ng
IV. Of aviaries
V. a. for profit
b. for pleasure (including here the description of Varro's own aviary)
VI. Of pea-cocks
VII. Of pigeons
VIII. Of turtle doves
IX. Of poultry
X. Of geese
XI. Of ducks
XII. Of rabbits
XIII. Of game preserves
XIV. Of snails
XV. Of dormice
XVI. Of bees
XVII. Of fish ponds

INDEX.

ROMAN FARM MANAGEMENT

NOTE UPON THE ROMAN AGRONOMISTS

Quaecunque autem propter disciplinam ruris nostrorum temporum cum
priscis discrepant, non deterrere debent a lectione discentem. Nam
multo plura reperiuntur, apud veteres, quae nobis probanda sint,
quam quae repudianda.

COLUMELLA I, I.

The study of the Roman treatises on farm management is profitable to
the modern farmer however practical and scientific he may be. He will
not find in them any thing about bacteria and the "nodular hypothesis"
in respect of legumes, nor any thing about plant metabolism, nor even
any thing about the effects of creatinine on growth and absorption;
but, important and fascinating as are the illuminations of modern
science upon practical agriculture, the intelligent farmer with
imagination (every successful farmer has imagination, whether or not
he is intelligent) will find some thing quite as important to his
welfare in the body of Roman husbandry which has come down to us,
namely: a background for his daily routine, an appreciation that two
thousand years ago men were studying the same problems and solving
them by intelligent reasoning. Columella well says that in reading
the ancient writers we may find in them more to approve than to
disapprove, however much our new science may lead us to differ from
them in practice. The characteristics of the Roman methods of farm
management, viewed in the light of the present state of the art in
America, were thoroughness and patience. The Romans had learned many
things which we are now learning again, such as green manuring with
legumes, soiling, seed selection, the testing of soil for sourness,
intensive cultivation of a fallow as well as of a crop, conservative
rotation, the importance of live stock in a system of general farming,
the preservation of the chemical content of manure and the composting
of the rubbish of a farm, but they brought to their farming operations
some thing more which we have not altogether learned--the character
which made them a people of enduring achievement. Varro quotes one of
their proverbs "Romanus s