our sickles; others for cutting wheat and barley near the ground, like our reaping-hooks.

In the south of Gaul, Pliny informs us they had invented a reaping-machine. From his description this machine must have borne a considerable resemblance to that used in Suffolk for cropping the heads off clover left for seed, and not unlike other modern attempts at an engine of this description. There were threshing-implements for manual labor, and for being drawn by horses; and some for striking off the ears of grain, like what are called rippling-combs, for combing off the capsules of newly pulled flax. A variety of other instruments for cleaning grain, and for the wine and oil press, are mentioned, but too obscurely to admit of description.

CHAPTER II.

HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE - continued.

OF simple agricultural operations, the most important are plowing, sowing, and reaping; and such as compound, or involve, various simple operations, such as fallowing, manuring, weeding, and field watering. "What," says Cato, "is the best culture of land? Good plowing. - What the second? Plowing in the ordinary way. What the third? Laying on manure." The season for plowing was any time when the land was not wet. In plowing, the furrow is directed to be kept equal in breadth throughout, one furrow equal to another, and straight furrows. The usual depth is not mentioned, but it was probably considerable, as Cato says that grain land should be of good quality for two feet in depth. No scamni or balks (hard, unmoved soil) were to be left; and to ascertain that this was properly attended to, the farmer is directed, when inspecting the work done, to push a pole into the plowed ground in a variety of places. The plow was generally drawn by one pair of oxen, which were guided by the plowman without the aid of a driver. In breaking up stiff land, he was expected to plow half an acre, in free land an acre, and in light land an acre and a half, each day.

Fallowing was a universal practice among the Romans. In most cases a crop and a year's fallow succeeded each other; though, when the manure could be got, two crops or more were taken in succession, and on certain rich soils, which Pliny describes as favorable for barley, a crop was taken every year. In fallowing, the lands were first plowed after the crops were removed, generally in August. They were again cross-plowed in spring, and at least a third time before sowing, when spring grain or winter grain was the crop. There was, however, no limit to the number of plowings, and, when occasion required, manual operations, the object being, as Theophrastus observes, "to let the earth feel the cold of winter and the sun of summer;

to invert the soil and render it free, light, and clear of weeds, so that it can most easily afford nourishment."

Manuring was held in such high esteem by the Romans that immortality was given to Sterculius for the invention. They collected manure from every source which has been thought of by the moderns, — vegetable, animal, and mineral; territorial, aquatic, and marine. Animal dung was divided into three kinds, that produced by birds, that by men, that by cattle. Pigeon dung was preferred to all other, and next human ordure. Pigeon dung was used as a top-dressing, and human dung, mixed with the cleaning of the villas, was applied to the roots of the vine and the olive. "Varro," says Pliny, “extols the dung of thrushes from the aviaries, as food for the swine and oxen, and asserts that there is no food that fattens them more quickly." Varro prefers it also as a manure, on which Pliny observes, "We may have a good opinion of the manners of our times, if our ancestors had such large aviaries as to procure from them dung to their fields." Dung hills were directed to be placed near the villa, their bottoms hollowed out to retain the moisture, and their sides and tops defended from the sun by twigs and leaves. Dung usually remained in the heap a year, and was laid on in the autumn and spring, the two sowing seasons. No more was to be spread than could be plowed in the same day. Crops that were sickly were revived by sowing over them the dust of dung, especially that of birds; that is, by what is now called a top-dressing. Frequent and moderate dungings are recommended as preferable to occasional and very abundant supplies.

Green crops, especially lupines, were sown, and before they came into pod plowed in as manures. They were also cut and buried at the roots of fruit trees for the same purpose. Trees, twigs, stubble, etc., were burned for manure. Cato says: "If you cannot sell wood and twigs, and have no stone that will burn into lime, make charcoal of the wood, and burn in the fields the twigs and small branches that remain." Palladius says that lands which have been manured by ashes of trees will not require manure for five years. Stubble was very generally burned, as it was also among the Jews. Lime was used as a manure, especially for vines and olives.

Cato gives particular