Footnote 1491:

Athen. i. 61.

Footnote 1492:

ii. 77.

Footnote 1493:

Cf. Redding History of Modern Wines, chap. i. p. 2. An interesting and

able work.

Footnote 1494:

Nienhoff in Churchill’s Collection, ii. 264. Barbot. iii. 13. Ulloa,

Memoires Philosophiques, t. ii. p. 15. Voyages, t. i. p. 487, 491.

-----

The opinions of Grecian writers respecting the soil best suited to the

cultivation of the vine, having been founded on experience, generally

agree with those which prevail in modern times.[1495] They preferred for

their vineyards the gentle acclivities of hills,[1496] where the soil

was good, though light and porous, and abounding in springs at no great

depth from the surface.[1497] A considerable degree of moisture was

always supposed to be indispensable, on which account, in arid

situations, large hollow sea-shells, and fragments of sandstone[1498]

were buried in the soil, these being regarded as so many reservoirs of

humidity.

-----

Footnote 1495:

Virg. Georg. ii. 276.

Footnote 1496:

“Quòd colles Bacchus amaret.” Manil. Astronom. ii. p. 31. 6. Scalig.

Footnote 1497:

Geop. v. 1.

Footnote 1498:

Geop. v. 9. 8. Virg. Georg. ii. 348.

-----

By some the vine was even thought to delight in the rich alluvial soil

of plains, such as is found in Egypt,[1499] where, in later times, the

banks of the Nile, from Elephantinè to the sea, seem to have presented

one vast succession of vineyards.[1500] But superior vines were produced

on a few spots only, as at Koptos, and in the neighbourhood of Lake

Mareotis, where showers of sand, pouring in from the desert or the

sea-shore, diminished the fatness of the ground. With respect to Koptos,

we possess, however, no precise information,[1501] but are expressly

told, that the Mareotic vineyards covered a series of sandy swells,

stretching eastward from the lake towards Rosetta.[1502] On the southern

confines of Egypt, in the rocky and picturesque island of Elephantinè,

the vine was said[1503] never to shed its leaves; but as none grow there

at present, the traveller has no opportunity of deciding this question.

In Greece the vineyards of the plains were generally appropriated to the

production of the green grape, the purple being supposed to prefer the

sides of hills, or even of mountains, provided it were not exposed to

the furious winds upon their summits. Several sorts of white grape,

also, as the Psillian, Corcyrean, and the Chlorian, delighted in

elevated vineyards,[1504] though it was often judged necessary to

reverse these rules, and compel the hill-nurslings to descend to the

plains, while those of the plains were in their turn exposed to the

climate of the mountains.

-----

Footnote 1499:

Καλλίστη δὲ γῆ καὶ ἑ ὑπὸ τῶν ῥεόντων ποταμῶν χωσθεῖσα, ὅθεν καὶ τὴν

Αἴγυπτον ἐπαινοῦμεν.—Florent. ap. Geop. v. 1. 4.

Footnote 1500:

Jemaleddin. Maured Allatafet, p. 7. All these vines it will be

remembered were cut down by order of the Caliph Beamrillah, even in

the province of the Fayoum. Some vestiges, however, of vineyards were

here discovered by Pococke. “I observed,” says he, “about this lake

(Mœris) several roots in the ground, that seemed to me to be the

remains of vines, for which the country about the lake was formerly

famous. Where there is little moisture in the air, and it rains so

seldom, wood may remain sound a great while, though it is not known

how long these vineyards have been destroyed.” Vol. i. p. 65.

Footnote 1501:

Though with regard to the nature of the wine itself we are told, that

it was so light as to be given to persons in fevers,—ὁ δὲ κατὰ τὴν

Θηβαΐδα, καὶ μάλιστα ὁ κατὰ τὴν Κόπτον πόλιν, οὕτως ἐστὶ λεπτὸς, καὶ

εὐανάδοτος, καὶ ταχέως πεπτικὸς, ὡς τοῖς πυρεταίνουσι διδόμενος μὴ

βλάπτειν. Athen. i. 60.

Footnote 1502:

Athen. i. 60. Horat. Od. i. 37. 14. Strab. xvii. 1. t. iii. p. 425.

Footnote 1503:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. i. 3. 5. Varro, i. 7.

Footnote 1504:

Geop. v. 1. 15. Cf. Geop. iii. 2. “The shifting of ground is a means

to better the tree and fruit, but with this caution, that all things

do prosper best when they are advanced to the better.” Bacon, “Sylva

Sylvarum,” 439.

-----

Much judgment was thought to be required in selecting the site of a

vineyard, though almost everything depended on the climate and general

configuration of the district in which it was situated. Thus in warm

countries, as in the Pentapolis of Cyrene, the vineyards sloped towards

the north; in Laconia, they occupied the eastern face of Mount Taygetos,

while in Attica and the islands, the hills often appear to have been

encircled with vines. Upon the whole, however, those were most esteemed

which looked towards the rising sun and enjoyed, without obstruction,

the first rays of the morning.[1505] And this also is the case in the

Côte d’Or, where the best wines, as the Chambertin, the Vin de Beaune,

and that of the Clos Vougeot, are grown on eastern declivities. In some

parts of Greece, the vine was strongly affected by the prevalence of

certain winds, as those of the east and the west in Thessaly, which in

the forty cold days of winter were attended by frost that killed its

upper extremities, and sometimes the whole trunk. At Chalcis, in Eubœa

likewise, the Olympias, a western wind, parched and shrivelled, or, as

the Greeks express it, burnt up the leaves, sometimes completely

destroying the shrub itself.[1506] In such situations it was accordingly

found necessary to protect it by a covering[1507] during the prevalence

of cold winds. At Methana, in Argolis, when the south-east in spring

blew up the Saronic gulf,[1508] the inhabitants, to defend them from it,

spread over their vines the invisible teguments of a spell; which was

effected in the following manner: taking a milk-white cock, and cutting

it in halves, two men seized each a part, and then, standing back to

back, started off in opposite directions, made the tour of the vineyard,

and, returning whence they had set out, buried the cock’s remains in the

earth. After this the Libs might blow as it listed, since it possessed

no power to injure any man’s property within the consecrated

circle.[1509] The prevalence of the north wind during autumn was

considered auspicious, as they supposed it to hasten the ripening of the

fruit.

-----

Footnote 1505:

Geop. v. 4.1.

Footnote 1506:

Theoph. Caus. Plant. v. 12. 5. Cf. Hist. Plant. iv. 14. 11. And yet

the neighbourhood of the sea was considered propitious to the vine.

Geop. v. 5.

Footnote 1507:

Theoph. Caus. Plant. v. 12. 5.

Footnote 1508:

On the prevalence of these winds in winter and spring, together with

the causes of the phenomenon, see Aristot. Problem. xxvi. 16.

Footnote 1509:

Paus. ii. 34. 2. Chandler, Travels, ii. 248.

-----

When the husbandman had resolved on the formation of a new vineyard, he

first, of course, encircled the spot with a hedge[1510] which was made

both thick and strong for the purpose of repelling the flocks and herds,

which, as well as goats, foxes, and soldiers, loved to prey upon the

vine.[1511] His next care was to root up the hazel bush and the

oleaster, the roots of the former being supposed to be inimical to the

Dionysiac tree, while the oily bark of the latter rendered it peculiarly

susceptible of taking fire, by which means vineyards would often appear

to have been reduced to ashes. So at least says Virgil.[1512]

Root up wild olives from thy laboured lands,

For sparkling fire from hinds’ unwary hands

Is often scattered o’er their unctuous rinds,

And often spread abroad by raging winds;

For first the smouldering flame the trunk receives,

Ascending thence it crackles in the leaves;

At length victorious to the top aspires,

Involving all the wood in smoky fires.

But most when driven by winds the flaming storm

Of the long files destroys the beauteous form;

In ashes then the unhappy vineyard lies,

Nor will the blasted plants from ruin rise,

Nor will the withered stock be green again,

But the wild olive shoots, and shades th’ ungrateful plain.

-----

Footnote 1510:

Virg. Georg. ii. 371, sqq.

Footnote 1511:

Aristoph. Eq. 1073, seq. Küst.

Footnote 1512:

Georg. ii. 299, sqq. Dryden’s Translation.

-----

The next operation[1513] was to trench the ground and throw it into

lofty ridges, which, by the operation of the summer sun, and the rain

and winds and frosts of winter, were rendered mellow and genial.

Occasionally a species of manure, composed[1514] of pounded acorns,

lentils, and other vegetable substances, was dug in for the purpose of

giving to the soil the warmth and fertility required by the vine.

-----

Footnote 1513:

Geop. iii. 4. Cf. Virg. Georg. ii. 259, seq. et Serv. ad loc.

Footnote 1514:

Geop. v. 24.

-----

The ground having remained in this state during a whole year, its

surface was levelled, and a series of shallow furrows traced for the

slips by line, rather close, on rich alluvial plains, but diverging more

and more[1515] in proportion to the elevation of the site. Generally the

vine was propagated by slips of moderate length, planted sometimes

upright or à l’aiguille,[1516] as the phrase is in Languedoc, sometimes

obliquely,[1517] which was generally supposed to be the better fashion.

Along with the slip a handfull of grape-stones was usually cast into the

furrow,[1518] those of the green grape with the purple vine, and those

of the purple with the green, in order to cause it the sooner to take

root. With some the practice was always to set two slips together, so

that if one missed the other might take, and when both grew, the weaker

was cut off or removed. Several stones,[1519] about the size of the

fist, were placed round the slip above whatever manure was used, the

belief being, that they would aid in preventing the root from being

scorched by the sun in the heats of summer.[1520] Some touched the lower

point of the slip with cedar oil which prevented it from decaying, and

likewise by its odour repelled vermin.

-----

Footnote 1515:

Virg. Georg. ii. 274, seq.

Footnote 1516:

Skippon in Churchill, Collection of Voyages, vi. 730.

Footnote 1517:

Πότερα δὲ ὅλον τὸ κλῆμα ὀρθὸν τιθεὶς πρὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν βλέπον ἡγῇ

μάλλον ἂν ῥιζοῦσθαι αὐτὸ, ἢ καὶ πλάγιόν τι ὑπὸ τῇ ὑποβεβλημένη γῇ

θείης ἂν, ὥστε κεῖσθαι ὥσπερ γάμμα ὕπτιον; οὕτω νὴ Δία· πλείονες γὰρ

ἂν οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ κατὰ γῆς εἶεν· ἐκ δὲ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν καὶ ἄνω ὁρῶ

βλαστάνοντα τὰ φυτὰ. Xenoph. Œconom. xix. 9, seq.

Footnote 1518:

Geop. v. 9. This practice is noticed by Lord Bacon who advises

gardeners to extend the experiment by laying “good store” of other

kernels about the roots of trees of the same kind. Sylva Sylvarum, i.

35.

Footnote 1519:

Virg. Georg. ii. 348.

Footnote 1520:

A similar remark is made by Lord Bacon: “It is an assured experience,”

he says, “that an heap of flint or stone laid about the bottom of a

wild tree, as an oak, elm, ash, &c., upon the first planting, doth

make it prosper double as much as without it. The cause is for that it

retaineth the moisture which falleth at any time upon the tree and

suffereth it not to be exhaled by the sun.” Sylva Sylvarum, 422.

-----

To produce grapes without stones the lower end of the slip was split,

and the pith carefully extracted with an ear-pick.[1521] It was then

bound round with a papyrus leaf, thrust into a sea-onion and thus

planted. Vines producing medicinal grapes were created by withdrawing

the pith from the lower part of the slip, but without splitting, and

introducing certain drugs into the hollow,[1522] closing up the

extremity with papyrus and thus setting it in the earth. The wine, the

grape, the leaves, and even the ashes of such a vine were thought to be

a remedy against the bite of serpents and dogs, though no security

against hydrophobia. Another mode of producing stoneless grapes was to

cut short all the branches of a vine already growing, extract the pith

from the ends of them, and fill up the cavity once a-week with the juice

of sylphion,[1523] binding them carefully to props that the liquor might

not escape. A method was also in use of producing green and purple

grapes on the same cluster.[1524] This was to take two slips as nearly

as possible of the same size, the one of the white, the other of the

black grape, and, having split them down the middle, carefully to fit

the halves to their opposites, so that the buds, when divided, should

exactly meet. They were then bound tight together with papyrus thread,

and placed in the earth in a sea-onion,[1525] whose glutinous juice

aided the growing together of the severed parts. Sometimes instead of

slips, offshoots removed from the trunk of a large vine, with roots

attached to them, were used. On other occasions the vine was grafted,

like any other fruit-tree, on a variety of stocks,[1526] each modifying

the quality and flavour of the grape. Thus a vine grafted on a

myrtle-stock,[1527] produced fruit partaking of the character of the

myrtle-berry. Grafted on a cherry-tree, its grapes underwent a different

change, and ripened, like cherries, in the spring. As the clay

encircling the junctures of these grafts grew dry, and somewhat cracked

in hot summers, it was customary for gardeners to moisten them every

evening with a sponge dipped in water.[1528]

-----

Footnote 1521:

Geop. iv. 7. Mention of the stoneless grapes of Persia occurs in many

travellers, and, by Mr. Fowler, one of the most recent, are enumerated

under the name of _kismis_, among the choicest fruits of that country.

Three Years in Persia, vol. i. p. 323. It may here be remarked, that

certain sorts of vines, among others the Capneion, produced sometimes

white clusters, sometimes purple. Theophrast. Hist. Plant. ii. 3. 2.

Cf. de Caus. Plant. v. 3. 1. κ. τ. λ.

Footnote 1522:

Geop. iv. 8.

Footnote 1523:

Geop. iv. 7.

Footnote 1524:

Geop. iv. 14.

Footnote 1525:

It has been remarked also by ancient naturalists that a fig-tree

planted in a sea-onion, grows quicker and is more free from vermin.

Theoph. Hist. Plant. i. 5. 5.

Footnote 1526:

Colum. v. 11.

—Adultâ vitium propagine

Altas maritat populos,

Inutilesque falce ramos amputans

Feliciores inserit.

Horat. Epod. ii. 9, seq.

Footnote 1527:

Geop. iv. 4, seq.

Footnote 1528:

Geop. iv. 12.

-----

The husbandmen of antiquity were often somewhat fanciful in their

practices. In order, when forming a nursery,[1529] to coax the young

plants to grow, the beds to which they were transferred, were formed of

a stratum of earth brought from the vineyard whence they also were

taken. Another nicety was to take care, that they occupied precisely the

same position with respect to the quarters of the heavens[1530] as when

growing on the parent stock.[1531]

“Besides to plant it as it was they mark

The heaven’s four quarters on the tender bark,

And to the north or south restore the side

Which at their birth did heat or cold abide,

So strong is custom; such effects can use

In tender souls of pliant plants produce.”

-----

Footnote 1529:

Virg. Georg. ii. 265, seq.

Footnote 1530:

Lord Bacon gives this experiment a place in his philosophy, observing,

that “in all trees when they be removed (especially fruit-trees) care

ought to be taken that the sides of the trees be coasted (north and

south) and as they stood before.” Sylva Sylvarum, 471.

Footnote 1531:

Virg. Georg. ii. 270, seq.

-----

When desirous of extending the plantation in an old vineyard, instead of

the methods above described, they had recourse to another, which was to

bend down[1532] the vine branch, and bury it up to the point in the

earth, where it would take root, and send forth a new vine, and in this

way a long series of leafy arcades[1533] may sometimes have been formed.

At the foot of their vines some cultivators were in the habit of burying

three goats’ horns[1534] with their points downwards, and the other end

appearing above the soil. These they regarded as so many receptacles for

receiving and gradually conveying water to the roots, and, consequently,

an active cause of the vines’ fertility.

-----

Footnote 1532:

An analogous practice is observed in the pepper gardens of

Sumatra:—“When the vines originally planted to any of the chinkareens

(or props) are observed to fail or miss; instead of replacing them

with new plants, they frequently conduct one of the shoots, or

suckers, from a neighbouring vine, to the spot, through a trench made

in the ground, and there suffer it to rise up anew, often at the

distance of twelve or fourteen feet from the parent stock.” Marsden,

History of Sumatra, p. 111.

Footnote 1533:

Virg. Georg. ii. 26. Serv. ad loc.

Footnote 1534:

Geop. iv. 2. The nymphs are said to have been the nurses of Bacchos,

because water supplied moisture to the vine. The explanation of

Athenæus is forced and cold. ii. 2.

-----

Respecting the seasons of planting,[1535] opinions were divided, some

preferring the close of autumn, immediately after the fall of the leaf,

when the sap had forsaken the branches, and descended to the roots;

others chose, for the time of this operation, the early spring, just

before the sap mounted; while a third class delayed it until the buds

began to swell, and the tokens of spring were evident. To these

varieties of practice Virgil makes allusion,—

When winter frosts constrain the field with cold,

The fainty root can take no steady hold;

But when the golden spring reveals the year,

And the white bird returns whom serpents fear,

That season deem the best to plant thy vines;

Next that, is when autumnal warmth declines,

Ere heat is quite decayed, or cold begun,

Or Capricorn admits the winter sun.

-----

Footnote 1535:

Geop. v. 7, seq. Virg. Georg. ii. 323, sqq.

-----

But the above were not the only rules observed; for, besides the general

march of the seasons, they took note of the phases of the moon,[1536]

whose influence over vegetation all antiquity believed to be very

powerful. Some planted during the four days immediately succeeding the

birth of the new moon, while others extended their labours through the

first two quarters. The act of pruning[1537] was performed when that

planet was in its wane.

-----

Footnote 1536:

Geop. v. 10.

Footnote 1537:

Geop. iii. 1.

-----

There were in Greece[1538] three remarkable varieties of the vine,

created by difference in the mode of cultivation.[1539] The first

consisted of plants always kept short, and supported on props, as in

France; the second of tree-climbers, thence called Anadendrades; the

third sort enjoyed neither of these advantages,[1540] but being grown

chiefly in steep and stony places, spread their branches over the earth,

as is still the fashion in Syra[1541] and other islands of the

Archipelago.

-----

Footnote 1538:

Cf. Theoph. Caus. Plant. iv. 3. 6.

Footnote 1539:

The low vines of Asia Minor are now pruned in a very particular

manner. “As we approached Vourla the little valleys were all green

with corn, or filled with naked vine-stocks in orderly arrangement,

about a foot and a half high. The people were working, many in a row,

turning the earth, or encircling the trunks with tar, to secure the

buds from grubs and worms. The shoots which bear the fruit are cut

down again in winter.” Chandler, i. 98.

Footnote 1540:

On the cultivation of the Corinth grape, see Chandler, ii. 339.

Footnote 1541:

Abbé Della Rocca, Traité Complet des Abeilles, i. 203. Lord Bacon, who

had heard of this manner of cultivating the vine, observes, that in

this state it was supposed to produce grapes of superior magnitude,

and advises to extend the practice to hops, ivy, woodbine, &c. Sylva

Sylvarum, 623.

-----

Vine-props[1542] appear to have commonly consisted of short reeds,

which, accordingly, were extensively cultivated both in Hellas and its

colonies of Northern Africa, where the musical cicada, whose excessive

multiplication betokened a sickly year, bored through the rind, and laid

its eggs in the hollow within.[1543] From an inconvenience attending the

use of this kind of support came the rustic proverb, “The prop has

defrauded the vine;”[1544] for these reeds sometimes took root, outgrew

their clients, and monopolized the moisture of the soil.

-----

Footnote 1542:

Geop. v. 22. 27. Reeds delight in sunny spots, and are nourished by

the rain. They were cultivated for props, and, if thoroughly smoked,

the insects called ἶπες were killed, which would otherwise breed in

them, to the great injury of the vine, v. 53. Plin. xviii. 78. Cf.

Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. 1140. 983. Varro, i. 8. In the island of

Pandataria the vineyard was filled with traps, to protect the grapes

from the mice. Id. ib.

Footnote 1543:

Aristoph. Hist. Anim. v. 24. 3.

Footnote 1544:

Sch. Aristoph. Vesp. 1282. Cf. Thom. Magist. v. χάραξ. p. 911, seq.

Blancard. cum not. Stieber. et Oudendorp. Ammon. v. χάραξ. p. 145,

with the note of Valckenaer. Liban. Epist. 218. p. 104 seq. Wolf.

-----

In rich and level lands,[1545] particularly where the Aminian vine[1546]

was cultivated, the props often rose to the height of five or six feet;

but in hill-vineyards, where the soil was lighter and less nutritive,

they were not suffered to exceed that of three feet. Where reeds were

not procurable, ash-props[1547] were substituted, but they were always

carefully barked, to prevent cantharides, and other insects hurtful to

the vine, from making nests in them. Their price would appear to have

been considerable, since we find a husbandman speaking of having laid

out a hundred drachma in vine-props.[1548] To prevent their speedily

decaying they were smeared a-top with pitch, and carefully, after the

vintage, collected and laid up within doors.[1549]

-----

Footnote 1545:

Geop. v. 27.

Footnote 1546:

Cf. Geop. iv. 1. Dioscor. v. 6. Virg. Georg. ii. 97. Servius, on the

authority of Aristotle, relates that the Aminian vines were

transplanted from Thessaly into Italy. Cf. Pier. ad loc.

Footnote 1547:

Sch. Aristoph. Vesp. 1116. Acharn. 1177. In the Æolian islands the

vines are supported on a frame-work of poles and trees, over which

they spread themselves with extraordinary luxuriance. Spallanzani, iv.

99.

Footnote 1548:

Sch. Aristoph. Pac. 1262.

Footnote 1549:

Virg. Georg. 408, seq.

-----

A vineyard, consisting wholly of Anadendrades,[1550] most common in

Attica, presented, in spring and summer, a very picturesque appearance,

especially when situated on the sharp declivity of a hill.[1551] The

trees designed for the support of the vines,[1552] planted in straight

lines, and rising behind each other, terrace above terrace, at intervals

of three or four and twenty feet, were beautiful in form and varied in

feature, consisting generally of the black poplar, the ash, the maple,

the elm,[1553] and probably, also, the platane, which is still employed

for this purpose in Crete.[1554] Though kept low in some situations,

where the soil was scanty, they were, in others, allowed to run to

thirty or forty, and sometimes, as in Bithynia, even to sixty feet in

height.

-----

Footnote 1550:

Which were pruned in January (Geop. iii. 1), and esteemed the most

useful, iv. 1. The solidest and hardest vines were thought to bear the

least fruit. Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 4. 1. Cf. Chandler, i. 98.

Footnote 1551:

Dem. in Nicostrat. § 5.

Footnote 1552:

“Vitem viduas ducit ad arbores.”

Hor. Carm. iv. 5. 30.

Footnote 1553:

Virg. Georg. ii. 361, seq. An amictâ vitibus ulmo. Hor. Epist. i. 16.

3.

Footnote 1554:

Pashley, Travels, ii. 22. The oak is now used for the same purpose in

Asia Minor. Chandler, i. 114.

-----

The face of the tree along which the vine climbed was cut down sheer

like a wall, against which the purple or golden clusters hung thickly

suspended, while the young branches crept along the boughs, or over

bridges of reeds,[1555] uniting tree with tree, and, when touched with

the rich tints of autumn, delighting the eye by an extraordinary variety

of foliage. As the lower boughs of these noble trees were carefully

lopped away, a series of lofty arches was created, beneath which the

breezes could freely play, abundant currents of pure air being regarded

as no less essential to the perfect maturing of the grape[1556] than

constant sunshine. Sometimes the vine, in its ascent, was suffered to

wind round the trunk of its supporter, which, however, by the most

judicious husbandmen, was considered prejudicial, since the profusion of

ligatures which it threw out in its passage upwards was thought to

exhaust too much of its strength, to prevent which wooden wedges[1557]

were here and there inserted between the vine stem and the tree. In

trailing the branches, moreover, along the boughs, care was taken to

keep them as much as possible on the upper side, that they might enjoy a

greater amount of sunshine, and be the more exposed to be agitated by

the winds.

-----

Footnote 1555:

Gœttling ad Hesiod. Scut. Heracl. 298.

Footnote 1556:

Another means of augmenting the fertility of the vine is noticed by

Lord Bacon, whose diligent study of antiquity was at least as

remarkable as his superior intellect. “It is strange, which is

observed by some of the ancients, that dust helpeth the fruitfulness

of trees and of vines by name; insomuch as they cast dust upon them of

purpose. It should seem that powdring when a shower cometh maketh a

kind of soiling to the tree, being earth and water finely laid on. And

they note that countries where the fields and waies are dusty bear the

best vines.” Sylva Sylvarum, 666.

Footnote 1557:

Geop. iv. 1. 16.

-----

These Anadendrades,[1558] which were supposed to produce the best and

most lasting wines, probably, as at present, ripened their produce much

later than the other sorts of vines on account of the trees by which

they were shaded. In modern Crete,[1559] where, however, they are never

pruned, their grapes seldom ripen before November, and sometimes they

furnish the bazaar of Khania with fresh supplies till Christmas. The

same is the case also in Egypt.

-----

Footnote 1558:

These vines were likewise called ἁμαμάξυες. Aristoph. Vesp. 325, et

Schol. The rustics engaged in pruning them, feeling themselves secure

in their lofty station, used to pour their rough raillery and

invectives on the passers-by. Horace, Satir. i. 7. 29, seq.

-----

Occasionally, too, more especially in Cypros, the Anadendrades grew to

an enormous size. At Populonium, in Etruria, there was a statue of

Jupiter carved from a single vine; the pillars of the temple of Hera, at

Metapontum, consisted of so many vines; and the whole staircase leading

to the roof of the fane of Artemis, at Ephesos, was constructed with the

timber of a single vine from Cypros. To render these things credible, we

are informed, that, at Arambys, in Africa,[1560] there was a vine twelve

feet in circumference, and modern travellers have found them of equal

dimensions in other parts of the world.[1561] In France, for example,

the celebrated Anne, Duc de Montmorenci, had a table made with a single

slab of vinewood, which, two hundred years afterwards, Brotier[1562] saw

preserved at the town of Ecouen.

-----

Footnote 1559:

On the vines of this island cf. Meurs. Cret. c. 9. p. 103.

Footnote 1560:

Bochart. Geog. Sac. Pars Alt. l. i. c. 37. p. 712. Cf. Plin. Hist.

Nat. v. i.

Footnote 1561:

Tozzeli, Viaggi. t. iv. p. 208.

Footnote 1562:

Not. ad Plin. xiv. i. 1.

-----

To return, however: the wide spaces between the trees were not in this

class of vineyards allowed to remain entirely idle, having been

sometimes sown[1563] with corn, or planted with beans, and gourds, and

cucumbers, and lentils.[1564] The cabbage[1565] was carefully

excluded,[1566] as an enemy to Dionysos. In other cases these intervals

were given up to the cultivation of fruit-trees, such as the

pomegranate, the apple, the quince, and the olive. The fig-tree was

regarded as pernicious, though often planted in rows on the outside of

the vineyard.

-----

Footnote 1563:

Geop. iv. 1. v. 7, seq.

Footnote 1564:

Barley and other grain are still in modern times sown between the

vines in Asia Minor. Chandler, i. 114. The same practice has been

partially introduced into the Æolian islands. Spallanzani, iv. 100.

Footnote 1565:

Suid. v. κράμβη, t. i. p. 1518. b.—παρὰ ἀμπέλω οὐ φυέται Etym. Mag.

534. 47.

Footnote 1566:

So was the laurel. Theoph. Caus. Plant. ii. 18. 4.

-----

Respecting those vines which were cultivated without the aid of

props,[1567] or trees, we possess little information, except that there

were such. But, as they are still found in the country, it is probable,

that the mode of dressing them now prevailing nearly resembles that of

antiquity. They are generally, in Syria, planted along the steep sides

of mountains, where they spread and rest upon the stones, and have their

fruit early ripened by the heat reflected from the earth. Frequently,

also, they are planted on more level ground, in which case, as soon as

the grapes acquire any size, the husbandman passes through the vineyard

with an armful of forked wooden props which he skilfully introduces

beneath the branches and fixes firmly so as to keep the clusters from

touching the mould. The reason for adopting this method is the furious

winds which at certain seasons of the year prevail in many of the

Grecian islands, preventing the growth of woods and prostrating the fig

and every other fruit-tree to the earth. The spaces between the lines

are turned up annually by a peculiar sort of plough[1568] drawn by oxen,

in front of which a man advances, lifting up the vines and holding them

aside while they pass. This destroys the weeds, and, at the same time,

all the upper roots of the vine, which compels it to descend deeper into

the earth, where it finds a cooler and more abundant nourishment. In

this respect the practice of the Syrotes closely resembles that of their

ancestors. Some husbandmen were careful, likewise, while weeding,[1569]

to remove the larger stones, though they are often supposed, by

preserving moisture, to do more good than harm.

-----

Footnote 1567:

This creeping vine, cultivated _sine ridicis_, was common in Spain.

Varro, i. 8.

Footnote 1568:

Della Rocca, Traité Complet sur les Abeilles, t. i. p. 203, sqq. Cf.

Thiersch, Etat Actuel de la Grèce, t. i. p. 288. 296. Damm. Nov. Lex.

Græc. Etym. 1122.

Footnote 1569:

Geop. v. 19.

-----

It is a peculiar feature in the character of the ancients that they

loved to attribute to the inferior animals the first hints of various

useful practices. Thus they maintained it was the ass that, by browsing

on the extremities of the vine, which only made it bear the more

luxuriantly, taught them the art of pruning as well perhaps as that of

feeding on the tendrils and tender branches,[1570] which among them were

esteemed a delicacy. To manifest their gratitude for this piece of

instruction they erected at Nauplia,[1571] a marble statue in honour of

this ill-used quadruped, who has seldom, I fear, from that day to this,

been so well treated. The rules observed in pruning[1572] resembling

those still in use, it is unnecessary to repeat them, though it may be

worth mentioning, that the husbandman, who coveted an abundant vintage,

was careful to lop his vines[1573] with his brows shaded by an ivy

crown. They esteemed it a sign of a fruitful year when the fig-tree and

the white vine put forth luxuriantly in spring,[1574] after which they

had only to petition the gods against too much rain, or too much

drought,[1575] and those terrible hailstorms which sometimes devastate

whole districts. Against this calamity, however, they had a

preservative, which was to bind an amulet in the shape of a thong of

seal-hide or eagle’s wing, about one of the stocks,[1576] after which

the whole vineyard was supposed to be secure from injury. The same

effect was produced by striking a chalezite stone with a piece of iron

on the approach of a storm, and by hanging up in the vineyard a picture

of a bunch of grapes at the setting of the constellation of the

Lyre.[1577] To repel the ascent of vermin along the trunk it was smeared

with a thick coat of bitumen,[1578] imported from Cilicia, while to

preserve the branches from wasps a little olive-oil was blown over

them.[1579]

-----

Footnote 1570:

Theoph. Caus. Plant. vi. 12. 9. After the vintage the goat and the

camel, among the modern Asiatics, are sometimes let into the vineyard

to browse upon the vine. Chandler, i. 163.

Footnote 1571:

Paus. ii. 38. 3. See, however, another interpretation of the passage

in the Tale of a Tub, where the author gravely insists, that, by Ass,

we are to understand a critic. Sect. iii. p. 96.

Footnote 1572:

Cf. Plat. De Rep. t. vi. p. 53. Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 166. See an exact

representation of the pruninghook in the hand of Vertumnus. Mus.

Cortonens. pl. 36. This instrument was usually put into requisition

about the vespertinal rising of Arcturus. Hesiod. Opp. et Dies, 566,

sqq.

Footnote 1573:

Geop. v. 24.

Footnote 1574:

Theoph. Caus. Plant. i. 20. 5.

Footnote 1575:

Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 1117. Küst.

Footnote 1576:

Geop. i. 14. Cf. Sch. Aristoph. Nub. 1109. Husbandmen were accustomed

to nail the heads and feet of animals to the trunks of trees to

prevent their being withered by the operation of the evil eye. Sch.

Ran. 943.

Footnote 1577:

Geop. ii. 14.

Footnote 1578:

Theoph. De Lapid. § 49. Schneid. Cf. Sir John Hill, notes, p. 200. It

was likewise obtained from Seleucia Pieria in Syria. Strab. vii. 5. t.

ii. p. 106.

Footnote 1579:

Geop. iv. 10.

-----

While the grapes were growing, the ancients, following in the track of

nature, supposed them to need shade, since the leaves at that time put

forth most abundantly, to screen the young fruit from the scorching sun;

but when they began to don their gold or purple hues, observing the

foliage shrivel and shrink from about them, in order to admit the warm

rays to penetrate and pervade the fruit they then stripped the branches

and hastened the vintage,[1580] plucking moreover the clusters as they

ripened, lest they should drop off and be lost. But this partial

gathering of the grapes could only take place in their gardens, or where

the vine was trained about the house; for in the regular vineyards the

season of the vintage was regulated by law,[1581] as in Burgundy and the

south of France, in order to protect the public against the pernicious

frauds which would otherwise be practised. This, in Attica, usually

coincided with the heliacal rising of the constellation Arcturus.[1582]

-----

Footnote 1580:

Xenoph. Œcon. xix. 9.

Footnote 1581:

Plat. De Legg. t. viii. 106. Geop. v. 45.

Footnote 1582:

Cf. Geop. i. 9. 9.

-----

When the magistrate had declared that the season of the vintage[1583]

was come, the servants of Bacchos hurried forth to the vine-clad hills,

converting their labours into a pretext for superabundant mirth and

revelry. The troops of vintagers, composed of youths and maidens, with

crowns of ivy on their heads, and accompanied by rural performers on the

flute or phorminx, moved forward with shout, and dance, and song, to the

sacred enclosures of Dionysos, surrounded with plaited hedgerows, and

blue streamlets.[1584] Here, where

“——the showering grapes

In Bacchanal profusion reel to earth

Purple and gushing,”

they at once commenced their joyous task. With sharp pruning-hooks[1585]

they separated the luxuriant clusters, gold or purple, from the vine,

and piling them in plaited baskets of osier or reed, bore them on their

shoulders to the wine-press. In this operation, as I have said, both men

and women joined; but the press was trodden by men only,[1586] who, half

intoxicated by pleasure,[1587] and the fumes of the young wine, chanted

loudly their ancient national lays in praise of Bacchos.

-----

Footnote 1583:

Cf. Plut. Thes. § 22.

Footnote 1584:

Il. σ. 561, sqq.

Footnote 1585:

Scut. Heracl. 291, seq. On the modern modes of gathering the grapes,

see Redding Hist. of Modern Wines, chap. ii. 26, et seq.

Footnote 1586:

The practice is still the same in the Levant:—“The vintage was now

begun, the black grapes being spread on the ground in beds exposed to

the sun to dry for raisins; while in another part, the juice was

expressed for wine, a man with feet and legs bare, treading the fruit

in a kind of cistern, with a hole or vent near the bottom, and a

vessel beneath it to receive the liquor.” Chandler, ii. p. 2.

-----

The wine-press, which stood under cover, sometimes consisted of two

upright, and many cross beams,[1588] which, descending with great weight

upon the grapes squeezed forth all their juices, and these falling

through a species of strainer,[1589] upon an inclined slab, were poured

through a small channel formed for the purpose, into a broad open vessel

communicating with the vat. Into the process of wine-making[1590] it is

unnecessary to enter. It will be sufficient, perhaps, to say that, when

made, it was laid up in skins or large earthen jars until required for

use. The wines of modern Attica and the Morea[1591] are preserved from

becoming acid by a large infusion of resin.[1592]

-----

Footnote 1587:

Anacreon, Od. 52. See a representation of the whole process in the

Mus. Cortonens, pl. 9, where the vintagers are clad in skins; and Cf.

Zoëga, Bassi Rilievi, tav. 26.

Footnote 1588:

Antich. di Ercol. t. i. tav. 35, p. 187.

Footnote 1589:

Schol. Aristoph. Pac. 527.

Footnote 1590:

For the making of the sweet wine (Βίβλινος οἶνος) which resembled,

perhaps, our Constantia or Malaga, and enjoyed extraordinary favour

among the ancients Hesiod gives particular directions. Opp. et Dies,

611, sqq. Colum. xii. 39. Plin. Hist. Nat. xiv. 8. Pallad. xi. 19.

Footnote 1591:

Sibth. in Walp. Mem. ii. 235. Chandler, ii. 251.

Footnote 1592:

A few drops of the oil which ran from olives without pressing were

supposed by the ancients to render the wine stronger and more

lasting.—Geop. vii. 12. 20. On the boiled wine, σίραιον. Cf. Sch.

Aristoph. Vesp. 878.

-----

The sports,[1593] which took place during the vintage, were loud and

frolicsome, and distinguished sometimes for their excessive licence.

They brought forth a number of wine skins, filled tight, to the village

green, and there smearing them liberally with oil the staggering rustics

sought, each in his turn, to leap and stand upon one of them with his

naked foot.[1594] The missing, slipping, and falling, the awkward figure

they sometimes made upon the ground, the jokes, and shouts, and laughter

of the bystanders, mingled with the twanging of rustic instruments, and

the roar of Bacchanalian songs, constituted the charm of the rural

Dionysia, out of which, through many changes and gradations, arose, as

we have seen, the Greek drama. In order without shame to give the freer

licence to their tongues, they sometimes covered their faces with masks,

formed with the bark of trees, which, there can be no doubt, led to

those afterwards employed in the theatre. Sometimes a sort of

farce[1595] was acted, representing the search of the Athenians for the

bodies of Icarios and Erygone. The former, according to tradition, was

the person who taught the inhabitants of Attica the use of wine, with

which on a certain occasion he regaled a number of shepherds. These

demi-savages, observing their strength and their reason fail, imagined

themselves to have been poisoned, and falling, in revenge, upon the

donor, put him to death. His dog Mœra escaped, and leading Erygone to

the spot where her father had been murdered, she immediately hung

herself on the discovery of the corpse. Upon this they were all

transported to the skies, and changed into so many constellations,

namely Boötes,[1596] the Dog, and the Virgin, by whose brilliancy we are

still rejoiced nightly. Soon afterwards the maidens of Attica were

seized with madness and hung themselves in great numbers, upon which the

oracle being consulted, commanded the Athenians to make search for the

bodies of Icarios and Erygone. Being able to discover them nowhere on

earth, they suspended ropes from the branches of lofty trees, by

swinging to and fro on which they appeared to be conducting their search

in the air; but many of these adventurous explorers receiving severe

falls, they were afterwards contented with suspending to the ropes

little images after their own likeness, which they sent hither and

thither in the air as their substitutes.

-----

Footnote 1593:

Virg. Georg. ii. 580, sqq. Hes. Scut. Heracl. 291, sqq. Cf. Schol.

Theocrit. i. 48.

Footnote 1594:

See Book ii. chapter 3.

Footnote 1595:

Serv. ad Virg. Georg. ii. 389.

Footnote 1596:

Æl. de Anim. vi. 25.

-----

But all the produce of the vineyards was not appropriated to the making

of wine, great quantities of grapes[1597] being preserved for the table,

or converted into raisins.[1598] The latter were sometimes made by being

carefully gathered after the full moon, and put out to dry in the sun,

about ten o’clock in the morning, when all the dew was evaporated. For

this purpose, there was in every vineyard, garden, and orchard, a place

called Theilopedon,[1599] which would seem to have been a smooth raised

terrace, where not grapes only, but myrtle-berries, and every other kind

of fruit, were exposed to the sun on fine hurdles. Here, likewise, the

berries of the Palma Christi[1600] were prepared for the making of

castor oil. Another method was to twist the stem of the cluster[1601]

and allow the grapes to dry on the vine. They were then laid up in

vessels among vine leaves, dried also in the sun, covered close with a

stopper, and deposited in a cold room free from smoke.

-----

Footnote 1597:

Geop. iv. 15. Cato, 7. Colum. xii. 39. Pallad. 11. 22.

Footnote 1598:

In the warm climate of Asia Minor grapes were sometimes turned into

raisins, on the stalk, by the sun.—Chandler, i. 77.

Footnote 1599:

Eustath. ad Odyss. η. p. 276. Schol. Aristoph. Nub. 51. κρεμάθρα.

fruit-baskets, 219.

Footnote 1600:

Dioscor. i. 38.

Footnote 1601:

Geop. v. 52. This we find is still the practice in the islands of the

Archipelago, for the purpose of making sweet wine. M. l’ Abbé della

Rocca, who mentions it, enumerates at the same time the most delicious

sorts of grapes now cultivated in Greece—“On peut juger si les vins y

sont exquis, et si les anciens eurent raison d’appeller Naxie l’île de

Bacchus. Les raisins y sont monstrueux, et il arrive souvent que dans

un repas, on n’en sert qu’un seul pour le fruit; mais aussi

couvre-t-il toute la profondeur d’un grand bassin: les grains en sont

gros comme nos damas noirs. Il y a dans les îles des raisins de plus

de vingt sortes: les muscats de Ténédos et de Samos l’emportent sur

tous les autres; ceux de Ténédos sont plus ambrés; ceux de Samos, plus

délicats. Les Sentorinois, pour donner une saveur plus exquise à leurs

raisins, leur tordent la queue lorsqu’ils commencent à mûrir; après

quelques jours d’un soleil ardent, les raisins deviennent à demi

flétris, ce qui fait un vin dont ceux de la Cieutat et de

Saint-Laurent n’approchent pas. Les autres sortes de raisins sont

_l’aïdhoni_, petit raisin blanc qu’on mange vers la mi-juillet; le

_samia,_ gros raisin blanc qu’on fait sécher; le siriqui, ainsi nommé

parce qu’il a le goût de la cerise; _l’ætonychi_, qui a la figure de

l’ongle d’un aigle, et qui est très savoureux; le malvoisie, le muscat

violet, le corinthe, et plusieurs autres dont les noms me sont

échappés.” Traité sur les Abeilles, t. i. p. 6, seq. Speaking of the

prodigious productiveness of vines, Columella mentions one which bore

upwards of two thousand clusters, De Re Rust. iii. 3. A vine producing

a fifth of this quantity has been thought extraordinary in modern

Egypt: “Il n’est pas croyable combien rapporte un seul pied de vigne.

Il y en a un dans la maison Consulaire de France, qui a porté 436

grosses grappes de raisin, et qui en donne ordinairement 300.”—De

Maillet, Description de l’Egypte, p. 17.* In the Grecian Archipelago,

however, the vine has been known to yield still more abundantly than

in Egypt: “On a compté pendant trois ans consécutifs, cent

trente-quatre grappes de raisin sur une souche; et sur un autre cep de

vigne planté dans un terrain très-gras, on a compté jusqu’à quatre

cent quatre-vingts grappes; et l’intendant de l’évêché de notre île

m’a plus d’une fois assuré qu’on avoit fait soixante-quinze bouteilles

de vin, avec le raisin d’un seul cep.” Della Rocca, t. i. p. 65.

-----

To preserve the grapes fresh some cut off with a sharp pruninghook the

clusters separately, others the branches on which they grew, after

which, dipping the stem into pitch and removing the damaged grapes with

a pair of scissors, they spread them in cool and shady rooms, on layers

of pulse-halm, or hay, or straw.[1602] The halm of lentils was usually

preferred, because it is hard and dry, and repels mice. On other

occasions, the branches were kept suspended, having sometimes been

previously dipped in sweet wine. Grapes were likewise preserved in

pitched coffers, immersed in dry saw-dust of the pitch tree, or the

silver fir, or the black poplar, or even in millet flour. Others plunged

the bunches in boiling sea-water, or if this were not at hand, into a

preparation of wine, salt, and water, and then laid them up in barley

straw. Others boiled the ashes of the fig-tree, or the vine, with which

they sprinkled the bunches. Others preserved grapes by suspending them

in granaries, where the grain beneath was occasionally moved, for the

dust rising from the corn settled on the outside of the clusters, and

protected them from the air. Another method was to boil rain-water to a

third, and then, after cooling it in the open air, and pouring it into a

pitched vessel, to fill it with clusters perfectly cleansed. The vessel

was then covered, luted with gypsum, and laid by in a cold place. The

grapes in this way remained quite fresh, and the water itself acquiring

a vinous taste was administered to sick persons in lieu of wine.

Occasionally, also, grapes as well as apples were kept in honey.

-----

Footnote 1602:

Geop. iv. 15. 4.

-----

The most extraordinary, and perhaps the most effectual

contrivance,[1603] however, was to dig near the vine a pit three feet

deep, the bottom of which was covered with a layer of sand. A few short

stakes were then fixed upright in it, and to these a number of vine

branches laden with clusters were bent down and made fast. The whole was

then closely roofed over so as completely to keep out the rain, and in

this way the grapes would remain fresh till spring.

-----

Footnote 1603:

Geop. iv. 11. Pallad. xii. 12.

-----

The labours of the vintage being concluded, the husbandman next turned

his attention to olive gathering and the making of oil. This, in Greece,

was a matter of great importance. The olives, therefore,[1604] for all

the better sorts of oil, were picked by hand, and not, as in Italy,

suffered to fall. When as many were gathered as could conveniently be

pressed during the following night and day, they were spread loosely on

fine hurdles, and not heaped up lest they should heat and lose the

delicacy of their flavour. They were, likewise, cleansed carefully from

leaves and every particle of wood, these substances, it was supposed,

impairing the quality and durability of the oil. Towards evening a

little salt was sprinkled over the olives, which were then put into a

clean mill,[1605] and so arranged that they could be bruised without

crushing the stones, from the juice of which the oil contracted a bad

taste. Having been sufficiently bruised, they were conveyed in small

vessels to the press, where they were covered with hurdles of green

willows, upon which, at first, was placed a moderate weight,—for that

which flows from slight pressure is the sweetest and purest oil, on

which account it was drawn off in clean leaden vessels,[1606] and

preserved apart. Greater weight was then added, and the mass having been

well writhen, the second runnings were laid up in separate vessels. The

next step was to cause the precipitation of the lees, which was effected

by mingling with the crude oil a little salt and nitre. It was then

stirred with a piece of olive-wood, and left to settle, when the amurca

or watery part sank to the bottom. The pure oil was then skimmed off

with a shell, and laid up in glass vases, this substance having been

preferred on account of its cold nature. In default of these,

pickle-jars, glazed with gypsum, were used, which were deposited in cool

cellars facing the north.[1607]

-----

Footnote 1604:

Geop. ix. 19. 2.

Footnote 1605:

The fruit of the terebinth was ground, like the olive, in a mill, for

the making of oil. The kernels were used in feeding pigs, or for fuel.

Geop. ix. 18.

Footnote 1606:

Cf. Cato, De Re Rust. 66. This clear pure oil, sometimes rendered

odoriferous by perfumes, (Il. ψ. 186,) was chiefly employed in

lubricating the body. Thus we find the virgin in Hesiod anointing her

limbs with olive-oil to defend herself from the winter’s cold. Opp. et

Dies, 519, sqq.

Footnote 1607:

Vitruv. vi. 9.

-----

The Greeks had a variety of other oils besides that procured from the

olive,[1608] as walnut-oil, oil of terebinth, oil of sesamum, oil of

violets, oil of almonds, oil of Palma Christi, or castor-oil, oil of

saffron, oil of Cnidian laurel, oil of datura, oil of lentisk, oil of

mastic, oil of myrtle, and oil of mustard. They had, likewise,[1609] the

green and wild-olive oil, and the double-refined oil of Sicyon, together

with imitations of the Spanish and Italian oils.

-----

Footnote 1608:

Geop. ix. 18.

Footnote 1609:

Geop. ix. 19, seq. iii. 13. Dioscor. i. 140.

-----

As fruit of all kinds was in great request among the Greeks, they had

recourse to numerous contrivances[1610] for ensuring an unfailing supply

throughout the year. At many of these our gardeners may, perhaps, smile,

but they were, nevertheless, most of them ingenious, and, probably,

effectual, though the fruit thus preserved may have been dear when

brought to market. Into the details of all their methods it will be

unnecessary to enter: the following were the principal and most curious.

Walnuts, chestnuts, filberts, &c., were gathered and kept in the

ordinary way. They understood the art of blanching almonds, which were

afterwards dried in the sun. Medlars, service-berries, winter-apples,

and the like, having been gathered carefully, were simply laid up in

straw, whether on the loft-floor or in baskets. This, likewise, was

sometimes the case with quinces, which, together with apples and pears,

were, on other occasions, deposited in dry fig-leaves. For these, in the

case of pears and apples, walnut-leaves were often substituted,

sometimes piled under and over them in heaps, at other times wrapped and

tied about the fruit, the hues and odours of which they were supposed

greatly to improve.

-----

Footnote 1610:

Geop. x. 10–70. Cf. Mazois, Pal. de Scaurus, p. 182, seq.

-----

Citrons,[1611] pomegranates,[1612] apples, quinces, and pears, were

preserved in heaps of sand, grapestones, oak, poplar, deal, or cedar

sawdust, sometimes sprinkled with vinegar, chopped straw, wheat, or

barley, or the seeds of plants, all of which sufficed equally to exclude

the external air. Another method with apples[1613] was to lay them up

surrounded with sea-weed in unbaked jars, which were then deposited in

an upper room free from smoke and all bad smells. When sea-weed was not

procurable they put each apple into a small separate jar closely covered

up and luted. These apple-jars were often lined with a coating of wax.

Figs were, in like manner, preserved green[1614] by being enclosed in so

many small gourds. Citrons and pomegranates were often suffered to

remain throughout the winter on the tree, defended from wet and wind by

being capped with little fictile vases bound tightly to the branches to

keep them steady. Others enclosed these fruits, as well as apples, in a

thick coating of gypsum, preventing their falling off by binding the

stem to the branches with packthread. Nor was it unusual, even when

gathered, to envelope apples, quinces, and citrons, in a covering of the

same material, or potter’s clay, or argillaceous earth, mixed with hair,

sometimes interposing between the fruit and this crust a layer of

fig-leaves, after which they were dried in the sun. When at the end,

perhaps, of a whole year the above crust was broken and removed the

fruit came forth perfect as when plucked from the bough. It is possible,

therefore, that, in a similar manner, mangoes, mangusteens, and other

frail and delicate fruit of the tropics, might be brought fresh to

Europe, and that, too, in such abundance as to make them accessible to

most persons. To render pears and pomegranates durable, their stems were

dipped in pitch, after which they were hung up. In the case of the

latter the fruit itself was sometimes thus dipped; and, at other times,

immersed in hot sea-water, after which it was dried in the sun. One mode

of preserving figs was to plunge them in honey so as neither to touch

each other, nor the vessel in which they were contained; another, to

cover a pile of them with an inverted vase of glass, or other pellucid

substance, closely luted to the slab on which it stood. Cherries were

gathered before sunrise, and put, with summer savory above and below,

into a jar, or the hollow of a reed, which was then filled with sweet

vinegar, and closely covered. Mulberries were preserved in their own

juice, apples and quinces in pitched coffers, wrapped in clean locks of

wool, pears by being placed in salt[1615] for five days, and afterwards

dried in the sun, as were also figs, which were strung by the stalks to

a piece of cord or willow twig, like so many hanks of onions[1616] as

they are sold in modern times. Elsewhere they were preserved, as dates

in Egypt, by being pressed together in square masses, like bricks.[1617]

Damascenes were kept in must or sweet wine, as were also pears, adding

sometimes a little salt and jujubes, with leaves, above and below. The

same course was pursued with apples and quinces, which communicated to

the liquor additional durability and the most exquisite fragrance.

Quinces, whose sharp effluvia prevented their being placed with other

fruit, were often put into closely-covered jars, and kept floating in

wine to which they imparted a delicious perfume. The same custom was

observed with respect to figs, which were cut off on the bearing branch

a little before they were ripe, and hung, so as not to touch each other,

in a square earthen jar. Upon the same principle apples were preserved

in jars hermetically sealed, which, for the sake of coolness, were

plunged in cisterns or deep wells.[1618]

-----

Footnote 1611:

Palladius, iv. 10.

Footnote 1612:

We find mention in modern times of a species of pomegranate, the

kernels of which are without stones, peculiar apparently to the island

of Scio. “It is usual to bring them to table, in a plate, sprinkled

with rose-water.” Chandler, i. 58.

Footnote 1613:

Cf. Philost. Icon. t. 31. p. 809. ii. 2. p. 812.

Footnote 1614:

Ficus virides servari possunt vel in melle ordinatæ, ne se invicem

tangant, vel singulæ intra viridem cucurbitam clausæ, locis unicuique

cavatis, et item tessera, quæ secatur, inclusis, suspensa ea

cucurbita, ubi non sit ignis vel fumus. Pallad. iv. 10.

Footnote 1615:

Cato, 7. Varro. i. 59. Colum. xii. 14.

Footnote 1616:

Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 755. Sibth. in Walp. Mem. ii. 61.

Footnote 1617:

Phot. ap. Brunckh. ad Aristoph. Pac. 574.

Footnote 1618:

Pallad. iii. 25.

-----

It may, perhaps, be worth while to mention, in passing, that, like

ourselves, the ancients possessed the art of extracting perry and

cider[1619] from their pears and apples; and from pomegranates a species

of wine which is said to have been of an extremely delicate flavour. The

Egyptians, also, made wine from the fruit of the lotos.[1620]

-----

Footnote 1619:

Pallad. iii. 25. Colum. xii. 45.

Footnote 1620:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. iv. 3. i.

-----

CHAPTER IV.

STUDIES OF THE FARMER.

In other branches of rural economy the country gentlemen of Attica

exhibited no less enthusiasm or skill. Indeed, throughout Greece, there

prevailed a similar taste. Every one was eager to instruct and be

instructed; and so great in consequence was the demand for treatises on

husbandry, theoretical and practical, that numerous writers, the names

of fifty of whom are preserved by Varro,[1621] made it the object of

their study. Others without committing the result of their experience to

writing, devoted themselves wholly to its practical improvement. They

purchased waste or ill-cultivated lands, and, by investigating the

nature of the soil, skilfully adapting their crops to it, manuring,

irrigating, and draining, converted a comparative desert into a

productive estate.[1622] We can possibly, as Dr. Johnson insists,

improve very little our knowledge of agriculture by erudite researches

into the methods of the ancients; though Milton was of opinion, that

even here some useful hints might be obtained. In describing, however,

what the Greeks did, I am not pretending to enlighten the present age,

but to enable it to enjoy its superiority by instituting a comparison

with the ruder practices of antiquity.

-----

Footnote 1621:

De Re Rusticâ, i. 1. Cf. Colum. i. 1.

Footnote 1622:

Xenoph. Œconom. xx. 22, sqq.

-----

Already in those times the men of experience and routine,[1623] had

begun to vent their sneers against philosophers for their profound

researches into the nature of soils,[1624] in which, however, they by no

means designed to engage the husbandman, but only to present him, in

brief and intelligible maxims, with the fruit of their labours.

Nevertheless the practical husbandman went to work a shorter way. He

observed his neighbour’s grounds,[1625] saw what throve in this soil,

what in the other, what was bettered by irrigation, what in this respect

might safely be left to the care of Heaven; and thus, in a brief space,

acquired a rough theory wherewith to commence operations. An

agriculturist, the Athenians thought, required no recondite erudition,

though to his complete success the exercise of much good sense and

careful observation was necessary. Every man would, doubtless, know in

what seasons of the year he must plough and sow and reap, that lands

exhausted by cultivation must be suffered to lie fallow, that change of

crops is beneficial to the soil, and so on. But the great art consists

in nicely adapting each operation to the varying march of the seasons,

in converting accidents to use, in rendering the winds, the showers, the

sunshine, subservient to your purposes, in mastering the signs of the

weather, and guarding as far as possible against the injuries sustained

from storms of rain or hail.

-----

Footnote 1623:

Cf. Plat. De Legg. t. vii. p. 111. t. viii. p. 103.

Footnote 1624:

Xenoph. Œconom. xvi. 1, sqq.

Footnote 1625:

The sight of a rich and thriving neighbour operated likewise as a spur

to his industry:—

Εἰς ἕτερον γάρ τίς τε ἰδὼν ἔργοιο χατίζων

Πλούσιον ὅς σπεύδει μέν ἀρόμμεναι ἠδὲ φυτεύειν,

Οἶκον τ᾽ εὖ θέσθαι· ζηλοῖ δὲ τε γείτονα γείτων

Εἰς ἄφενον σπεύδοντ᾽ ἀγαθὴ δ᾽

Ἔρις ἥδε βροτοῖσι.

Hesiod. Opp. et Dies, 21, sqq.

-----

There was in circulation among the Greeks a small body of precepts,

addressed more especially to husbandmen, designed to promote the real

object of civilisation. Quaint, no doubt, and ineffably commonplace,

they will now appear, but they served, nevertheless, in early and rude

times, to soften the manners and regulate the conduct of the rustic

Hellenes. Who first began to collect and preserve them is, of course,

unknown; they are thickly sprinkled through the works of Hesiod,[1626]

and impart to them an air of moral dignity which relieves the monotony

that would otherwise result from a mere string of agricultural maxims.

The chief aim of the poet seems to be, to promote peace and good

neighbourhood, to multiply among the inhabitants of the fields occasions

of joining the “rough right hand,”[1627] to apply the sharp spur to

industry, and thus to augment the stores, and, along with them, the

contentment, of his native land. Be industrious, exclaims the poet, for

famine is the companion of the idle. Labour confers fertility on flocks

and herds, and is the parent of opulence. He who toils is beloved by

gods[1628] and men, while the idle hand is the object of their aversion.

The slothful man envies the prosperity of his neighbour; but glory is

the reward of virtue. Prudence heaps up that which profligacy

dissipates. Be hospitable to the stranger, for he who repels the

suppliant from his door is no less guilty than the adulterer, than the

despoiler of the orphan, or the wretch who blasphemes his aged parent on

the brink of the grave: of such men the end is miserable, when Zeus

rains down vengeance upon them in recompense for their evil actions. Be

mindful that thou offer up victims to the gods with pure hands and holy

thoughts,—to pour libations in their temples, adorn their altars, and

render them propitious to thee in all things. When about to ascend thy

couch to enjoy sweet sleep, and when the sacred light of the day-spring

first appears, omit not to demand of heaven a pure heart and a cheerful

mind, with the means of extending thy possessions, and protection from

loss. When thou makest a feast, invite thy friends and thy neighbours,

and in times of trouble they will run to thy assistance half-clad, while

thy relations will tarry to buckle on their girdles. Borrow of thy

neighbour, but, in repaying him, exceed rather than fall short of what

is his due. Rise betimes. Every little makes a mickle. Store is no sore.

Housed corn breaks no sleep. Drink largely the top and the bottom of the

jar; be sparing of the middle:[1629] it is niggardly to stint your

friends when the wine runs low. Do unto others as they do unto

you.—These seeds of morality are simple, as I have said, and far from

recondite; but they produced the warriors of Marathon and Platæa, and

preserved for ages the freedom and the independence of Greece.

-----

Footnote 1626:

Opp. et Dies, 298, sqq.

Footnote 1627:

Sch. Aristoph. Pac. 190.

Footnote 1628:

Καὶ τ᾽ ἐργαζόμενος πολὺ φίλτερος ἀθανάτοισιν.

Ἔσσεαι ἠδὲ βροτοῖς· μάλα γὰρ στυγέουσιν ἀεργούς.

Opp. et Dies. 309, seq.

Footnote 1629:

Cf. Plut. Sympos. vii. 3.

-----

The other branches of an Hellenic farmer’s studies comprehended

something like the elements of natural philosophy,—the influence of the

sun and moon, the rising and setting of the stars, the motion of the

winds, the generation and effects of dews, clouds, meteors, showers and

tempests, the origin of springs and fountains, and the migrations and

habits of birds and other animals. In addition to these things, it was

necessary that he should be acquainted with certain practices, prevalent

from time immemorial in his country, and, probably, deriving their

origin from ages beyond the utmost reach of tradition. The source of

these we usually denominate superstition, though it would, perhaps, be

more proper to regard them as the offspring of that lively and plastic

fancy which gave birth to poetry and art, and inclined its possessors to

create a sort of minor religion, based on a praiseworthy principle, but

developing itself chiefly in observances almost always minute and

trifling, and sometimes ridiculous. To describe all these at length

would be beside my present purpose, which only requires that I mention

by the way the more remarkable of those connected especially with

agriculture.

The knowledge of soil was called into play both in purchasing estates

and in appropriating their several parts to different kinds of culture.

According to their notions, which appear to have been founded on long

experience, and in most points, I believe, agree with those which still

prevail, a rich black mould, deep, friable, and porous,[1630] which

would resist equally the effects of rain and drought, was, for all

purposes, the best. Next to this they esteemed a yellow alluvial soil,

and that sweet warm ground which best suited vines, corn, and trees. The

red earth, also, they highly valued, except for timber.

Their rules for detecting the character and qualities of the soil appear

to have been judicious. Good land, they thought, might be known even

from its appearance, since in drought it cracks not too much, and during

heavy and continued showers becomes not miry, but suffers all the rain

to sink into its bosom. That earth they considered inferior which in

cold weather becomes baked, and is covered on the surface by a

shell-like incrustation. They judged, likewise, of the virtue of the

soil by the luxuriant or stunted character of its natural

productions:[1631] thus they augured favourably of those tracts of

country which were covered by vast and lofty timber-trees, while such as

produced only a dwarfed vegetation, consisting of meagre bushes,

scattered thickets, and hungry grass, they reckoned almost worthless.

-----

Footnote 1630:

Geop. ii. 9. In these rich loams, particularly on the banks of the

Stymphalian and Copaic lakes, wheat has been known to yield a return

of fifty-fold. Thiersch, Etat Act. de la Grèce. t. ii. p. 17.

Other spots, again, return thirty-fold. Sibth. in Walp. Mem. i. 60.

Footnote 1631:

The pitch-pine indicated a light and hungry soil; the cypress, a

clayey soil. Philost. Icon. ii. 9. p. 775.

-----

Not content with the testimony of the eye, some husbandmen were

accustomed to consult both the smell and the taste; for, digging a pit

of some depth, they took thence a small quantity of earth, from the

odour of which they drew an opinion favourable or otherwise. But to

render surety doubly sure, they then threw it into a vase, and poured on

it a quantity of potable water, which they afterwards tasted, inferring

from the flavour the fertility or barrenness of the soil. This was the

experiment most relied on; though many considered that soil sweet which

produced the basket-rush, the reed, the lotos, and the bramble. On some

occasions they employed another method, which was, to make a small

excavation, and then, throwing back the earth into the opening whence it

had been drawn, to observe whether or not it filled the whole

cavity:[1632] if it did so, or left a surplus, the soil was judged to be

excellent; if not, they regarded it as of little value. Soils possessing

saline qualities were shunned by the ancients, who carefully avoided

mingling salt with their manure, though lands of this description were

rightly thought to be well adapted to the cultivation of

palm-trees,[1633] which they produce in the greatest perfection,[1634]

as in Phœnicia, Egypt, and the country round Babylon.[1635]

-----

Footnote 1632:

Geop. ii. 11.

Footnote 1633:

The Grecian husbandman, therefore, when planting palm-trees in any

other than a sandy soil, sprinkled salt on the earth immediately

around. Theoph. Hist. Plant. i. 6. 2.

Footnote 1634:

Geop. ii. 10.

Footnote 1635:

Xenoph. Anab. ii. 3. 16. The doom-palm, generally, I believe, supposed

to be peculiar to Upper Egypt and the countries beyond the cataract,

was anciently cultivated also in Crete. Theoph. Hist. Plant. i. 6. 3.

-----

Another art in which the condition of the husbandman required him to be

well versed was that of discovering the signs of latent springs,[1636]

the existence of which it was necessary to ascertain before laying the

foundation of a new farm. The investigation was complicated, and carried

on in a variety of ways. First, and most obvious, was the inference

drawn from plants and the nature of the soil itself; for those grounds,

they thought, were intersected below by veins of water which bore upon

their surface certain tribes of grasses and herbs and bushes, as the

couch-grass, the broad-leaved plantain, the heliotrope, the red-grass,

the agnus-castus, the bramble, the horse-tail, or shave-grass, ivy,

bush-calamint, soft and slender reeds,[1637] maiden-hair, the melilot,

ditch-dock, cinquefoil, or five leaf-grass, broad-leaved bloodwort, the

rush, nightshade, mil-foil, colt’s-foot or foal’s-foot, trefoil or

pond-weed, and the black thistle. Spring-heads were always supposed to

lurk beneath fat and black loam, as, likewise, in a stony soil,

especially where the rocks are dark and of a ferruginous colour. But in

argillaceous districts, particularly where potter’s-clay abounds, or

where there are many pebbles and pumice-stones,[1638] they are of rare

occurrence.

-----

Footnote 1636:

Geop. ii. 4, sqq.

Footnote 1637:

Philost. Icon. ii. 9. p. 775.

Footnote 1638:

Spallanzani, in his scientific Travels in the Two Sicilies, describes

and explains the cause of the rarity of springs in volcanic countries.

In some districts among the roots of Ætna the female peasants are

compelled to travel ten miles, at certain seasons of the year, in

search of water, a jar of which costs, consequently, almost a day’s

journey. vol. i. p. 299, sqq. In another part of the same work he

investigates the origin of springs in the Æolian isles, which he

illustrates by the example of Stromboli. iv. 128. In this island there

are two fountains, one of slightly tepid water, at the foot of the

mountain, the other on its slope. “Je recontrai,” observes Monsieur

Dolomieu, “à moitié hauteur une source d’eau froide, douce, légère et

très bonne à boire, qui ne tarit jamais et qui est l’unique ressourse

des habitans lorsque leurs cîternes sont épuisées et lorsque les

chaleurs ont desséché une seconde source qui est au pied de la

montagne ce qui arrive tous les étés.” He then adds with reason:

“Cette petite fontaine dans ce lieu très élevé au milieu des cendres

volcaniques, est très remarquable, elle ne peut avoir son réservoir

que dans une pointe de montagne isolée, toute de sable et de pierres

poreuses, matières qui ne peuvent point retenir l’eau, puisqu’elles

sont perméables à la fumée.” Voyage aux Iles de Lipari, t. i. p. 120.

He then endeavours to account for its existence by evaporation. In the

island of Saline, among the same Æolian group, there is another

never-failing spring, which, as some years no rain falls in these

islands during the space of nine months, has greatly perplexed the

theories of naturalists. Spallanzani conceives, however, that the

phenomenon may be explained in the usual way: “It appears to me,” he

says, “extremely probable, that in the internal parts of an island

which, like this, is the work of fire, there may be immense caverns

that may be filled with water by the rains; and that in some of these

which are placed above the spring, the water may always continue at

nearly the same height.” Travels in the Two Sicilies, vol. iv. p. 136.

-----

To the above indications they were in most cases careful to add others.

Ascending ere sunrise to a higher level than the spot under examination,

they observed by the first rays and before the light thickened, whether

they could detect the presence of any exhalations, which were held

unerringly to indicate the presence of springs below. Sometimes

inquisition was made during the bright and clear noon, when the

subterraneous retreats of the Naiads were supposed in summer to be

betrayed by cloudlets of thin silvery vapour, and in the winter season

by curling threads of steam. In this way the natives of southern Africa

discover the existence of hidden fountains in the desert.[1639] Swarms

of gnats flitting hither and thither, or whirling round and ascending in

a column, were regarded as another sign.

-----

Footnote 1639:

Le Vaillant, t. viii. p. 162. Even in the southern provinces of

France, the discovery of hidden springs is an art of no mean

importance; and the persons who possess it are regarded as public

benefactors. Thus, as I learn from my friend M. Louis Froment, of the

department of the Lot, M. Paramelle, a curé having a living in that

part of the country, is held in high estimation on account of the

power he possesses of discovering the lurking retreats of

spring-heads. He is able, from a certain distance, and without the

least hesitation, to point out the source of living water, determine

the depth at which it is to be found, say, without ever falling into

error, what is the quantity and what the quality of the water. Without

seeking to penetrate the plan, of which he keeps the secret, his

countrymen avail themselves of the advantages offered to them; and the

inhabitants of one village, situated on a calcareous tableland, have

discovered, by the assistance of M. Paramelle, a source in their

market-place, whilst before they were compelled to seek water at a

distance of five miles.

-----

When not entirely satisfied by any of the above means, they had recourse

to the following experiment:[1640] sinking a pit to the depth of about

four feet and a half, they took a hemispherical pan or lead basin, and

having anointed it with oil, and fastened with wax a long flake of wool

to the bottom, placed it inverted in the pit. It was then covered with

earth about a foot deep, and left undisturbed during a whole night. On

its being taken forth in the morning, if the inside of the vessel were

covered thickly with globules, and the wool were dripping wet, it was

concluded there were springs beneath, the depth of which they calculated

from the scantiness or profusion of the moisture. A similar trial was

made with a sponge covered with reeds.

-----

Footnote 1640:

Geop. ii. 4.

-----

Since most streams and rivers take their rise in lofty table-lands or

mountains, which by the ancients were supposed to be richer in springs

in proportion to the number of their peaks, it would seem to follow,

that scarcely any country in Europe should be better supplied with water

than Greece. Experience, however, shows, that this in modern times is

not the fact, several rivers supposed to have been of great volume in

antiquity, having now dwindled into mere brooks, and innumerable

streamlets and fountains become altogether dry; on which account the

credit of Greek writers is often impugned, it being supposed that the

natural characteristics of the country must necessarily be invariable.

But this is an error. For the existence of springs and rivulets depends

less perhaps on the presence of mountains than on the prevalence of

forests, as Democritos[1641] long ago observed. Now, from a variety of

causes, still in active operation, the ridges and hills and lower

eminences of modern Greece have been almost completely denuded of trees,

along with which have necessarily disappeared the well-springs, and

runnels, and cascades, and rills, and mountain tarns, which anciently

shed beauty and fertility over the face of Hellas, whose highlands were

once so densely clad with woods[1642] that the peasants requiring a

short cut from one valley to another, were compelled to clear themselves

a pathway with the axe.[1643] To restore to Greece, therefore, its

waters, and the beauty and riches depending on them, the mountains must

be again forested, and severe restraint put on the wantonness of those

vagrant shepherds who constantly expose vast woods to the risk of entire

destruction for the sake of procuring more delicate grass for their

flocks.[1644]

-----

Footnote 1641:

Geop. ii. 6.

Footnote 1642:

Cf. Hesiod. Opp. et Dies, 233, where he speaks of swarms of wild bees

on the slopes of the mountains.

In another passage this poet describes the ravages and devastation of

a hurricane amid the fountain forests:

Μῆνα δὲ Ληναιῶνα, κάκ᾽ ἤματα, βουδόρα πάντα,

τοῦτον ἀλεύασθαι, καὶ πηγάδας, αἵτ ἐπὶ γαῖαν

πνεύσαντος Βορέαο δυσηλεγέες τελέθουσιν,

ὅστε διὰ Θρῄκης ἱπποτρόφου ἐυρέϊ πόντῳ

ἐμπνεύσας ὤρινε· μέμυκε δὲ γαῖα καὶ ὕλη.

πολλὰς δὲ δρῦς ὑψικόμους ἐλάτας τε παχείας

οὔρεος ἐν βήσσῃς πιλνᾷ χθονὶ πουλυβοτείρῃ

ἐμπίπτων, καὶ πᾶσα βοᾷ τότε νήριτος ὕλη.

Opp. et Dies, 504, sqq.

The pine and pitch trees, it is related by Theophrastus, were often

uprooted by the winds in Arcadia. Hist. Plant. iii. 6. 4.

Footnote 1643:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. iii. 3. 7. In all countries, small and great, the

progress of civilisation has been inimical to forests. Thus in the

little island of Stromboli, containing about a thousand inhabitants,

attempts were made towards the end of the eighteenth century to

enlarge the cultivable ground by clearing away the woods. Spallanzani,

Travels in the Two Sicilies, vol. iv. p. 126, seq. The difficulty of

extirpating trees is illustrated by Theophrastus who relates that, in

a spot near Pheneon in Arcadia, a well-wooded tract was overflowed by

the water and the trees destroyed. Next year, when the flood had

subsided and the mud dried, each kind of tree appeared in the

situation which it had formerly occupied. The willow, the elm, the

pine, and the fir, growing in its own place, doubtless from the roots

of the former trees. Hist. Plant. iii. 1. 2. Again: the Nessos, in the

territory of the Abderites, constantly changed its bed, and in the old

channels trees sprung up so rapidly that, in three years, they were so

many strips of forest. Id. iii. 1. 5.

Footnote 1644:

Thiersch, Etat Actuel de la Grèce. t. i. p. 276. It is remarked by

Theophrastus, however, that pine forests, being destroyed by fire,

shot up again, as happened in Lesbos, on a mountain near Pyrrha. Hist.

Plant. iii. 9. 4.

-----

In Attica,[1645] both fields and gardens were chiefly irrigated by means

of wells which, sometimes, in extremely long and dry summers, failed

entirely, thus causing a scarcity of vegetables.[1646] The water, we

find, was drawn up by precisely the same machinery as is still employed

for the purpose. The invention of these conveniences of primary

necessity having preceded the birth of tradition, has, by some writers,

been attributed to Danaos, who is supposed to have emigrated from Egypt

into Greece. Arriving, we are told, at Argos, he, upon the failure of

spontaneous fountains, taught the inhabitants to dig wells, in

consequence of which he was elected chief. But where was Danaos himself

to have learned this art? He is said to have been an Egyptian, and Egypt

is a country so entirely without springs, that two only exist within its

limits, and of these but one was known to the ancients. Of wells they

had none. Danaos could, therefore, if he was an Egyptian, have known

nothing of springs or wells; and, if he had such knowledge, he must have

come from some other land.[1647]

-----

Footnote 1645:

Cf. Chandler, i. p. 261. The apparatus now used in irrigation by the

Sciots exactly resembles that of the Egyptian Arabs. Id. i. 315.

Footnote 1646:

Demosth. Adv. Polycl. § 16. On the supply of water to Athens we

possess little positive information, though we cannot doubt that all

possible advantage was taken of those pure sources which are still

found in its neighbourhood. “In no country necessity was more likely

to have created the hydragogic art than in Attica; and we have

evidence of the attention bestowed by the Athenians upon their canals

and fountains in the time of Themistocles, as well as in that of

Alexander the Great.” Col. Leake, on some disputed points in the

Topography of Athens. Trans. Lit. Soc. iii. 189. Cf. Aristoph. Av.

Schol. 998. Plut. Themist. § 31. Arist. Polit. vi. 8. vii. 12. We

find, from Theophrastus, that there was in his time, an aqueduct in

the Lyceum with a number of plane trees growing near it. Theoph. Hist.

Plant. i. 7. 1.

Footnote 1647:

Mitford, i. 33, seq. In Bœotia, Babylonia, Egypt, and Cyrenaica,

the dew served instead of rain. Theoph. Hist. Plant. viii. 4. 6.

-----

Where there existed neither wells nor fountains, people were compelled

to depend on rain-water, collected and preserved in cisterns.[1648] For

this purpose troughs were in some farm-houses run along the eaves both

of the stables, barns, and sheep-cotes, as well as of the dwelling of

the family, while others used only that which ran from the last, the

roof of which was kept scrupulously clean. The water was conveyed

through wooden pipes[1649] to the cisterns, which appear to have been

frequently situated in the front court.[1650] Bad water they purified in

several ways: by casting into it a little coral powder,[1651] small

linen bags of bruised barley, or a quantity of laurel leaves, or by

pouring it into broad tubs and exposing it for a considerable time to

the action of the sun and air. When there happened to be about the farms

ponds of any magnitude, they introduced into them a number of eels or

river crabs, which opened the veins of the earth and destroyed leeches.

-----

Footnote 1648:

Λακκοὶ. Machon. ap. Athen. xiii. 43.

Footnote 1649:

Geop. ii. 7.

Footnote 1650:

Sir W. Hamilton, Acc. of Discov. at Pompeii, p. 13.

Footnote 1651:

Water was cooled by being suspended in vessels over the mouths of

wells; and sometimes boiled previously to render the process more

complete. For, according to the Peripatetics, πᾶν ὕδωρ προθερμανθὲν

ψύχεται μᾶλλον, ὥσπερ τὸ τοῖς βασιλεῦσι παρασκευαζόμενον, ὅταν ἑψηθῇ

μέχρι ζέσεως, περισωρεύουσι τῷ ἀγγείῳ χιόνα πολλὴν, καὶ γίνεται

ψυχρότερον. Plut. Sympos. vi. 4. 1.

-----

A scarcely less important branch of the farmer’s studies was that which

related to the weather and the general march of the seasons.[1652] Above

all things, it behoved him to observe diligently the rising and setting

of the sun and moon. He was, likewise, carefully to note the state of

the atmosphere at the disappearance of the Pleiades, since it was

expected to continue the same until the winter solstice, after which a

change sometimes immediately supervened, otherwise there was usually no

alteration till the vernal equinox.[1653] Another variation then took

place in the character of the weather, which afterwards remained fixed

till the rising of the Pleiades, undergoing successively fresh mutations

at the summer solstice and the autumnal equinox. According to their

observations, moreover, a rainy winter[1654] was followed by a dry and

raw spring, and the contrary; and a snowy winter by a year of abundance.

But as nature by no means steadily follows this course, exhibiting many

sudden and abrupt fluctuations, it was found necessary to subject her

restless phenomena to a more rigid scrutiny, in order that rules might

be obtained for foretelling the approach of rain, or tempests, or

droughts, or a continuance of fair weather. Of these some, possibly,

were founded on imperfect observation or casual coincidences, or a

fanciful linking of causes and effects; while others, we cannot doubt,

sprang from a practical familiarity with the subtler and more shifting

elements of natural philosophy.

-----

Footnote 1652:

Geop. i. 2–4. 11. Theophrast. De Signis Pluviarum et de Ventis,

_passim_. Our own agriculturists, also, were formerly much addicted to

these studies. Thus, “The oke apples, if broken in sunder about the

time of their withering, do foreshewe the sequel of the yeare, as the

expert Kentish husbandmen have observed, by the living things found in

them: as, if they find an ant, they foretell plentie of graine to

insue; if a whole worm, like a gentill or maggot, then they

prognosticate murren of beasts and cattle; if a spider, then (saie

they) we shall have a pestilence or some such like sickness to followe

amongst men. These things the learned, also, have observed and noted:

for Mathiolus, writing upon Dioscorides saith, that before they have

an hole through them, they conteine in them either a flie, a spider,

or a worme; if a flie, then warre insueth; if a creeping worme, then

scarcitie of victuals; if a running spider, then followeth great

sickness and mortalitie.” Gerrard, Herball, Third Book, c. 29. p.

1158. Cf. Lord Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum, 561.

Footnote 1653:

Cf. Hesiod, Opp. et Dies, 486, seq.

Footnote 1654:

Cf. Lord Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum, 675. 812.

-----

As nothing more obviously interests the husbandman than the seasonable

arrival and departure of rains, everything connected with them, however

remotely, was observed and treasured up with scrupulous accuracy. Of all

the circumstances pre-signifying their approach the most certain was

supposed to be the aspect of the morning; for if, before sunrise, beds

of purpurescent clouds[1655] stretched along the verge of the horizon,

rain was expected that day, or the day after the morrow. The same augury

they drew, though with less confidence, from the appearance of the

setting sun,[1656] especially if in winter or spring it went down

through an accumulation of clouds or with masses of dusky rack on the

left. Again, if, on rising, the sun looked pale, dull red, or

spotted;[1657] or, if, previously, its rays were seen streaming

upwards;[1658] or, if, immediately afterwards, a long band of clouds

extended beneath it, intersecting its descending beams; or if the orient

wore a sombre hue; or if piles of sable vapour towered into the welkin;

or if the clouds were scattered loosely over the sky like fleeces of

wool;[1659] or came waving up from the south in long sinuous streaks—the

“mares’ tails” of our nautical vocabulary—the husbandman reckoned with

certainty upon rain, floods, and tempestuous winds. Among the signs of

showers peculiar to the site of Athens may be reckoned these following:

if a rampart of white ground-fogs begirt at night the basis of Hymettos;

or, if its summits were capped with vapour;[1660] or, if troops of mists

settled in the hollow of the smaller mount, called the Springless; or,

if a single cloud rested on the fane of Zeus at Ægina.[1661] The violent

roaring of the sea upon the beach was the forerunner of a gale, and they

were enabled to conjecture from what quarter it was to blow, by the

movements of the waters, which retreated from the shore before a north

wind; while, at the approach of the sirocco, they were piled up higher

than usual against the cliffs. Elsewhere, in Attica, they supposed wet

weather to be foretold by the summits of Eubœa rising clear, sharp, and

unusually elevated through a dense floor of exhalations, which, when

they mounted and gathered in blowing weather about the peaks of

Caphareus,[1662] on the eastern shores of the island, presaged an

impending storm of five days’ continuance. But here these signs

concerned rather the mariner than the husbandman, since the cliffs that

stretched along this coast are rugged and precipitous, and the

approaches so dangerous that few vessels which are driven on it escape.

Scarcely are the crews able to save themselves, unless their bark happen

to be extremely light. Another portent of foul weather was the

apparition of a circle about the moon, while, by the double reflection

of its orb north and south, that luminary appeared to be multiplied into

three. At night, also, if the nubecula,[1663] called the Manger, in the

constellation of the Crab, shone less luminously, it betokened a similar

state of the atmosphere. A like inference[1664] was drawn when the moon

at three days old rose dusky; or, with blunt horns; or, with its rim, or

whole disk, red; or blotted with black spots; or encircled by two

halos.[1665]

-----

Footnote 1655:

Cf. Arato. Prognost. 102, sqq. But, on the other hand, “purus oriens,

atque non fervens, serenum diem nuntiat.” Plin. Hist. Nat. xviii. 78.

Aristot. Problem. xxvi. 8.

Footnote 1656:

The sun-sets of the Mediterranean exhibit, as most travellers will

have observed, a variety of gorgeous phenomena, which, as betokening

certain states of the atmosphere serve as so many admonitions to the

husbandman. The sun before going down “assumed,” observes Dr.

Chandler, “a variety of fantastic shapes. It was surrounded, first,

with a golden glory of great extent, and flamed upon the surface of

the sea in a long column of fire. The lower half of the orb soon after

emerged in the horizon, the other portion remaining very large and

red, with half of a smaller orb beneath it, and separate, but in the

same direction, the circular rim approaching the line of its diameter.

These two, by degrees, united, and then changed rapidly into different

figures, until the resemblance was that of a capacious punch-bowl

inverted. The rim of the bottom extending upward, and the body

lengthening below it, became a mushroom on a stalk with a round head.

It was next metamorphosed into a flaming caldron, of which the lid,

rising up, swelled nearly into an orb and vanished. The other portion

put on several uncircular forms, and, after many twinklings and faint

glimmerings, slowly disappeared, quite red, leaving the clouds hanging

over the dark rocks on the Barbary shore finely tinged with a vivid

bloody hue.” Travels, i. p. 4. Appearances similar, though of inferior

brilliance and variety, are sometimes witnessed in the Western

Hemisphere. Describing the beauties of an evening on the Canadian

shore, Sir R. H. Bonnycastle observes: “First, there was a double sun

by reflection, each disk equally distinct; afterwards, when the orb

reached the mark x, a solid body of light, equal in breadth with the

sun itself, but of great length from the shore, shot down on the sea,

and remained like a broad fiery golden column, or bar, until the black

high land hid the luminary itself.” The Canadas in 1841. v. i. p. 34.

Footnote 1657:

Ille ubi nascentem maculis variaverit ortum

Conditus in nubem, medioque refugerit orbe;

Suspecti tibi sint imbres.

Virg. Georg. i. 441, sqq.

Footnote 1658:

Plin. Hist. Nat. xviii. 78. Aratus, Prognost. 137, sqq.

Footnote 1659:

Cf. Plin. xviii. 82. “Si nubes ut vellera lanæ spargentur multæ ab

oriente, aquam in triduum præsagient;” and Virg. Georg, i. 397:

Tenuia nec lanæ per cœlum vellera ferri.

Footnote 1660:

If the Mounts Parnes and Brylessus appeared enveloped in clouds, the

circumstance was thought to foretel a tempest. Theoph. de Sign. Pluv.

iii. 6. Cf. Strabo. ix. 11. t. ii. p. 253.

Footnote 1661:

Pausan. ii. 30. 3. Pind. Nem. v. 10. Dissen.—Müll. Æginetica, § 5. p.

19.

Footnote 1662:

Dion. Chrysost. i. 222. Cf. Aristot. Prob. xxvi. 1.

Footnote 1663:

This is explained by Lord Bacon. “The upper regions of the air,” he

observes, “perceive the collection of the matter of tempest and wind

before the air here below. And, therefore, the observing of the

smaller stars is a sign of tempests following.” Sylva Sylvarum, 812.

Footnote 1664:

Similar observations have been made in most countries, as we find from

the signs of the weather collected by Erra Pater, and translated by

Lilly, Part iv. § 3–5.

Footnote 1665:

Cf. Seneca. Quæst. Nat. i. c. 2.

-----

The phenomena of thunder and lightning, likewise, instructed the

husbandman who was studious in the language of the heavens: thus, when

thunder was heard in winter or in the morning, it betokened wind; in the

evening or at noon, in summer, rain; when it lightened from every part

of the heavens, both. Falling stars[1666] likewise denoted wind or rain,

originating in that part of the heavens where they appeared.

Among our own rustics the whole philosophy of rainbows has been

compressed into a couple of distichs:

A rainbow at night

Is the shepherd’s delight.

A rainbow in the morning

Is the shepherd’s warning.

-----

Footnote 1666:

Aristot. Problem, xxvi. 24. Alexand. Aphrodis. Problem. i. 72. Plin.

xviii. 80. Virg. Georg. i. 365, sqq.

Sæpe etiam stellas, vento impendente, videbis

Præcipites cœlo labi, noctisque per umbram

Flammarum longos à tergo albescere tractus.

-----

And upon this subject,[1667] the peasants of Hellas had little more to

say; their opinion having been that, in proportion to the number of

rainbows, would be the fury and continuance of the showers with which

they were threatened.

-----

Footnote 1667:

On the effects of the rainbow the ancients held a curious opinion,

which Lord Bacon thus expounds:—“It hath been observed by the

ancients, that where a rainbow seemeth to hang over or to touch, there

breathed forth a sweet smell. The cause is, for that this happeneth

but in certain matters which have in themselves some sweetness, which

the gentle dew of the rainbow doth draw forth, and the like to soft

showers, for they also make the ground sweet, but none are so delicate

as the dew of the rainbow where it falleth.” Sylva Sylvarum. 832. His

Lordship here, as in many other places, adopts the explanation of the

Peripatetics while he seems to be himself assigning the cause of the

phenomenon. Aristotle (Problem. 12. 3) enters fully into the subject,

which appears to have been brought under the notice of philosophers by

the shepherds who had observed that when certain thickets had been

laid in ashes the passing of a rainbow over the spot caused a sweet

odour to exhale from it. The same fact is noticed by Theophrastus, De

Caus. Plant. 6. 17. 7. Cf. Plin. Hist. Nat. 12. 52. 21. 18. 2. 60. To

many among the older philosophers that comparatively rare phenomenon,

the lunar rainbow, was unknown. (Arist. Meteor. iii. 2: νύκτωρ δ᾽ ἀπὸ

σελήνης ὡς μὲν οἱ ἀρχαῖοι ᾢοντο οὐκ ἐγίγνετο·) but in the time of

Aristotle it had been observed, and the cause of its pearly whiteness

investigated. Cf. Meteorol. iii. 4. 5. Senec. Quæst. Nat. i. 2, sqq.

-----

Other signs of mutation in the atmosphere they discovered in almost

every part of nature; for example, when bubbles rose on the surface of a

river they looked for a fall of rain; as also when small land-birds were

seen drenching their plumage; when the crow was beheld washing his head

upon the rocky beach,[1668] or the raven flapping his wings, while with

his voice he imitated amidst his croaking the pattering of drops of

rain; when the peasant was awakened in the morning by the cry of the

passing crane,[1669] or the shrill note of the chaffinch within his

dwelling. Flights of island birds flocking to the continent,[1670]

preceded drought; as a number of jackdaws and ravens flying up and down,

and imitating the scream of the hawk, did rain. The incessant shrieks of

the screech-owl and the vehement cawing of the crow, heard during a

serene night, foretold the approach of storms. The barn-door fowl and

the house-dog also played the part of soothsayers, teaching their master

to dread impending storms by rolling themselves in the dust. Of similar

import was the flocking of geese with noise to their food, or the

skimming of swallows along the surface of the water.[1671] Again, when

troops of dolphins were seen rolling near the shore, or oxen licking

their fore-hoofs, or looking southwards, or, with a suspicious air,

snuffing the elements,[1672] or going bellowing to their stalls; when

wolves approached the homesteads; when flies bit sharp,[1673] or frogs

croaked vociferously, or the ruddock, or land-toad, crept into the

water; when the salamander lizard appeared, and the note of the

green-frog was heard in the trees, the rustic donned his capote, and

prepared, like Anaxagoras at Olympia,[1674] for a shower. The flight of

the storm-birds, kepphoi,[1675] was supposed to indicate a tempest from

the point of the heavens towards which they flew. When in bright and

windless weather clouds of cobwebs,[1676] floated through the air, the

husbandman anticipated a drenching for his fields, as also when earthen

pots and brass pans emitted sparks; when lamps spat; when the wick made

mushrooms;[1677] when a halo encircled its flame,[1678] or when the

flame itself was dusky. The housewife was forewarned of coming

hail-storms, generally from the north, by a profusion of bright sparks

appearing on the surface of her charcoal fire; when her feet swelled she

knew that the wind would blow from the south.[1679] Heaps of clouds like

burnished copper rising after rain in the west portended fine weather;

as did likewise the tops of lofty mountains, as Athos, Ossa, and

Olympos, appearing sharply defined against the sky; while an apparent

augmentation in the height of promontories and the number of islands

foreshowed wind.

-----

Footnote 1668:

Cf. Ælian. De Nat. Anim. vii. 7.

Footnote 1669:

Φράζεσθαι δ᾽, εὖτ᾽ ἂν γεράνου φωνὴν ἐπακούσῃς

ὑψόθεν ἐκ νεφέων ἐνιαύσια κεκληγυίης·

ἥτ᾽ ἀρότοιο τε σῆμα φέρει, καὶ χείματος ὥρην

δεικνύει ομβρηροῦ· κραδίην δ᾽ ἔδακ’ ἀνδρὸς ἀβούτεω.

Hesiod. Opp. et Dies, 448, sqq.

To the same purpose, Homer:—Il. γ. 3, sqq.

Ἠΰτε περ κλαγγὴ γεράνων πέλει οὐρανόθι πρὸ,

αἵτ᾽ ἐπεὶ οὖν χειμῶνα φύγον καὶ ἀθέσφατον ὄμβρον,

κλαγγῇ ταίγε πέτονται ἐπ’ Ὠκεανοῖο ῥοάων.

And Aristophanes:—(Av. 710, sqq.)

Πρῶτα μὲν ὥρας φαίνομεν ἡμεῖς ἦρος, χειμῶνος, ὀπώρας ·

Σπείρειν μὲν, ὅταν γέρανος κρώζουσ᾽ ἐς τὴν Λιβύην μεταχωρῇ,

καὶ πηδάλιον τότε ναυκλήρῳ φράζει κρεμάσαντι καθεύδειν.

Footnote 1670:

All birds which frequent the sea, more particularly those which fly

high, are observed to seek terra firma at the approach of foul

weather:—Ἀριστοτέλους ἀκούω λέγοντος, ὅτι ἄρα γέρανοι ἐκ τοὺς πελάγους

εἰς τὴν γῆν πετόμενοι, χειμῶνος ἀπειλὴν ἰσχουραὶ ὑποσημαίνουσι τῷ

συνιέντι. Ælian. De Nat. Anim. vii. 7. Before the great earthquake of

1783, which shook the whole of Calabria and destroyed the city of

Messina, the mews and other aquatic birds were observed to forsake the

sea and take refuge in the mountains. Spallanzani, Travels in the Two

Sicilies, vol. iv. p. 158.

Footnote 1671:

Aut arguta lacus circumvolitat hirundo. Virg. Georg. i. 377. “Hirundo

tam juxta aquam volitans, ut penna sæpe percutiat.” Plin. xviii. 87.

Footnote 1672:

Plin. xviii. 88. Virg. Georg. i. 375.—Ælian, De Nat. Anim. vii. 8,

describes the ox before rain snuffing the earth, and adds: πρόβατα δὲ

ἐρυττοντα ταῖς ὁπλαῖς τὴν γῆν, ἔοικε σημαίνειν χιεμῶνα.

Footnote 1673:

Cf. Ælian De Nat. Anim. viii. 8.

Footnote 1674:

Diog. Laert. i. 3. 5. Ælian (De Nat. Anim. vii. 8) relates a curious

anecdote of Hipparchos who, from some change in the goatskin cloak he

wore, likewise foretold a rain storm to the great admiration of Nero.

Footnote 1675:

Probably the storm-finch observed frequently on the wing flying along

the Ægean sea, particularly when it is troubled. Sibth. in Walp. Mem.

i. 76.

Footnote 1676:

Cf. Aristot. Problem. xxvii. 63, where he investigates the causes of

the phenomenon; and Plin. Nat. Hist. xi. 28.

Footnote 1677:

Vid. Aristoph. Vesp. 262. The Scholiast entertains a somewhat

different notion:—φασὶν ὅτι ὑετοῦ μέλλοντος γενέσθαι οἱ περὶ τὴν

θρυαλλίδα τοῦ λύχνου σπινθῆρες ἀποπηδῶσιν, οὓς μύκητας νῦν λέγει, ὡς

τοῦ λύχνου ἐναντιουμένου τῷ νοτερῷ ἀέρι· καὶ Ἄρατος “ἢ λύχνοιο μύκητες

ἐγείρονται περὶ μύξαν, νύκτα κατὰ νοτίην.”

Footnote 1678:

Aristot. Meteorol. iii. 4. Seneca, Quæst. Nat. i. 2.

Footnote 1679:

Cf. Aristot. Problem. xxvi. 17.

-----

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 on 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.

-----

Footnote 1680:

Geop. ii. 49. Illustrating the wretched condition of a tyrant dwelling

in the midst of a nation that abhors him, Plato draws the picture of a

man being in a remote part of the country with his wife and children,

surrounded by a gang of fifty or sixty slaves, with scarcely a free

neighbour at hand to whom, in case of necessity, he might fly. In what

terror, he says, must this man live, lest his slaves should set upon

and murder him, with all his family! De Repub. t. vi. p. 439.

Footnote 1681:

Carts were sometimes roofed with skins. Scheffer, De Re Vehic. p. 246,

seq. Justin, ii. 2.

Footnote 1682:

Theoph. Hist. Plant. v. 7. 6.

Footnote 1683:

Scheffer, De Re Vehic. p. 114.

Footnote 1684:

Pollux, x. 128. Goguet, Orig. des Lois, i. 189, seq. Pallad. i. 43.

Colum. ii. 2.

Footnote 1685:

Opp. et Dies, 467, seq. Vid. Gœttl. ad v. 431. Etym. Mag. 173, 16.

Poll. i. 252. The Syrians used a small plough, with which they turned

up extremely shallow furrows. Theoph. Hist. Plant. viii. 6. 3.

Footnote 1686:

Hesiod, Opp. et Dies, 435, seq.

-----

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

underwood or cutting down brakes, they went clad in hooded skin-cloaks,

leather gaiters, and long gloves.[1689]

-----

Footnote 1687:

Idem, 423, seq.

Footnote 1688:

Poll. x. 129. Pallad. i. 51. Brunckh. not. ad Aristoph. Pac. 567. Cf.

Eurip. Bacch. 344. Sch. Aristoph. Pac, 558, seq. 620. Plat. de Repub.

t. vi. p. 81. Artemid. Oneirocrit. ii. 24. p. 111. Lutet.

Footnote 1689:

Pallad. i. 43. Colum. i. 8.

-----

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.

-----

Footnote 1690:

Geop. ii. 21, seq. Theoph. Hist. Plant. vii. 5. 1. i. 7. 4. To

exemplify the importance of manure, it is remarked by this writer,

that manured corn ripens twenty days earlier than that which wants

this advantage, viii. 7. 7.

Footnote 1691:

Geop. ii. 21. 4. From a speech of the Earl of Radnor, in the House of

Lords, May 25, 1841, we learn that our own farmers have begun to make

experiments with this kind of manure on the lands of Great Britain,

and that ship-loads of bird’s dung have been imported for the purpose

from the Pacific. The rocks and smaller islands along the American

coast are sometimes white with this substance. Keppel, Life of Lord

Keppel, i. 48.

Footnote 1692:

Geop. xii. 4. 3. v. 26. 3.

-----

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 entirely 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]

-----

Footnote 1693:

Xenoph. Œconom. xx. 10. Cf. Artemid. Oneirocrit. ii. 26. p. 114.

Footnote 1694:

Geopon. ii. 22.

Footnote 1695:

The practice of mingling water with the manure was in great use among

the ancients, particularly in the island of Rhodes, in the cultivation

of the palm-trees. Theoph. Hist. Plant. i. 6. 3.

Footnote 1696:

Xenoph. Œconom. xvii. 10. Cf. Earl of Aberdeen, Walp. Mem. i. 2.50. In

such lands the farmers suffered their cattle to eat down the young

corn to prevent its too great luxuriance. Theoph. Hist. Plant. viii.

7. 3.

Footnote 1697:

Swinburne, Letters from the Courts of Europe, i. 144.

-----

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 not 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 possible, 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]

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Footnote 1698:

Cf. Xenoph. Œconom. xvi. 10, seq. Theoph. Hist. Plant. vi. 5. 1.

Footnote 1699:

Hesiod. Opp. et Dies, 469, seq.

Footnote 1700:

Geop. ii. 28.

Footnote 1701:

Geop. ii. 2.

Footnote 1702:

Hesiod. Opp. et Dies, 443, sqq.

Footnote 1703: