GREECE. From the Grecian literature covering the period from 1000 B.C. to the conquest of Greece by Rome, 140 B.C., we get comparatively little definite agricultural information. In ad dition to the animals used in Egypt, mules were grown and used for labor. In winter, animals were housed. Swarms of bees were commonly kept. Wheat and barley were the cereals, and hemp, as well as flax, was raised. The fruits of Egypt, except the date palm, were grown, and in addition, cherries, plums, almonds, pears, ap ples, and quinces. The list of vegetables is also lengthened, and includes turnips, beets, cabbage, lettuce, chicory, garden peas, and kidney beans. The common lupine ( Lupinus albus) took the place of the species grown in Egypt, and is said to have been used for green manuring. It is as serted that the Greeks introduced the use of manure to promote the growth of crops.
ROME. 'Roman agriculture has received spe cial attention because so much was written about it by the Romans themselves, and because they carried it into other countries, where it modified or dominated agricultural customs. When Rome was only a colony on the Tiber, land was divided among the citizens in small allot ments. There was a domain of public land, which was continually extended by the conquests of neighboring States and the partial confisca tions that followed. Although land in the con quered territory was sometimes granted to the poorer citizens, there were large tracts of public lands that were either cultivated or allowed to remain in pasture. The common conditions were that the occupants paid one-tenth of the produce of the corn lands, one-fifth of the produce of vines and fruit trees, and a moderate rate per head for cattle pastured. The occupants were merely tenants at will, and theoretically the state could resume or sell the lands at any time. Yet the right of possession was good against all until the lands had been resumed; and in process of time there came to he families so long in possession that they could not he dispossessed. Only the wealthy had the cattle or slaves that made such occupation possible. The burdens upon these occupiers of the public lands were much less than those upon the small farmers who owned their farms. Thus, at least two classes of cultivators were in existence, the small pro prietors and the wealthy tenants holding the lands of the State. An addition to the strife be tween these two classes was the pressure brought to bear in the interest of the landless. Even after the Romans became masters of all Italy, little more than four acres n-as assigned to each citizen, and the domain lands increased enor mously. Attempts were eonstantly made to re strict the extent of land that could be occupied by the wealthy, but generally without effect. ( See AGRARIAN LAW.) A great deterioration and a consequent agricultural change took place during the century that followed the first Punic War (ended B.C. 241). The place of the small farmer was taken by the planter, who cultivated a great extent of territory. using slave labor. The small proprietors either sold their no longer profitable farms or were driven from them by the large land-holders. In Sicily, the first prov ince, and in the others successively, the o•ner ship of the land was vested in the Roman people. From these provinces came the tribute of grain that made grain-raising unprofitable in Italy.
Hence, the large estates were gradually given over to the keeping of flocks and the raising of cattle. Among the Roman writers upon agri culture were Varro, Columella, and Pliny. Ear lier than these in time and more celebrated was Cato the Censor (died 149 me.), who gives us not only the most minute particulars regarding the management of the slaves on his large Sabine farm, but also all the details of husbandry, from plowing to the reaping and thrashing of the crop.
Horses, asses, mules, cattle, sheep, and swine were raised by the Roman farmers, and much attention was given to the breeding of animals for special purposes. Castration was customary, and oxen were the principal work animals used I on the farm. Mules were extensively used. pecially as beasts of burden. The milk of sheep and goats was generally used for drink, and also for making cheese. Cohnnella describes a meth od of making ond preserving cheese, and says that the milk used in cheese-making was cur died in various Ways, but commonly with a lamb's or kid's rennet. Poultry culture was an elaborate industry, and included the raising of geese, ducks, teals, pigeons, turtle-doves, swans, and peacocks. Much attention was also to fish culture, and such animal; as hares, 1 snails, and dormice were raised in eonsiderable numbers. Wheat was the most important cereal crop cultivated by the Romans, and both smooth and bearded varieties were raised. Six-rowed and two-rowed barley, too, wars grown to a consider able extent. Millet was grown to some extent. Oats and rye were introduced in comparatively i late times. Land given to grain was followed for the whole of every alternate year. Ono-third of the fallow• was manured and sown with some green crop, as eattle food. Fallow received from four to five furrowings before the wheat was sown in the fall. The crop of wheat ripened about the middle of dune, but the summers were too dry for 111e raising, with certainty, of millet and other summer crops. Alfalfa (lucerne), com mon vetch (Fieia sati•a), chuckling vetch, and Chick pea were grown for fodder. Hemp, flax, beans, turnips, and lupines also are mentioned as occasionally cultivated. To the list of fruits and vegetables produced in ancient Egypt and Greece the Romans added apricots, peaches. mel ons, and celery. Aleadows were carefully pre pared, and rotation of crops was practiced to a certain extent. The soil was thoroughly culti vated with the plow and harrow or the hoe and rake; blind and open drains were used; in some regions irrigation was employed. Manures of different kinds were abundantly used, and va rious methods for their preservation and distri n were elaborated. Wheat and barley were usually realwd with a sickle, but sometimes they were pulled no by the roots, or the heads were cut off with shears. They were thrashed with Hails or with a board studded with iron spikes or sharp flints, which was drawn over the straw, or by trampling with cattle or horses. The Roma ns carried t heir agriculture into the ruder countries conqliered by them. The vine wild in Sicily was carried into Caul, where it was acclimated with difficulty. To the rude Britons the Romans taught agriculture su successfully that before the period of occupation was over they were exporting large quantities of grain.