[Footnote 163: The sestertius was one quarter of a denarius, or, say, the equivalent of five cents. It was also called nummus, as we say "nickel." The ordinary unit used by the Romans in reckoning considerable sums of money was 1,000 sesterces, which may accordingly be translated as the equivalent of (say) $50. Axius' jackass thus cost $2,000, while Seius' income from his villa was $2,500 per annum, that of Varro's aunt from her aviary was $3,000, and that of Axius from his farm $1,500. Cicero records that Axius was a money lender, which explains the fun here made of his avarice.]
[Footnote 164: Columella, writing about one hundred years after Varro, refers to this passage and says that luxury had so developed since Varro's time that it no longer required an extraordinary occasion, like a triumph, to bring the price of thrushes to three denarii a piece, but that that had become a current quotation.]
[Footnote 165: A minerval was the fee (of Minerva) paid to a school teacher.]
[Footnote 166: The inventor of the auspices ex tripudiis or the feeding of chickens was evidently an ingenious poultry fancier who succeeded in securing the care of his favourites at the public charge.]
[Footnote 167: This was L. Marcius Philippus, the orator mentioned by Horace (Epist. I, 7, 46), who was Consul in B.C. 91, and was celebrated for his luxurious habits, which his wealth enabled him to gratify. His son married the widow of C. Octavius and so became the step-father of the Emperor Augustus.]
[Footnote 168: This was turdus pilaris, the variety of thrush which is called field fare.]
[Footnote 169: The traveller by railway from Rome to Naples passes near Varro's estate of Casinum, and if he stops at the mediaeval town of San Germano to visit the neighbouring Badia di Monte Cassino, where the "angelic doctor" Thomas Aquinas was educated, he will find Varro's memory kept green: for he will be entertained at the Albergo Varrone ("very fair but bargaining advisable," sagely counsels Mr. Baedeker) and on his way up the long winding road to the Abbey there will be pointed out to him the river Rapido, on the banks of which Varro's aviary stood, and nearby what is reputed to be the site of the old polymath's villa which Antony polluted with the orgies Cicero described in the second Philippic. Antony's destruction of his library was a great blow to Varro, but one likes to think that his ghost can take satisfaction in the maintenance, so near the haunts of his flesh, of such a noble collection of books as is the continuing pride of the Abbey on the mountain above.]
[Footnote 170: Varro's Museum, or study where he wooed the Muses, on his estate at Casinum was not unlike that of Cicero at his native Arpinum, which he described (de Leg. II, 3) agreeably as on an island in the cold and clear Fibrenus just above its confluence with the more important river Liris, where, like a plebeian marrying into a patrician family, it lost its name but contributed its freshness. The younger Pliny built a study in the garden of his Laurentine villa near Ostia, which he describes (II, 17) with enthusiasm: "horti diaeta est, amores mei, re vera amores": and here he found refuge from the tumult of his household during the festivities of the Saturnalia, which corresponded with our Christmas. In the ante bellum days every Virginia gentleman had such an "office" in his house yard where he pretended to transact his farm business, but where actually he was wont to escape from the obligations of family and continuous hospitality.]
[Footnote 171: The commentators on this interesting but obscure description of Varro's aviary have at this point usually endeavoured to explain the arrangements of the chamber under the lantern of the tholus with respect to its use as a dining room which Varro frequented himself, and hence have been amused into all kinds of difficulties of interpretation. The references to the convivae are what lead them astray, and it remained for Keil to suggest that this was a playful allusion to the birds themselves, a conclusion which is strengthened by Varro's previous statement of the failure of Lucullus' attempt to maintain a dining room in his aviary.]
[Footnote 172: Cf. Vitruvius, I, 6: "Andronicus Cyrrhestes built at Athens an octagonal marble tower, on the sides of which were carved images of the eight winds, each on the side opposite that from which it blew. On the pyramidal roof of this tower he placed a bronze Triton holding a rod in his right hand, and so contrived that the Triton, revolving with the wind, always stood opposed to that which prevailed, and thus pointed with his rod to the image on the tower of the wind that was blowing at the moment." The ruins of this Tower of the Winds may still be seen in Athens. There is a picture of it in Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities in the article Andronicus.]
[Footnote 173: One ventures to translate athletoe comitiorum by Mr.
Gladstone's famous phrase.]
[Footnote 174: Reading "tesserulas coicientem in loculum."]
[Footnote 175: A French translator might better convey the intention of the pun, contained in the ducere serram of the text, by the locution, une prise de bec.]
[Footnote 176: It probably will not comfort the ultimate consumer who holds in such odium the celebrated "Schedule K" of the Payne-Aldrich tariff, to realize that the American wool grower puts no higher value on his sheep than did his Roman ancestor, as revealed by this quotation from the stock yards of Varro's time. It is interesting, however, to the breeder to know that a good price for wool has always stimulated the production of the best stock. Strabo says that the wool of Turdetania in Spain was so celebrated in the generation after Varro that a ram of the breed (the ancestors of the modern Merino) fetched a talent, say $1,200; a price which may be compared with that of the prize ram recently sold in England for export to the Argentine for as much as a thousand pounds sterling, and considered a good commercial investment at that. Doubtless the market for Rosean mules comforted Axius in his investment of the equivalent of £400 in a breeding jack.]
[Footnote 177: In feudal times the right to maintain a dove cote was the exclusive privilege of the lord of the manor. According to their immemorial custom, which Varro notices, the pigeons preyed on the neighbourhood crops and were detested by the community in consequence. During the French revolution they were one of the counts in the indictment of the land-owning aristocracy, and in the event the pigeons as well as their owners had the sins of their forefathers justly visited upon them. The American farmer who has a pigeon-keeping neighbour and is restrained by the pettiness of the annoyance from making a point on their trespasses, feels something of the blind and impotent wrath of the French peasant against the whole pigeon family.]
[Footnote 178: It appears that the Romans actually hired men to chew the food intended for cramming birds, so as to relieve the unhappy victims even of such exercise as they might get from assimilating their diet. Columella (VII, 10) in discussing the diet of thrushes deprecates this practice, sagely saying that the wages of the chewers are out of proportion to the benefit obtained, and that any way the chewers swallow a good part of what they are given to macerate.
The typical tramp of the comic papers who is forever looking for occupation without work might well envy these Roman professional chewers. Not even Dr. Wiley's "poison squad" employed to test food products could compare with them.]
[Footnote 179: These prices of $10 and $50 and even $80 a pair for pigeons, large as they seem, were surpassed under the Empire. Columella says (VIII, 8): "That excellent author, M. Varro, tells us that in his more austere time it was not unusual for a pair of pigeons to sell for a thousand sesterces, a price at which the present day should blush, if we may believe the report that men have been found to pay for a pair as much as four thousand nummi." ($200.)]
[Footnote 180: The market for chickens and eggs in the United States would doubtless astonish the people of Delos as much as the statistics do us (ipsa suas mirantur Gargara messes!). It is solemnly recorded that the American hen produces a billion and a quarter dozen eggs per annum, of a value greater than that of either the wheat or cotton crops, and yet there are many of us who cannot get our hens to lay more than a hundred eggs a year!]
[Footnote 181: Reading ad infirma crura. This practice is explained more at length by Columella (VIII, 2, 3) who specifies the spurs, calcaribus inustis.
Buffon, who describes a 'practice of trimming the combs of capons, adds (V, 302) an interesting account of an experiment which he says he had made "une espece de greffe animale": after trimming the comb of a growing cockerel his budding spurs were cut out and grafted on the roots of the comb, where they took root and flourished, growing to a length of two and a half inches, in some cases curving forward like the horns of a ram, and in others turning back like those of a goat.]
[Footnote 182: The dusting yard which Varro here describes was in the open, but Columella (VIII, 3) advises what modern poultry farmers pride themselves upon having recently discovered,—a covered scratching pen strewn with litter to afford exercise for the hens in rough weather. It will be observed that, so far as ventilation is concerned, Varro recommends a hen house open to the weather: this is another standard of modern practice which has had a hard struggle against prejudice. Columella adds two more interesting bits of advice, that for the comfort of the hens the roosts should be cut square, and for cleanliness their water trough should be enclosed leaving only openings large enough to receive a hen's head. With so much enlightenment and sanitation one would expect one or the other of these Romans to tell us of some "teeming hen" like Herrick's who laid "her egg each day."
We are proud to be able to cite the eminent Roseburg Industrious Biddy who, in the year of grace 1912, achieved the championship of America with a record of 266 eggs in ten months and nineteen days, and was sold for $800: but Varro is content to suggest that a hen will lay more eggs in a season than she can hatch, and the conservative Columella (VIII, 5) that the number of eggs depends upon diet.]
[Footnote 183: The guinea fowl got their Greek name, meleagrides, because the story was that the sisters of Meleager were turned into guinea hens. Pliny (H.N. X, 38) says that they fight every year on Meleager's tomb. It is a fact that they are a pugnacious fowl. Buffon says that guinea fowl disappeared from Europe in the Dark Ages and were not known again until the route to the Indies via the Cape of Good Hope was opened when they were imported anew from the west coast of Africa.]
[Footnote 184: Reading, "propter fastidium hominum." Cf. Pliny (X, 38), whose explanation is "propter ingratum virus."]
[Footnote 185: There is a Virginia practice of feeding a fat turkey heavily on bread soaked in wine or liquor just before he is killed, the result being that as the turkey gets into that condition which used to put our ancestors under the table, he relaxes all his tendons and so is sweeter and more tender when he comes above the table. There is a humanitarian side to the practice which should recommend it even to the W.C.T.U. as well as to the epicure.]
[Footnote 186: Many thousands of geese used to be driven every year to Rome from the land of the Morini in Northern Gaul, but the Germans are the modern consumers. A British consular report says that in addition to the domestic supply a special "goose train" of from fifteen to forty cars is received daily in Berlin from Russia. It would seem that the goose that lays the golden egg has emigrated to Muscovy. Buffon says that the introduction of the Virginia turkey into Europe drove the goose off the tables of all civilized peoples.]
[Footnote 187: Columella (VIII, 14) repeats this myth, but Aristotle (H.A. V, 2, 9) says that geese bathe after breeding. Buffon gives a Gallic touch, "ces oiseaux preludent aux actes de l'amour en allant d'abord s'egayer dans l'eau."]
[Footnote 188: Reading seris. It is the Cichorium endivia of
Linnaeus. Cf. Pliny (H.N. XX, 32.)]
[Footnote 189: Varro does not mention it, but the Romans knew and prized pâté de foie gras under the name ficatum, which indicates that they produced it by cramming their geese with a diet of figs. Cf. Horace's verse "pinguibus et ficis pastum iecur anseris albi."
In Toulouse, whence now comes the best of this dainty of the epicure, the geese are crammed daily with a dough of corn meal mixed with the oil of poppies, fed through a tin funnel, which is introduced into the esophagus of the unhappy bird. At the end of a month the stertorous breathing of the victim proclaims the time of sacrifice to Apicius. The liver is expected to weigh a kilogram, (say two pounds), while at least two kilograms of fat are saved in addition, to garnish the family plat of vegetables during the remainder of the year.]
[Footnote 190: Reading foeles, which Keller, in his account of the fauna of ancient Italy in the Cambridge Companion to Latin Studies, identifies with Martes vulgaris. Sir Anthony Fitzherbert calls them fullymartes. It does not appear that the Romans had in Varro's time brought from Egypt our household cat, F. maniculata. They used weasels and tame snakes for catching mice.]
[Footnote 191: Darwin (Animals and Plants, I, 8) cites this passage and argues that Varro's advice to cover the duck yard with netting to keep the ducks from flying out is evidence that in Varro's time ducks were not entirely domesticated, and hence that the modern domestic duck is the same species as the wild duck. It may be noted, however, that Varro gives the same advice about netting the chicken yard, having said that chickens had been domesticated from the beginning of time.]
[Footnote 192: The ancient Etruscan city of Tarquinii is now known as Corneto. The wild sheep which Lippinus there kept in his game preserves were probably the mouflon which are still hunted in Sardinia and Corsica, though they may have been the Phrygian wild sheep (Aegoceros argali) which Varro mentions in Book II. Pliny (H.N. VIII, 211) says that this Lippinus was the first of the Romans to keep wild animals enclosed; that he established his preserves shortly before the Civil Wars, and that he soon had imitators.]
[Footnote 193: Reading * * * * [Transcriber's note: the preceding four *s are actually four instances of the "infinity" symbol (like a digit 8 rotated horizontally)]passum. The Roman mile, mille passuum, was 142 yards less than the English mile.]
[Footnote 194: Of the three kinds of hares mentioned by Varro the "common Italian kind" was L. timidus, a roast shoulder of which Horace vaunts as a delicacy: the Alpine hare was L. variabilis, which grows white on the approach of winter: and the cuniculus was the common rabbit known to our English ancestors as the coney. Strabo records (Casaub, 144) that the inhabitants of the Gymnesian (Balearic) Islands in Spain sent a deputation to Augustus to request a military force to exterminate the pest of rabbits, for such was their multitude that the people were being crowded out of their homes by them, in which their plight was that of modern Australia. They were usually hunted in Spain with muzzled ferrets imported from Africa.]
[Footnote 195: The edible snail, helix pomatia, L., is still an article of commerce in France and Italy. They prey upon vines and give evidence of their appreciation of the best by abounding in the vineyards of the Cote d'or, the ancient Burgundy. There at the end of summer they are gathered for the double purpose of protecting the vines and delighting the epicure: are then stored in a safe place until cold weather, when they considerately seal up their own shells with a calcareous secretion and so are shipped to market.
Here is the recipe for 'escargots à la bourguignonne,' which despite the prejudice engendered by Leviticus (XI, 30.) may be recommended to the American palate jaded by beefsteak and potatoes and the high cost of living: "Mettre les escargots a bouillir pendant 5 a 10 minutes dans de l'eau salée, les retirer de leur coquille, les laver a l'eau froide pour les debarrasser du limon, les cuire dans un court-bouillon fortement assaisonné. Apres cuisson les replacer dans le coquille bien nettoyee, en les garnissant au fond et par dessus d'une farce de beurre frais manipule avec un fin hachis de persil, cerfeuil, ail, echalote, sel et poivre. Avant de servir, faire chauffer au four."]
[Footnote 196: Reading LXXX quadrantes. A comparison may be made of this capacity with that of the ordinary snail known to the Romans, for their smallest unit of liquid measure was called a cochlear, or snail shell, and contained.02 of a modern pint, or, as we may say, a spoonful: indeed the French word cuiller is derived from cochlear.]
[Footnote 197: It is perhaps well to remind the American reader that the European dormouse (Myoxus glis. Fr. loir. Ger. siebenschlafer) is rather a squirrel than a mouse, and that he is still esteemed a dainty edible, as he was by the Romans: indeed when fat, just before he retires to hibernate, he might be preferred to 'possum and other strange dishes on which some hospitable Americans regale themselves and the patient palates of touring Presidents. In his treatise De re culinaria Apicius gives a recipe for a ragout of dormice which sounds appetizing.]
[Footnote 198: Darwin (Animals and Plants, XVIII) says: "I have never heard of the dormouse breeding in captivity."]
[Footnote 199: Varro makes no mention of tea and bread and butter as part of the diet of a dormouse; so we are better able to understand his abstinence at the mad tea party in Alice in Wonderland. As Martial (III, 58) calls him somniculosus, it is probable that his table manners on that occasion were nothing new and that his English and German names were always justified.]
[Footnote 200: This is one of Varro's puns which requires a surgical operation to get it into one's head. Appius is selected to talk about bees because his name has some echo of the sound of apis, the word for bee.]
[Footnote 201: The study of bees was as interesting to the ancients as it is to us. There have survived from among many others the treatises of Aristotle, Varro, Virgil, Columella and Pliny, but they are all made up, as Maeterlinck has remarked, of "erreurs charmantes," and for that reason the antique lore of bees is read perhaps to best advantage in the mellifluous verses of the fourth Georgic, which follow Varro closely.]
[Footnote 202: He might have said also that the hexagonal form of construction employed by bees produces the largest possible result with the least labour and material. Maeterlinck rehearses (La Vie des Abeilles, 138) the result of the study of this problem in the highest mathematics:
"Réaumur avait proposé au célèbre mathematicien Koenig le problem suivant: 'Entre toutes les cellules hexagonales a fond pyramidal compose de trois rhombes semblables et égaux, determiner celle qui peut être construite avec le moins de matière?' Koenig trouva qu'une telle cellule avait son fond fait de trois rhombes dont chaque grand angle était de 109 degrés, 26 minutes et chaque petit de 70 degrés, 34 minutes. Or, un autre savant, Maraldi, ayant mesuré aussi exactement que possible les angles des rhombes construits par les abeilles fixa les grands à 109 degrés, 28 minutes, et les petits a 70 degrés, 32 minutes. Il n'y avait done, entre les deux solutions qu'une difference de 2 minutes. II est probable que l'erreur, s'il y en a une, doit être imputee a Maraldi plutot qu'aux abeilles, car aucun instrument ne permet de mesurer avec une precision infaìllible les angles des cellules qui ne sont pas assez nettlement definis."
Maclaurin, a Scotch physicist, checked Koenig's computations and reported to the Royal Society in London in 1743 that he found a solution in exact accord with Maraldi's measurements, thereby completely justifying the mathematics of the bee architect.]
[Footnote 203: The Romans were as curious and as constant in the use of perfumes as we are of tobacco. It is perhaps well to remember that they might find our smoke as offensive as we would their unguents.]
[Footnote 204: Indeed one of the marvels of nature is the service which certain bees perform for certain plants in transferring their fertilizing pollen which has no other means of transportation. Darwin is most interesting on this subject.]
[Footnote 205: The ancients, even Aristotle, did not know that the queen bee is the common mother of the hive. They called her the king, and it remained for Swammerdam in the seventeenth century to determine with the microscope this important fact. From that discovery has developed our modern knowledge of the bee; that the drones are the males and are suffered by the (normally) sterile workers to live only until one of them has performed his office of fertilizing once for all the new queen in that nuptial flight, so dramatically fatal to the successful swain, which Maeterlinck has described with wonderful rhetoric, whereupon the workers massacre the surviving males without mercy. This is the "driving out" which Varro mentions.]
[Footnote 206: This picture of the queen bee is hardly in accord with modern observations. It seems that while the queen is treated with the utmost respect, she is rather a royal prisoner than a ruler, and, after her nuptial flight, is confined to her function of laying eggs incessantly unless she may be unwillingly dragged forth to lead a swarm. Maeterlinck thus pictures (La Vie des Abeilles, 174) her existence with a Gallic pencil:
"Elle n'aura aucune des habitudes, aucunes des passions que nous croyons inherentes à l'abeille. Elle n'eprouvera ni le desir du soleil, ni le besoin de l'espace et mourra sans avoir visite une fleur. Elle passera son existence dans l'ombre et l'agitation de la foule à la recherche infatigable de berceaux à peupler. En revanche, elle connaitra seule l'inquietude de l'amour."]
[Footnote 207: It would have interested Axius to know that the annual consumption of honey in the United States today is from 100 to 125 million pounds and that the crop has a money value of at least ten million dollars. To match Seius, we might put forward a bee farmer in California who produces annually 150,000 pounds of honey from 2,000 hives.]
[Footnote 208: Maeterlinck has made a charming picture of this habit of propinquity of the bee-stand to the human habitation. He describes (La Vie des Abeilles, 14) the old man who taught him to love bees when he was a boy in Flanders, an old man whose entire happiness "consistait aux beautés d'un jardin et parmi ces beautés la mieux aimee et la plus visitées etait un roucher, composé de douze cloches de paille qu'il avait peint, les unes de rose vif, les autres de jaune clair, la plupart d'un bleu tendre, car il avail observé, bien avant les experiences de Sir John Lubbock, que le bleu est la couleur preferée des abeilles. Il avait installé ce roucher centre le mur blanchi de la maison, dans l'angle que formait une des ces savoureuses et fraiches cuisines hollondaises aux dressoirs de faience ou étincalaient les etains et les cuivres qui, par la porte ouverte, se reflétaient dans un canal paisible. Et l'eau chargés d'images familières, sous un rideau de peupliers, guidait les regards jusqu'au répos d'un horizon de moulins et de prés."]
[Footnote 209: Reading Apiastro. This is the Melissa officinalis of
Linnaeus. Cf. Pliny, XX, 45 and XXI, 86.]
[Footnote 210: Bee keepers attribute to Reaumur the invention of the modern glass observation hive, which has made possible so much of our knowledge of the bee, but it may be noted that Pliny (H.N. XXI, 47) mentions hives of "lapis specularis," some sort of talc, contrived for the purpose of observing bees at work. The great advance in bee hives is, however, the sectional construction attributed to Langstroth and developed in America by Root.]
[Footnote 211: Columella, (IX, 14) referring to the myth of the generation of bees in the carcase of an ox (out of which Virgil made the fable of the pastor Aristaeus in the Fourth Georgic), explains the practice mentioned in the text with the statement "hic enim quasi quadam cognatione generis maxime est apibus aptus." The plastering of wicker hives with ox dung persisted and is recommended in the seventeenth century editions of the Maison Rustique.]
[Footnote 212: Reading seditiosum.]
[Footnote 213: This is a mistake upon which Aristotle could have corrected Varro.]
[Footnote 214: After studying the commentators on this obscure passage,
I have elected to follow the emendation of Ursinus, which, although
Keil sneers at its license, has the advantage of making sense.]
[Footnote 215: Sinapis arvensis, Linn.]
[Footnote 216: Sium sisarum, Linn.]
[Footnote 217: The philosophy of the bee is not as selfish as that human principle which Varro attributes to them. The hive does not send forth its "youth" to found a colony, but, on the contrary, abandons its home and its accumulated store of wealth to its youth and itself ventures forth under the leadership of the old queen to face the uncertainties of the future, leaving only a small band of old bees to guard the hive and rear the young until the new queen shall have supplied a new population.]
[Footnote 218: Reading imbecilliores.]
[Footnote 219: Pliny (H.N. IX, 81) relates that this loan was made to supply the banquet on the occasion of one of the triumphs of Caesar the dictator, but Pliny puts the loan at six thousand fishes.]
[Footnote 220: It is impossible to translate this pun into English, dulcis being the equivalent of both "fresh" and "agreeable," and amara of "salt" and "disagreeable." A French translator would have at his command doux and amer.]
[Footnote 221: Cf. Pliny (H.N. II, 96): "In Lydia the islands called Calaminae are not only driven about by the wind, but may even be pushed at pleasure from place to place, by which means many people saved themselves in the Mithridatic war. There are some small islands in the Nymphaeus called the Dancers, because, when choruses are sung, they move in tune with the measure of the music."]
[Footnote 222: Reading in ius vocare, with the double entendre of service in a sauce and bringing to justice.]
INDEX
Actus (actus guadratus), unit of area in land measurement Aegean Sea, derivation of name Aesop's fable of the fox Agriculture, distinguished from grazing, pottery-making, etc. definition of scope of purposes of, are profit and pleasure four divisions for the study of effect of conformation of the land on, effect of character of soil Albutius, L. Alfalfa, advice concerning Alfius, Roman farmer banker Alpine hares Amurca, farm uses of used for anointing threshing floors waste of, by Romans method of preserving condensing Apiaries, location of See Bees. Apicius, recipe for ragout of dormice by, Appian, quoted Appius Claudius Pulcher Apples, storing Apulian breed of horses Aquinas, Thomas Arbusta, the Italian Arista, etymology of word Aristotle, on blindness of puppies cited on goats' breathing through their ears on exercising of pregnant mares on breeding of mares story related by Arpent, derivation of Asparagus planting, Asses, use of, as compared with other draught animals manure of certain choice breeds of buying, breeding, care of, etc. milk of Atticus, T. Pomponius
Augeas, King, tradition concerning
Augustine, St., on Varro
indebtedness of, to works of Varro
Aviaries, profits from
two classes of
those kept for profit
those kept for pleasure
Aviary, Varro's, at Casinum
B
Bakewell, breeding of sheep by Barbers, the first, in Italy Barn yards, arrangement of Barrows, hogs called Bavaria, agriculture in Iowa contrasted with that in Beans, use of, for green manuring storing Beauclerk, W.N., on agriculture in modern Italy quoted Bees, eggs of unfertilized queen the keeping of theories concerning generation of treatises on, by ancient writers habits and houses of money to be made from location of stands for food for; structure and care of hives kinds of selection of moving swarming of removal of honey general care of Benson, William, edition of Georgics by, quoted Birds, manure of Blackbirds, houses for keeping Blackstone, opinion by, cited Bleat, etymology of word Blood, use of, in composts Boars, advice concerning altering; wild Boissier, Gaston quoted and cited Boke of Husbandry, Fitzherbert's Bologna sausages Bones, remedy for injuries to Borden, Spencer, The Arab Horse by, quoted Boundaries, protection of farm Buffon, quotations from cited Bugs, recipe for exterminating Buildings on farm
C
Cabbage, Cato's advocacy of the
planting
seeding
Cakes, recipes for
Calendar of agricultural operations
Capons, chickens called
method of caponizing cocks
Caprae, goats, derivation of word
Capreolus, a spiral tendril
Cascate delle Marmore
Casinum, Varro's estate of
Cassius, quoted
Cassius Dionysius
Cat, the modern household, unknown to Varro
Cato, Marcus Porcius
the De re rustica of
literary style of, compared with Varro
Cats, contrasted with dogs in relations with man
Cattle, leaves as fodder for
feeding of
care of
number and selection of, for a farm
honour paid to, in naming Zodiacal signs and the constellations
advice on breeding and feeding
number of, to be kept
advice on neat cattle
Centuria, defined
Chaff, derivation of word
Cheese, varieties and qualities of
Cheese cake
Chestnuts as food in Italy
Child, R., quoted
Cicero, quoted concerning Varro
verse from
Cleaning grain
Clement-Mullet, J.J., translation by
Climate, choice of, in buying a farm
connection between conformation of land and
Clover, advice on seeding
Coburn, book on alfalfa by
Colours of horses, significance of
Columella
cited
on ploughing
rules about the compost heap
on soil improvement with legumes
on dangers from mosquitoes
on alfalfa
quoted
Comedy of Errors, origin of
Compost heap, rules concerning the
Concrete, fences of
Conformation of land, effect of, on agriculture
Constellations, names of cattle given to
Coots
Corn, structure of plant
storing
See Grain
Corn land as distinguished from plough land
Corsican honey
Cotton seed, utilization of
Country life, antiquity of
Cowper and Cowley, lines by
Crescenzi, Pietro, cited
Cultivating time
Curing hams
Cuttage of plants
Cyrrhestes, Tower of the Winds built by
D
Dante, quotation from
Darwin, Charles, Animals and Plants by
quoted
on dormice
Dates, eating preserved
Denarius, value of the
Dennis, Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria by, quoted
De re rustica, Cato's
Desmolins, Edmond, cited
Dickson, Andrew, quoted
cited
Diophanes of Bithynia
Disease in cattle, and remedies
Dislocations of bones, remedy for
Dogs, watch
herd
Donaldson's Agricultural Biography, quoted
Dondlinger, Book of Wheat by, quoted
Dormice, enclosures for, feeding, etc.
Draining
period for
Draught animals on farm
number and choice of
Dry farming
Ducks, housing, care of, etc.
Dunghill fowl
Dusting yard for poultry
E
Eggs, the first course in Roman dinners barren number for setting preserving Elm trees, planting of for marking boundaries Endive, as food for geese Ensilage, question of use of, by ancients Equipment of a farm
F
Fallow, as managed by the Romans Farm, buying a laying out of the stocking the as a source of both profit and pleasure effect of conformation of the land effect of character of the soil Farm hands, allowances for selection, treatment, number of, etc., Farrago, mixed fodder as food for geese Feast days, observance of Feed racks, construction of Fences Ferrero, cited Field crops, planting of Figs, season for propagating eating preserved Fining the soil Fishes, feeding and care of Fish ponds fresh-water and salt-water number of, on one estate Fitzherbert, Sir Anthony quoted; cited on combining two kinds of husbandry on greasing of sheep Flock masters, duties of Forage, derivation from farrago Forage crops Foremen of farm hands, qualifications of Fowl. See Poultry Fowler, Social Life at Rome by, quoted France, yields of wine in Freemen as agricultural labourers Fruits, preserving time for using stored Furlong, derivation of
G
Game preserves Gauls, pre-eminence of, in growing and making of pork high qualities as shepherds Geese, selection of, breeding, care, etc. Geldings, horses called Geoponica, the; cited Georgics, Virgil's, passages based on information from Varro Gestation, periods of Gleaning of grain fields Gluma, etymology of word Goats, as foes of agriculture characteristics, breeding and handling milk of; use of hair and skins of; shearing of Googe, Barnaby, translation of Heresbach by Graftage of plants Grain, advice on seeding storing of cleaning, when taken out of storage time for marketing Granaries, varieties of Granum, etymology of word Grapes, harvesting of advice on storing Grapevines, trellises and props for Grazing, to be distinguished from agriculture Greek writers on agriculture Green manuring Guano Guinea fowl
H
Haeredium, defined Hair, removal of superfluous Hams, recipes for curing and cooking Hares, varieties of See Rabbits Harte, Walter, Essays on Husbandry by on alfalfa quoted Hartlib, Samuel quoted on pasture vs. arable land Harvester, ancient forerunners of the modern Harvest time Hay, harvesting the storing of Haymaking Health, location of farm steading with regard to Healthfulness of farms, importance of Hedges, myrtle Heliotrope, habits of the Hens Herd dogs Heresbach, Conrad, cited Herrick, Robert, quoted Hesiod quoted and cited Hinnies Hives for bees, location and structure inventors of modern devices Hogs Homer, quoted on use of mules Honey, Sicilian and Corsican profits from removal of, from hive Honeycomb, structure of the Horace, cited quoted Horses, oxen vs. manure of breeding, feeding, care of, etc. House for residence on farm Housekeeper, duties of the
I
Ibn-al-Awam, book of agriculture by
Implements, farming
Inarching, propagation by
Incantations as cures
Interamna, town of
Iowa, farming in Bavaria and
Italy, agriculture in modern
J
Johnson, Samuel, on Harte's Husbandry quoted on Shenstone Joigneaux, P., on yields of wine in France Jones, W.H., on malaria in the Roman Campagna Jugerum, defined Jugum, defined Jungle fowl
K
Kames, Lord, quoted Keil, quoted cited Keller, cited Kitab al-felahah of Ibn-al-Awam
L
Labourers, agricultural
Lanciani, cited
Land, effect of conformation of, on agriculture
Leaves as fodder for cattle
Legumes, soil improvement with
storing
Leporaria
Library, public, at Rome
Literature of farm management, ancient
Live stock, feeding
care of
origin and importance of husbandry of
See Cattle
Lombardy, agriculture in ancient and modern
M
Machiavelli, quoted
Maeterlinck, quoted on dogs
on the antique lore of bees
on the mathematics of the honeycomb
on the queen bee's life
on the nearness of the bee-stand to the dwelling-house
Mago the Carthagenian, treatise on farm management by
quoted
Varro's account of
Maison Rustique, cited and quoted
Malaria in Roman Campagna
Manure, preparation of
best kinds of
Manure pits, arrangement of
Manuring, importance of
green
Maremma sheep dogs
Mares, use of, for war horses
milk of
Market day among the Romans
Marl, use of, as manure
Marrying the vine
Martial, quotation from
Meadows, protection of
irrigated, of Lombardy
Measurement of land, units of area used in
Mile, the Roman
Military fences
Milk and milking, advice on
Minerval, a
Mitchell, Donald G.
Mommsen, quoted
Montesquieu, quoted
Moon, influence of, on agriculture
Moryson, Fynes, quoted
Mosquitoes, perception by Varro of damages from
Mules, remarks on foaling by
uses, care of, etc.
Murray, Gilbert, translation of Euripides by
Must cake
Myers, F.W.H., cited
N
Neat cattle, buying, breeding, feeding, etc. Neighbourhood, considerations of, in locating farm Neighbours, treatment of one's Nummus, a "nickel," Nundinum, the Roman week Nurseries, protection of Nuts, eating preserved
O
Oaks, effect of, on olive trees
Oboerati, class of bondservants called
Ocinum, basil
Oil, manufacture of, from olives
Oil-making implements
Olive farm, number of hands for working an
Olives, allowances of, for
farm hands
reasons for growth in Attica
effect of oaks in neighbourhood of
advice on planting
propagating from truncheons
harvesting of
methods of preserving
eating preserved
Olive salad
Onager, wild ass
Orchards
laying out and planting of
olive
Ornithones
See Aviaries
Ortolans, houses for keeping
Overseer
duties of the
location of room of
Ovid, quoted
Oxen
selling of worn-out
comparison of horses and
care of hoofs of
treatment of sick
number of, suitable for a farm
qualities of, to be considered
breaking of
respect in which held by ancient Romans
P
Palladius quoted on the Gallic harvester Palma, palm Partridges Pastures care of vs. arable land Pâté de foie gras, known and prized by Romans Peacocks, discussion of Perfumes among the Romans Persius, cited Petrarch on Varro on the loss of Varro's books Philippus, L. Marcius Pigeon houses Pigeons manure of kinds and care of Pigs, weanling, called "sacred" Planting field crops olives vines time of Plants four methods of propagating transplanting cuttage graftage inarching time for using different methods of propagation mechanical action of Plautus Menaechmi of quoted Plautius Pleasure as a main purpose of agriculture Pliny quoted use of marl as manure noted by on the Gallic harvester cited Pliny the Younger, study in garden of Ploughing, importance of thorough of rotten land Plough land, as distinguished from corn land Polecats Pollio, Asinius, library at Rome founded by Polybius, quoted Pome fruits, storing Pomegranates, preserving Poultry, kinds, feeding, and care of Poultry houses Protection of nurseries and meadows Prothero, quoted Punning, Varro's use of Pythagoras
Q
Quail, houses for keeping
migrations of
Queen bees, recency of knowledge about
Quinces, storing
Quintilian, on Varro
R
Rabbits, warrens for
breeding and feeding of
derivation of Latin name for
Racking wine
Reate, asses from
Recipes
Rerum Rusticarum of Varro
Virgil's indebtedness to
Rest room for farm hands
Ridgeway, quoted
on markings of horses
Ridging land, custom of
Rogers, Thorold, quoted
Roman fever
Rome, insecurity of life in ancient
Rosea, drainage of, by artificial canals
Rosean breed of horses
Rotten land, precautions regarding
S
Sacred pigs Salad, olive Salt, allowance of, for farm hands Saltus, defined Salutations, Greek, as used by Romans Saserna, as a writer on agriculture quoted on number of farm hands necessary on securing allegiance of dogs Sausages Scab among sheep and cattle Scratches in horses, remedy for Scratching pen for hens Scripulum, defined Scrofa, Tremelius origin of name Sea birds, manure of Seasons, agricultural Seed, selection of Seed bed, preparing the Sellar, cited Seneca, on Virgil's farming Sestertius, value of the Sheep, value of, for their manure buying of feeding, breeding, and care of shearing of Sheep dogs Shepherds, distinguished from farmers number and kind of, requisite purchase of slaves for life of Sicilian honey Silos Size of farm Slaves, selling of old and sick importance of food to contentment of selection of, for farm hands number of, for operating a farm buying, to act as shepherds Snails, recipe for preparing cooked method of keeping in enclosures varieties of fattening of Snakebite, remedy for Soil, improvement of effect of character of, on agriculture different kinds of fining the Solar measure of year Solomon, quotation on ploughing from Sour land, treatment of Sowing, period for Spring ploughing Squabs Stables for live stock Steading, building a husbandry of the development of the industries of the Stamen, etymology of Stocking a farm Storing crops Strabo, inventor of aviaries cited Straw, derivation of word Swine, selecting, feeding, breeding, etc.
T
Tarquinii, ancient Etruscan city
Taylor, John, Arator by, quoted
Teals
Teeth, telling age of animals by the
Terra, different senses of word
Thales of Miletus
Thebes, derivation of name
Theophrastus, works by
cited
quoted
on honey of Corsica
Thessalian horses
Thinning vines
Threshing
Threshing floor, the
Thrushes, profits from
houses for keeping
Tillage, advice on
Time, standards of
the Roman week
Tools, farming
Toulouse, production of pâté de foie gras in
Transplanting
Transportation, importance of ease of
Trellises in vineyards
Trumpet, training hogs to obey sound of
assembling wild boars and roebucks by the
Tull, Jethro
Turkeys, fattening
effect of introduction into Europe, on geese
Turtle doves, housing and care of
V
Varro, Marcus Terentius
the Rerum Rusticarum of
works of, besides Rerum Rusticarum,
activities of, in war against pirates
estate and museum of
Vegetable gardens
Versus, the, defined
Vetch, derivation of name
Veterinary science of ancient Romans
Villa, discussion of the Roman
Vines, for marking farm boundaries
advice on planting
thinning
Vineyards, the maintenance of
implements for
Vintage, work of the
Virgil
indebtedness of, to Varro
formula for testing sour land by
advice on ploughing
cited
on colours of horses
Vitruvius, quoted on Cyrrhestes' Tower of the Winds
W
Walnut trees, effect of, on surrounding land
Walter of Henley
quoted
on use of marl as manure
Warrens, defined
Watch dogs, 116
Water for cattle
Water supply for a steading
Weaning, of young cattle
of lambs
Weanling pigs
Week, the Roman
Wheat, seeding
yields of
structure of plant
harvesting of
Wild asses
Wild boars, keeping of, in game preserves
Wind, impregnating of mares by the
Wind breaks for olive orchards
Wine, cabbage as an offset to effects of
allowances of, for farm hands
yields of, in ancient Italy
racking, 173
used in cramming fowls
Winnowing
Winnowing basket, use of, for a cradle
Winter ploughing
Wood pigeons, cramming and fattening
Wool, shearing sheep for
X
Xenophon, as a writer on agriculture quoted
Y
Year, solar measure of the
Young, Arthur
inscription on tombstone of wife
fences recommended by
on necessary number of farm labourers
Z
Zeno of Citium
Zodiacal signs, honour paid to cattle in
End of Project Gutenberg's Roman Farm Management, by Marcus Porcius Cato