Book 5 — CHAPTER V. THE VARIOUS PROCESSES OF AGRICULTURE.

If we now pass to the actual labours of the farm, and the implements by which they were usually carried on, we shall find that the Grecian husbandman was no way deficient in invention, or in that ingenuity by which men have in all countries sought to diminish their toils. For the purpose of procuring at a cheap rate whatever was wanted for the use of the establishment,^[1680] smiths, carpenters, and potters, were kept upon the land or in its immediate neighbourhood; by which means also the necessity was avoided of often sending the farm-servants to the neighbouring town, where it was observed they contracted bad habits, and were rendered more vicious and slothful.^[1681] Waggons, therefore, and carts, and ploughs, and harrows, were constructed on the spot, though it was sometimes necessary perhaps to obtain from a distance the timber used for these implements, which was generally cut in winter-time. They exhibited much nicety in their choice of wood. Thus they would have the poplar or mulberry-tree for the felloes of their wheels; the ash, the ilex, and the oxya, for the axle-tree, and fine close-grained maple for the yokes of their oxen,^[1682] sometimes carved in the form of serpents which seemed to wind round the necks of the animals, and project their heads 382on either side.^[1683] Their harrows, it is probable, were formed like our own. The construction of the plough,^[1684] always continued to be extremely simple. In the age of Hesiod^[1685] it consisted of four parts, the handle, the socket, the coulter, and the beam; and very little alteration seems afterwards to have been made in its form or structure, till the introduction of the wheel-plough, which did not, it is believed, occur until after the age of Virgil. The more primitive instrument, however, would seem to have consisted originally of two parts only, one serving the purpose of handle, socket, and share, the other being the beam by which it was fastened to the yoke. In the antique implement^[1686] the beam was sometimes made of laurel or elm, the socket of oak, and the handle of ilex.

Before mills were invented, the instrument by which they reduced corn into flour was a large mortar, scooped out of the trunk of a tree, furnished with a pestle upwards of four feet in length, exactly resembling that still in use among the Egyptian Arabs. To give the pestle greater effect it was fixed above in a cross-bar, seven feet long, and worked by two individuals.^[1687] By this rude contrivance, it is possible to produce flour as fine as that proceeding from the most perfect boulting machine. In addition to these they possessed winnowing fans, scythes, sickles, pruning-hooks, fern or braken-scythes, saws and hand-saws, used in pruning and grafting, spades, shovels, rakes, pick-axes, hoes, mattocks,—one, two, and three pronged,—dibbles, fork-dibbles, and grubbing-axes.^[1688] When rustics were clearing away 383underwood or cutting down brakes, they went clad in hooded skin-cloaks, leather gaiters, and long gloves.^[1689]

On the subject of manure^[1690] the Greeks appear to have entertained very just notions, and have left behind them numerous rules for using and preparing it. In lean lands which required most the help of art, they were still careful to avoid excess in the employment of manure, spreading it frequently rather than copiously; for as, left to themselves, they would have been too cold, so, when over enriched by art, their prolific virtue was thought to be consumed by heat. In applying it to plants, they were careful to interpose a layer of earth lest their roots should be scorched. Of all kinds of manure they considered that of birds the best,^[1691] except the aquatic species, which, when mixed, however, was not rejected. Most husbandmen set a peculiar value on the sweepings of dovecotes,^[1692] which, in small quantities, were frequently scattered over the fields with the seed.

On the preparation of manure-pits they bestowed much attention.^[1693] Having sunk them sufficiently deep in places abundantly supplied with water, they cast therein large quantities of weeds, with all descriptions of manure, among which they reckoned even earth itself, when completely impregnated with humidity. When they had lain long enough to be 384entirely decayed, they were fit for use. To the above were sometimes added wood-ashes, the refuse of leather-dressers, the cleansing of stables, and cow-houses, with stubble, brambles, and thorns reduced to ashes. In maritime situations sea-weed,^[1694] also, having been well washed in fresh water, was mingled in large proportion with other materials, and, where possible, a channel was made conducting the muck and puddle^[1695] of the neighbouring road into the pit, which at once accelerated the putrescence of the manure and augmented it. The Attic husbandmen had a mode of enriching their lands^[1696] somewhat expensive, and, as far as I know, peculiar to themselves; having sown a field, they allowed the corn to spring up and the blade to reach a considerable height, upon which they again ploughed it in as a kind of sacrifice to the earth. A practice, not altogether unlike, still prevails in the kingdom of Naples, where the husbandmen sometimes bury their beans and lupins, just before flowering, for manure.^[1697]

In ploughing there was great variety of practice, and in small farms, where the soil was light, they had recourse to what may be denominated spade husbandry. Most lands were ploughed thrice; first, immediately after the removal of the preceding crop; secondly, at a convenient interval of time; and, thirdly,^[1698] in the sowing season, when the ploughman scattered the grain in the furrows as they were laid open while a lad followed at his heels with a hoe breaking the clods and covering the seed that it might 385not be devoured by the birds.^[1699] Occasionally, in very hot weather, and in certain situations, the farmer ploughed all night;^[1700] first, out of consideration to the oxen, whose health would have suffered from the sun; secondly, to preserve the moisture and richness of the soil; and, thirdly, by the aid of the dew, to render it more pliable. On these occasions, it was customary to employ two pair of oxen and a heavier share in order to produce the deeper furrows, and turn up the hidden fat of the earth. In choosing a ploughman they took care that he should be tall and powerful,^[1701] that he might be able to thrust the share deeper into the ground and wield it generally with facility: and yet they would not, if possiblepossible, that he should be under forty years of age, lest, instead of attending to his duties, his eye should be glancing hither and thither, and his mind be roving after his companions.^[1702] When in particular haste to complete his task, the ploughman often carried a long loaf under his arm, which, like the French peasants, he ate as he went along.^[1703] In this department of rural labour it may be observed, mules were sometimes employed as well as oxen.^[1704] Both were directed and kept in order by a sharp goad.^[1705]

As the Greeks well understood the practice of fallowing, their lands were then, as now, suffered to 386regain their strength by lying for a time idle;^[1706] and it seems to have been as much their custom as it is still of their descendants,^[1707] for the poor, at least, to roam over these fallow grounds, collecting nettles,^[1708] mallows, the sow-thistle or jagged lettuce,^[1709] dandelions, sea-purslain, stoches, hartwort, briony sprouts, gentle-rocket, usually found in the environs of towns, and about the courts of houses, gardens, and ruins, with other wild herbs for salads, or to be eaten as vegetables.

The rules observed in sowing were numerous, and, in many instances, not a little curious. As a matter of course, they were careful to adapt the grain to the soil:^[1710] thus rich plains were appropriated to wheat, and in the intervals cropped with vegetables; middling grounds to barley;^[1711] while poor and hungry spots were given up to lentils, vetches, lupins, and such other pulse as were cultivated on a large scale. Beans and peas, however, were supposed to thrive best in fat and level lands. The principal sowing-time^[1712] was in autumn; for, as soon as the equinoctial 387rains had moistened the earth, the sower immediately went forth to sow, committing to the ground the hopes of the future year. The best time for scattering wheat they placed somewhere in November, about the setting of the constellation called the Crown. They were careful in this operation to avoid the time when the south wind^[1713] blew, and, generally, all cold and raw weather, as it rendered the earth ungenial, and little apt to fructify that which was entrusted to it. Great skill was supposed to be required in scattering the seed: in the first place, that it should be equally distributed; and, secondly, that none should fall between the horns of the oxen, superstition having taught them the belief that such grain, which they denominated Kerasbolos,^[1714] if it sprang up at all, would produce corn which could neither be baked nor eaten. A favourite sowing sieve was made of wolf’s-hide, pierced with thirty holes as large as the tips of the fingers. In later ages much virtue was supposed to reside in the barbarous term Phriel,^[1715] which they accordingly wrote on the plough. The choice of grains for sowing necessarily afforded much exercise^[1716] to their ingenuity: seed wheat, they thought, should be of a rich gold colour, full, smooth, and solid; barley, white and heavy; both not exceeding one year old, for they quickly deteriorated, and, after the third year, would not they supposed grow. This, however, was an error, since barley has been known to preserve its vitality upwards of two thousand years.

It was customary often to renew seed by sowing the produce of mountains on plains; of dry places in moist, and the contrary.^[1717] To try the comparative 388value of different qualities of grain^[1718] they took a sample of each, and sowed the whole in separate patches of the same bed, a little before the rising of the Dog-star. If the produce of any of these samples withered, through the influence they supposed of Syrius, the wheat which it represented was rejected. As corn when committed to the earth is exposed to numerous enemies, they had recourse to a variety of contrivances for its preservation: to protect it from birds, mice, and ants,^[1719] they steeped it in the juice of houseleeks, or mixed it with hellebore and cypress leaves, and scattered it out of a circle, or sprinkled it with water into which river crabs had been thrown for eight days, or with powdered hartshorn or ivory. Not satisfied with these precautions, they had likewise recourse to scarecrows,^[1720] fixing up long reeds here and there in the fields, with dead birds suspended to them by the feet. This long list of contrivances they closed by a spell: taking a live toad, they carried it round the field by night, after which they shut it up carefully in a jar, which they buried in the middle of the grounds.

When the corn began to spring up it was diligently weeded^[1721] a first and a second time. They would not trust entirely, however, to the industry of their hands, but called in to their aid certain characteristic enchantments, some two or three of which may be worth describing. First, to subdue the growth of choke-weed they planted sprigs of rose-laurel, at the corner and in the middle of their fields, or set up a number of potsherds, upon which had been drawn with chalk the figure of Heracles 389strangling the lion. But the most effectual of all spells, was for a young woman, naked and with dishevelled hair, to take a live cock in her hands and bear him round the fields, upon which, not only would the choke-weed and the restharrow vanish,^[1722] but all the produce of the land would turn out of a superior quality.^[1723]

As the ancients well understood the value of hay, they took much pains in the formation and management of meadows. In the first place, all stones, stumps, bushes, and brambles,^[1724] were diligently removed, together with whatever else might interrupt the free play of the scythe in mowing. They avoided, moreover, letting into them their droves of hogs, which were found to turn up the soil and destroy the roots of the young grass. In moist lands, too, even the larger cattle were excluded, as the holes made by their hoofs^[1725] in sinking broke up the fine level of the turf. Old hay fields, in districts where much rain fell, grew in time to be clothed with a coating of moss,^[1726] which some farmers sought to remove by manuring the ground with ashes; but the more scientific agriculturists ploughed them up, and took precisely the same steps as in the formation of a new meadow, that is, they sowed the ground with beans, turnips, or rape-seed, which, in the second year, were succeeded by wheat; on the third it was thoroughly cleared out, and sown with hay-seed, mingled with vetches, after which the whole field was finely levelled by the harrow.

The rules observed by them in the regulation of their hay harvest^[1727] were, first, to mow before the grass or clover was withered, when it became less rich and nutritive; second, to beware in making the 390ricks, that it was neither too dry nor too damp, since in the former case it was little better than straw, and in the latter was liable to spontaneous combustion.^[1728] It may be observed further, that clover^[1729] was usually sown in March or April, and though commonly mown six, or at least five, times in the twelve months, did not require to be renewed in less than ten years.^[1730]

Harvest usually commenced in Greece about the rising of the Pleiades,^[1731] when the corn had already acquired a deep gold colour, though not yet so ripe as to fall from the ear, which in barley happens earlier than in wheat, the grain having no hose.^[1732] Among the Romans operations were preceded by the sacrifice^[1733] of a young sow to Ceres, with libations of wine, the burning of frankincense, and the offering of a cake to Jove, Juno, and Janus. They, at the same time, addressed their prayers to the last-mentioned gods, nearly in the following words:—“O father Janus or Jupiter, in making an oblation of this cake I offer up my prayers that thou wouldst be propitious to me and my children, my house, and my family!”^[1734]

At Athens, as soon as the season for reaping^[1735] had 391come round, those hardy citizens who lived by letting out their strength for hire,^[1736] ranged themselves in bands in the agora, whither the farmers of the neighbourhood resorted in search of harvesters. They then, in consequence of the hot weather, proceeded half-naked^[1737] to the fields, where, taking the sickle in hand, and separating into two divisions, they stationed themselves at either end of the piece of corn to be reaped, and began their work with vigour and emulation, each party striving to reach the centre of the field before their rivals.^[1738] On other occasions they took advantage of the wind,^[1739] moving along with it, whereby they were supposed to benefit considerably, avoiding the beard or chaff which it might have blown into their eyes, and having by its action the tall straw bent to their hand.

392In many parts of Greece, though the practice was not general, the women joined in these labours. The reapers, as they advanced, laid the corn behind them in long lines upon the stubble, and were followed by two other classes of harvesters, one of whom bound it into sheaves which the others bore back and piled up into mows. Of the whole of these operations, together with the plenteous feast which interrupted or terminated their toils, Homer has left us a graphic picture in the Iliad:^[1740]

There in a field ’mid lofty corn, the lusty reapers stand,

Plying their task right joyously, with sickle each in hand.

Some strew in lines, as on they press, the handfuls thick behind,

While at their heels the heavy sheaves their merry comrades bind.

These to the mows a troop of boys next bear in haste away,

Piling upon the golden glebe the triumphs of the day.

Among them wrapped in silent joy, their sceptered king appears,

Beholding, in the swelling heaps, the stores of future years.

A mighty ox beneath an oak the busy heralds slay,

With grateful sacrifice to close the labours of the day.

While near, the husbandman’s repast the rustic maids prepare,

Sprinkling with flour the broiling cates whose savour fills the air.

In these remote and unsettled times it behoved the rustic to keep a sharp look-out on the sheaves left behind him on the field, as there were usually prowlers,^[1741] lurking amid the neighbouring woods and thickets, ready to pounce upon and carry off whatever they saw unguarded.

The implement used in cutting wheat seems always to have been the sickle, while in the case of barley and other inferior grains, the scythe was commonly employed. In some parts of ancient Gaul, where no value was set upon the straw, corn was reaped by a sort of cart,^[1742] armed in front with scythes, having the edges inclined upwards, which, as it was driven along by an ox, harnessed behind, cut off the ears of corn, which were received into the tumbril. 393In this manner the produce of a whole field might be got in easily in a day. Reaping among the ancient inhabitants of Italy^[1743] was performed in three ways: first they reaped close, as in Umbria, and laid the handfuls carefully on the ground, after which the ears were separated from the straw, and borne in baskets to the threshing-floor. Elsewhere, as in Picenum, they made use of a ripple or serrated hook, having a long handle with which the ears only were cut off, leaving the straw standing to be afterwards collected and raked up into mows.

In the neighbourhood of Rome they reaped with the common sickle, holding the upper part of the straw in their left hand, and cutting it off in the middle. This tall stubble was afterwards mown and carried off to be used as fodder or bedding for cattle. In Upper Egypt and Nubia, the dhoura stalks are left about two feet in height to support the crop of kidney-beans which succeeds next in order. Among the Athenians^[1744] when the corn grew tall the stubble was suffered to remain to be burned for manure; but, when short, the value of the straw led them to reap close.

In separating the grain from the straw the ancients made use of horses, oxen, and mules, which, passing round and round over the threshing-floor, trod out the corn. All the labourer had to do was to guide the movements of the cattle, and take care that no part of the sheaf remained untrodden.^[1745] From 394a very humane law in the Old Testament we learn, that among some nations it was customary to tie up the mouths of such animals as they employed in this labour, which was forbidden the Israelites: “Thou shalt not,” says the Scripture, “muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn.” Nor was it practised among the Greeks in the age of Homer,^[1746] whom we find describing the oxen bellowing as they made their unwearied round. The threshing-floor, which was of a circular form,^[1747] stood on a breezy eminence, in the open field, where, as at present, in modern Greece, and in the Crimea,^[1748] a high pole was set up in the centre, to which the cattle were tied by a cord determining the extent of the circle they had to describe.^[1749] The end being nailed, every turn made by the cattle coiled the rope about the pole and diminished their range, until, at length, they were brought quite close to the centre, after which, their heads were turned about, and by moving in an opposite direction the cord was unwound. Great pains were taken in the construction of this threshing-floor, which was somewhat elevated about the centre, in order, as Varro observes, that what rain fell might speedily run off. It was sometimes paved with stone, or pitched with flints, but more commonly coated with stucco, made level by a roller, and well soaked with the lees of oil which at once prevented the growth of weeds 395and grass, preserved it from cracking, and repelled the approach of mice, ants, and moles, to which oil-lees are destructive.^[1750] Though some authorities advise that it should be situated under the master’s, or at least the steward’s, eye, it was generally thought advisable to keep it at a distance from the house and gardens, since the finer particles of chaff, borne thickly through the air, caused ophthalmia, and often blindness,^[1751] and proved exceedingly injurious to all plants and pulpy fruits, more particularly grapes. In some parts of the ancient world, exposed to the chances of summer rains, the threshing-floor was covered; and, even in Italy, an umbracula,^[1752] or shed, was always constructed close at hand, into which the corn could be removed in case of bad weather. But this in the sunnier climate of Greece was judged unnecessary. In obedience to a notion prevalent among Hellenic farmers, the sheaves were piled up with the straw towards the south, by which means they believed the grain was enlarged and loosened from the hose. When the farmer happened to be scant of cattle he made use of a threshing-machine,^[1753] which consisted of a kind of heavy sledge, toothed below with sharp stones or iron. Occasionally, too, the flail^[1754] was used, especially in the case of such corn as was laid up in the barn and threshed during winter.

In winnowing,^[1755] when the breeze served, they simply threw the grain up into the air with a scoop, until the wind had completely cleared away the chaff. In serene days they had recourse to a winnowing machine, which, though turned by the hand, was of great power, as we may judge from its being employed in cleansing vetches, and even beans.^[1756] To receive the chaff, which was too valuable to be lost, pits 396appear to have been sunk all round the threshing-floor, which, for the passage of the men and cattle, would appear to have been covered, save in the direction of the wind.^[1757] When the corn was designed for immediate use, one winnowing was deemed sufficient; but that which was intended to be laid up in the granary^[1758] underwent the operation a second time.

On the building and preparation of granaries^[1759] the ancients bestowed great pains. Every means which could communicate to grain firmness and durability appears to have been tried by them; and their success was answerable to their diligence, for, in their granaries, wheat was preserved in perfection fifty, and millet a hundred years.^[1760] Their methods, however, were various; some laid up their grain in hollow rocks and caves, as in Thrace and Cappadocia; others sank deep pits in the earth^[1761] where they found it to be perfectly free from humidity, as in Farther Spain, while others, as in Hither Spain, Apulia, and Greece,^[1762] erected their granaries on lofty basements fronting the East, and with openings towards the north and west winds.^[1763] There was usually a range of numerous diminutive windows near the roof, to supply 397free vent for the heated air, while the floor, in many cases, contained small apertures for the admission of the cool breezes beneath. The walls were built with suitable solidity, and having, together with the floor, been plastered with rough mortar,^[1764] made commonly with hair, for which chaff was sometimes substituted, received a coat of fine stucco, on the preparation of which much care was bestowed. It was generally composed of lime, sand, and powdered marble, moistened with the lees of oil, the peculiar flavour and odour of which were supposed effectually to repel the approaches of mice,^[1765] weevils, and ants. Instead of this a common stucco, formed of clay, was often used. Occasionally the grain was packed up in baskets or large jars,^[1766] such, it may be presumed, as those still employed for the purpose in Africa, where they are commonly kept in a corner outside the door. Beans and other pulse were preserved in oil-jars rubbed with ashes.^[1767]

Before the produce of the new year was carried in, the granaries, having been carefully swept, were 398smeared all over with oil-lees. Various other precautions were, likewise, taken to protect the sacred gifts of Demeter from depredation, such as drawing on the floor broad lines of chalk,^[1768] or strewing handfuls of wild origany round the heaps, or sprinkling them with the ashes of oaken twigs or dry cow’s dung, or sprigs of wormwood and southernwood, or, in greater quantity, the leaves of the everlasting. Instead of these, in some cases, they made use of powdered clay^[1769] or dry pomegranate leaves, rubbed small, and passed through a sieve, a chœnix of which was sprinkled over a bushel of corn. The favourite plan, however, seems to have been, to spread a layer of half-withered fleabane over the floor, on which were poured about ten bushels of wheat, then a layer of fleabane, and so on, until the granary was full.^[1770] 399Wheat thus layed up was supposed not only to last many years, but also to preserve its weight in breadmaking. To render barley durable, they strewed over it laurel leaves, or the ashes of laurel wood, as, likewise, everlasting, calaminth, and gypsum, or placed a tightly-corked bottle of vinegar,^[1771] in the middle of the heap. To communicate greater plumpness to all kinds of grain, they sprinkled over the piles a mixture composed of nitre,^[1772] spume of nitre, and fine earth, which, likewise, acted as a preservative. To render flour more durable, they thrust into it small maple branches, stripped of their leaves, or little cakes of salt and cumin.^[1773]

The fruits of the earth having been thus safely lodged within doors, the grateful husbandmen celebrated in honour of their rural gods, Demeter and Dionysos, a festival which may, perhaps, be denominated that of the Harvest Home. In Attica it took place in the great temple at Eleusis, and continued 400during several days. No bloody sacrifices were on this occasion offered up; but, in lieu of them, oblations of cakes and fruit with other rustic offerings, designed at once to express their gratitude for past blessings, and to render the gods propitious to them in future. The first loaf made from the new corn was probably eaten or offered up on this day, since it received the name of Thargelos, or Thalusios, from Thalusia, the denomination of the festival.^[1774]

Before we quit the farm, it may be observed, that the ancients kept a number of slaves, constituting a kind of rural police, whose occupation wholly consisted in guarding the boundaries of estates.^[1775] These, among the Romans, were denominated rangers, or foresters. There were others to whom the care of the fruit was entrusted; and both these classes of persons were probably elderly men, remarkable for their diligence and fidelity, who were rewarded, by appointment to this more easy duty, for their honest discharge in youth of such as were more painful and laborious. Boys were sometimes set to keep watch over vineyards,^[1776] as we may see in the first Eidyll of Theocritus, where he gives us a lively sketch of such a guardian plotted against by two foxes.

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