-share, the better it is for turning up the clods of earth. Immediately after ploughing, the seed is put into the ground, and then harrows [“Crates;” probably made of hurdles; see Virgil, Georg. i. 95.] with long teeth are drawn over it. Lands which have been sown in this way require no hoeing, but two or three pairs of oxen are employed in ploughing. It is a fair estimate to consider that a single yoke of oxen can work forty jugera of land in the year, where the soil is light, and thirty where it is stubborn.