[Marcus Porcius Cato, “De agri cultura”, 160 BC.]
It is true that to obtain money by trade is sometimes more profitable, were it not so hazardous; and likewise money-lending, if it were as honourable. Our ancestors held this view and embodied it in their laws, which required that the thief be mulcted double and the usurer fourfold; how much less desirable a citizen they considered the usurer than the thief, one may judge from this. And when they would praise a worthy man their praise took this form: "good husbandman, good farmer"; one so praised was thought to have received the greatest commendation. The trader I consider to be an energetic man, and one bent on making money; but, as I said above, it is a dangerous career and one subject to disaster. On the other hand, it is from the farming class that the bravest men and the sturdiest soldiers come, their calling is most highly respected, their livelihood is most assured and is looked on with the least hostility, and those who are engaged in that pursuit are least inclined to be disaffected. And now, to come back to my subject, the above will serve as an introduction to what I have undertaken.
1 When you are thinking of acquiring a farm, keep in mind these points: that you be not over-eager in buying nor spare your pains in examining, and that you consider it not sufficient to go over it once. However often you go, a good piece of land will please you more at each visit. Notice how the neighbours keep up their places; if the district is good, they should be well kept. Go in and keep your eyes open, so that you may be able to find your way out. It should have a good climate, not subject to storms; the soil should be good, and naturally strong. If possible, it should lie at the foot of a mountain and face south; the situation should be healthful, there should be a good supply of labourers, it should be well watered, and near it there should be a flourishing town, or the sea, or a navigable stream, or a good and much travelled road. It should lie among those farms which do not often change owners; where those who have sold farms are sorry to have done so. It should be well furnished with buildings. Do not be hasty in despising the methods of management adopted by others. It will be better to purchase from an owner who is a good farmer and a good builder. When you reach the steading, observe whether there are numerous oil presses and wine vats; if there are not, you may infer that the amount of the yield is in proportion. The farm should be one of no great equipment, but should be well situated. See that it be equipped as economically as possible, and that the land be not extravagant. Remember that a farm is like a man — however great the income, if there is extravagance but little is left. If you ask me what is the best kind of farm, I should say: a hundred iugera of land, comprising all sorts of soils, and in a good situation; a vineyard comes first if it produces bountifully wine of a good quality; second, a watered garden; third, an osier-bed; fourth, an oliveyard; fifth, a meadow; sixth, grain land; seventh, a wood lot; eighth, an arbustum; ninth, a mast grove.
2 When the master arrives at the farmstead, after paying his respects to the god of the household, let him go over the whole farm, if possible, on the same day; if not, at least on the next. When he has learned the condition of the farm, what work has been accomplished and what remains to be done, let him call in his overseer the next day and inquire of him what part of the work has been completed, what has been left undone; whether what has been finished was done betimes, and whether it is possible to complete the rest; and what was the yield of wine, grain, and all other products. Having gone into this, he should make a calculation of the labourers and the time consumed. If the amount of work does not seem satisfactory, the overseer claims that he has done his best, but that the slaves have not been well, the weather has been bad, slaves have run away, he has had public work to do; when he has given these and many other excuses, call the overseer back to your estimate of the work done and the hands employed. If it has been a rainy season, remind him of the work that could have been done on rainy days: scrubbing and pitching wine vats, cleaning the farmstead, shifting grain, hauling out manure, making a manure pit, cleaning seed, mending old harness and making new; and that the hands ought to have mended their smocks and hoods. Remind him, also, that on feast days old ditches might have been cleaned, road work done, brambles cut, the garden spaded, a meadow cleared, faggots bundled, thorns rooted out, spelt ground, and general cleaning done. When the slaves were sick, such large rations should not have been issued. After this has been gone into calmly, give orders for the completion of what work remains; run over the cash accounts, grain accounts, and purchases of fodder; run over the wine accounts, the oil accounts — what has been sold, what collected, balance due, and what is left that is saleable; where security for an account should be taken, let it be taken; and let the supplies on hand be checked over. Give orders that whatever may be lacking for the current year be supplied; that what is superfluous be sold; that whatever work should be let out be let. Give directions as to what work you want done on the place, and what you want let out, and leave the directions in writing. Look over the live stock and hold a sale. Sell your oil, if the price is satisfactory, and sell the surplus of your wine and grain. Sell worn-out oxen, blemished cattle, blemished sheep, wool, hides, an old wagon, old tools, an old slave, a sickly slave, and whatever else is superfluous. The master should have the selling habit, not the buying habit.
3 In his youth the owner should devote his attention to planting. He should think a long time about building, but planting is a thing not to be thought about but done. When you reach the age of thirty-six you should build, if you have your land planted. In building, you should see that the steading does not lag behind the farm nor the farm behind the steading. It is well for the master to have a well-built barn and storage room and plenty of vats for oil and wine, so that he may hold his products for good prices; it will redound to his wealth, his self-respect, and his reputation. He should have good presses, so that the work may be done thoroughly. Let the olives be pressed immediately, to prevent the oil from spoiling. Remember that high winds come every year and are apt to beat off the olives; if you gather them at once and the presses are ready, there will be no loss on account of the storm, and the oil will be greener and better. If the olives remain too long on the ground or the floor they will spoil, and the oil will be rancid. Any sort of olive will produce a good and greener oil if it is pressed betimes. For an oliveyard of 120 iugera there should be two pressing equipments, if the trees are vigorous, thickly planted, and well cultivated. The mills should be stout and of different sizes, so that if the stones become worn you may change. Each should have its own leather ropes, six sets of hand bars, six double sets of pins, and leather belts. Greek blocks run on double ropes of Iberian broom; you can work more rapidly with eight pulleys above, and six below; if you wish to use wheels it will work more slowly but with less effort.
4 Have good stalls, stout pens, and latticed feed-racks. The rack bars should be a foot apart; if you make them in this way the cattle will not scatter their feed. Build your dwelling-house in accordance with your means. If you build substantially on a good farm, placing the house in a good situation, so that you can live comfortably in the country, you will like to visit it, and will do so oftener; the farm will improve, there will be less wrongdoing, and you will receive greater returns; the forehead is better than the hindhead. Be a good neighbor, and do not let your people commit offences. If you are popular in the neighbourhood it will be easier for you to sell your produce, easier to let out your work, easier to secure extra hands. If you build, the neighbours will help you with their work, their teams, and their materials; if trouble comes upon you, which God forbid, they will be glad to stand by you.
5 The following are the duties of the overseer:— He must show good management. The feast days must be observed. He must withhold his hands from another's goods and diligently preserve his own. He must settle disputes among the slaves; and if anyone commits an offence he must punish him properly in proportion to the fault. He must see that the servants are well provided for, and that they do not suffer from cold or hunger. Let him keep them busy with their work — he will more easily keep them from wrongdoing and meddling. If the overseer sets his face against wrongdoing, they will not do it; if he allows it, the master must not let him go unpunished. He must express his appreciation of good work, so that others may take pleasure in well-doing. The overseer must not be a gadabout, he must always be sober, and must not go out to dine. He must keep the servants busy, and see that the master's orders are carried out. He must not assume that he knows more than the master. He must consider the master's friends his own friends. He must pay heed to anyone to whom he has been bidden to listen. He must perform no religious rites, except on the occasion of the Compitalia at the cross-roads, or before the hearth. He must extend credit to no one without orders from the master, and must collect the loans made by the master. He must lend to no one seed-grain, fodder, spelt, wine, or oil. He must have two or three households, no more, from whom he borrows and to whom he lends. He must make up accounts with the master often. He must not hire the same day-labourer or servant or caretaker for longer than a day. He must not want to make any purchases without the knowledge of the master, nor want to keep anything hidden from the master. He must have no hanger-on. He must not consult a fortune-teller, or prophet, or diviner, or astrologer. He must not stint the seed for sowing, for that brings bad fortune. He must see to it that he knows how to perform all the operations of the farm, and actually does perform them often, but not to the point of becoming exhausted; by so doing he will learn what is in his servants' minds, and they will perform their work more contentedly. Also, he will be less disposed to gad about, will be in better health, and will enjoy his sleep more. He must be the first out of bed, the last to go to bed. Before then he must see that the farmstead is closed, that each one is asleep in his proper place, and that the stock have fodder.
See that the draft oxen are looked after with the greatest care, and be somewhat indulgent to the teamsters to make them look after their stock with more pleasure. See that you keep your ploughs and ploughshares in good condition. Be careful not to plough land which is cariosa or drive a cart over it, or turn cattle into it; if you are not careful about this, you will lose three years' crop of the land on which you have turned them. Litter the cattle and flocks carefully, and see that their hoofs are kept clean. Guard against the scab in flocks and herds; it is usually caused by under-feeding and exposure to wet weather. See that you carry out all farm operations betimes, for this is the way with farming: if you are late in doing one thing you will be late in doing everything. If bedding runs short, gather oak leaves and use them for bedding down sheep and cattle. See that you have a large dunghill; save the manure carefully, and when you carry it out, clean it of foreign matter and break it up. Autumn is the time to haul it out. During the autumn also dig trenches around the olive trees and manure them. Cut poplar, elm, and oak leaves betimes; store them before they are entirely dry, as fodder for sheep. Second-crop hay and after-math should also be stored dry. Sow turnips, forage crops, and lupines after the autumn rains.
6 This rule should be observed as to what you should plant in what places:— Grain should be sown in heavy, rich, treeless soil; and if this sort of soil is subject to fogs it should preferably be sown with rape, turnips, millet, and panic-grass. In heavy, warm soil plant olives — those for pickling, the long variety, the Sallentine, the orcites, the posea, the Sergian, the Colminian, the waxy-white; choose especially the varieties which are commonly agreed to be the best for these districts. Plant this variety of olives at intervals of twenty-five or thirty feet. Land which is suitable for olive planting is that which faces the west and is exposed to the sun; no other will be good. Plant the Licinian olive in colder and thinner soil. If you plant it in heavy or warm soil the yield will be worthless, the tree will exhaust itself in bearing, and a reddish scale will injure it. Around the borders of the farm and along the roads plant elms and some poplars, so that you may have leaves for the sheep and cattle; and the timber will be available if you need it. Wherever there is a river bank or wet ground, plant poplar cuttings and a reed thicket. The method of planting is as follows:— turn the ground with the mattock and then plant the eyes of the reed three feet apart. Plant there also the wild asparagus, so that it may produce asparagus; for a reed thicket goes well with the wild asparagus, because it is worked and burned over, and furnishes a shade when shade is needed. Plant Greek willows along the border of the thicket, so that you may have withes for tying up vines.
Choose soil for laying out a vineyard by the following rules:— In soil which is thought to be best adapted for grapes and which is exposed to the sun, plant the small Aminnian, the double eugeneum, and the small parti-coloured; in soil that is heavy or more subject to fogs plant the large Aminnian, the Murgentian, the Apician, and the Lucanian. The other varieties, and especially the hybrids, grow well anywhere.
7 It is especially desirable to have a plantation on a suburban farm, so that firewood and faggots may be sold, and also may be furnished for the master's use. On the same farm should be planted anything adapted to the soil, and several varieties of grapes, such as the small and large Aminnian and the Apician. Grapes are preserved in grape-pulp in jars; also they keep well in boiled wine, or must, or after-wine. You may hang up the hard-berried and the larger Aminnian and they will keep as well dried before the forge fire as when spread in the sun. Plant or ingraft all kinds of fruit — sparrow-apples, Scantian and Quirinian quinces, also other varieties for preserving, must-apples and pomegranates (the urine or dung of swine should be applied around the roots of these to serve as food for the fruit); of pears, the volema, the Anician frost-pears (these are excellent when preserved in boiled wine), the Tarentine, the must-pear, the gourd-pear, and as many other varieties as possible; of olives, the orcite and posea, which are excellent when preserved green in brine or bruised in mastic oil. When the orcites are black and dry, powder them with salt for five days; then shake off the salt, and spread them in the sun for two days, or pack them in boiled must without salt. Preserve sorbs in boiled must; or you may dry them; make them quite free from moisture. Preserve pears in the same way.
8 Plant mariscan figs in chalky, open soil. The African, Herculean, Saguntine, the winter variety, the black Tellanian with long pedicles, in soil which is richer or manured. Lay down a meadow, so that you may have a supply of hay — a water meadow if you have it, if not, a dry meadow. Near a town it is well to have a garden planted with all manner of vegetables, and all manner of flowers for garlands — Megarian bulbs, conjugulan myrtle, white and black myrtle, Delphian, Cyprian, and wild laurel, smooth nuts, such as Abellan, Praenestine, and Greek filberts. The suburban farm, and especially if it be the only one, should be laid out and planted as ingeniously as possible.
9 Osier-beds should be planted in damp, marshy, shady ground, near a stream. But be sure that the master will need them or that he can find a market for them. If you have a water supply, pay particular attention to water meadows; if not, have all the dry meadows possible. This is the sort of farm which it is profitable to make anywhere.
10 This is the proper equipment for an oliveyard of 240 iugera: An overseer, a housekeeper, 5 labourers, 3 teamsters, 1 muleteer, 1 swineherd, 1 shepherd — a total of 13 persons; 3 yoke of oxen, 3 pack-asses to carry manure, 1 ass for the mill, and 100 sheep; 5 complete oil-pressing equipments, 1 copper vessel holding 30 quadrantals, with copper cover, 3 iron hooks, 3 water-pots, 2 funnels, 1 copper vessel holding 5 quadrantals, with copper cover, 3 hooks, 1 small bowl, 2 oil jars, 1 jar holding 50 heminae (?), 1 water bucket, 1 basin, 1 small pot, 1 ewer, 1 platter, 1 chamber-vessel, 1 watering-pot, 1 ladle, 1 candlestick, 1 sextarius measure; 3 large carts, 6 ploughs and ploughshares, 3 yokes fitted with straps, 6 sets of ox harness; 1 harrow, 4 manure hampers, 3 manure baskets, 3 pack-saddles, 3 pads for the asses; tools: 8 forks, 8 hoes, 4 spades, 5 shovels, 2 four-toothed rakes, 8 scythes, 5 straw-hooks, 5 pruning-hooks, 3 axes, 3 wedges, 1 hand-mill, 2 tongs, 1 poker, 2 braziers; 100 oil-jars, 12 pots, 10 jars for holding grape pulp, 10 for holding amurca, 10 wine jars, 20 grain jars, 1 lupine vat, 10 large jars, 1 wash-tub, 1 bath-tub, 2 water-basins, several covers for jars and pots; 1 donkey-mill, 1 hand-mill, 1 Iberian mill, 3 collars and traces, 1 small table, 2 copper disks, 2 tables, 3 large benches, 1 bedroom stool, 3 stools, 4 chairs, 2 arm-chairs, 1 bed in the bedroom, 4 beds on cords, and 3 common beds; 1 wooden mortar, 1 fuller's mortar, 1 loom, 2 mortars, 4 pestles — one for beans, one for grain, one for seed, one for cracking kernels; 1 modius measure, 1 half-modius measure; 8 mattresses, 8 coverlets, 16 cushions, 10 table covers, 3 napkins, 6 servants' hoods.
This is the proper equipment for a vineyard of 100 iugera: An overseer, a housekeeper, 10 labourers, 1 teamster, 1 muleteer, 1 willow-worker, 1 swineherd — a total of 16 persons; 2 oxen, 2 draft donkeys, 1 for the mill; 3 complete presses, vats for holding five vintages of 800 cullei, 20 jars for holding grape pulp, 20 for grain, and the necessary covers and tops; 6 pots covered with Iberian broom, 4 amphorae of the same kind, 2 funnels, 3 wicker strainers, 3 strainers for removing the flower, 10 vessels for juice; 2 carts, 2 ploughs, 1 wagon yoke, 1 iugum vinarium, 1 donkey yoke; 1 copper disk, 1 mill harness, 1 copper vessel holding a culleus, 1 copper cover, 3 iron hooks, 1 copper boiler holding a culleus, 2 water pots, 1 watering-pot, 1 basin, 1 small pot, 1 wash-basin, 1 water-bucket, 1 platter, 1 ladle, 1 candlestick, 1 chamber-vessel, 4 beds, 1 bench, 2 tables, 1 small table, 1 clothes chest, 1 wardrobe, 6 long benches, 1 iron-bound modius measure, 1 half-modius measure, 1 wash-tub, 1 bath-tub, 1 lupine vat, 10 large pots; 2 complete sets of ox-harness, 3 of donkey-harness, 3 pack-saddles, 3 baskets for wine-lees, 3 donkey-mills, 1 hand-mill; tools: 5 rush-hooks, 6 tree-hooks, 3 pruning-hooks, 5 axes and 4 wedges, 2 ploughs, 10 forks, 6 spades, 4 shovels, 2 four-toothed rakes, 4 manure-hampers, 1 manure-basket; 40 grape-knives, 10 broom-hooks, 2 braziers, 2 tongs; 1 poker; 20 Amerine baskets, 40 planting-baskets or troughs, 40 wooden scoops, 2 trays, 4 mattresses, 4 coverlets, 6 cushions, 6 table covers, 3 napkins, 6 servants' hoods.
12 This is the necessary equipment for the pressing-room: For 5 vats, 5 mounted press-beams, with 3 spares; 5 windlasses with 1 spare; 5 leather ropes; 5 hoisting ropes, 5 cables; 10 pulleys; 5 bands; 5 posts for the press-beams to rest on; 3 large jars; 40 levers; 40 stout wooden pins to brace the anchor-posts if they spread, and 6 wedges; 5 mills, 10 small casks, 10 troughs, 10 wooden spades, 5 iron shovels.
13 The following equipment is needed for the pressing-room at the time of pressing: A pitcher, 1 copper vessel holding 5 quadrantals, 3 iron hooks, 1 copper disk, — millstones, 1 strainer, 1 sieve, 1 axe, 1 bench, 1 large wine-jar, 1 key for the pressing-room, 1 complete bed for two free workmen who act as watchmen to sleep on (while the third, who is a slave, should sleep with the labourers), — new and — old baskets, 1 net-cord, 1 cushion, — lanterns, 1 hide, 2 gridirons, 1 meat-rack, 1 ladder.
The following equipment is needed for the oil cellar: Oil jars and covers, 14 oil vats, 2 large and 2 small oil flasks, 3 copper ladles, 2 oil amphorae, 1 water-jar, 1 jar holding fifty heminae, 1 sextarius oil-measure, 1 pan, 2 funnels, 2 sponges, 2 earthenware pitchers, 2 half-amphora measures, 2 wooden ladles, 2 locks with bars for the cellar, 1 set of scales, 1 one‑hundred-pound weight, and other weights.
14 If you are contracting for the building of a new steading from the ground up, the contractor should be responsible for the following:— All walls as specified, of quarry-stone set in mortar, pillars of solid masonry, all necessary beams, sills, uprights, lintels, door-framing, supports, winter stables and summer feed racks for cattle, a horse stall, 2 quarters for servants, 3 meat-racks, a round table, 2 copper boilers, 10 coops, a fireplace, 1 main entrance and another at the option of the owner, windows, 10 two-foot lattices for the larger windows, 6 window-shutters, 3 benches, 5 stools, 2 looms, 1 small mortar for crushing wheat, 1 fuller's mortar, trimmings, and 2 presses. The owner will furnish the timber and necessary material for this and deliver it on the ground, and also 1 saw and 1 plumb-line (but the contractor will fell, hew, square, and finish the timber), stone, lime, sand, water, straw, and earth for making mortar. If the steading should be struck by lightning an expiatory prayer must be offered. The price of this work from an honest owner, who furnishes duly all necessary materials and pays conscientiously, one sesterce per tile. The roof will be reckoned as follows: On the basis of a whole tile, one which is one-fourth broken is counted two for one; all gutter tiles are counted each as two; and all joint-tiles each as four.
In a steading of stone and mortar groundwork, carry the foundation one foot above ground, the rest of the walls of brick; add the necessary lintels and trimmings. The rest of the specifications as for the house of rough stone set in mortar. The cost per tile will be one sesterce. The above prices are for a good owner, in a healthful situation. The cost of workmanship will depend upon the count. In an unwholesome situation, where summer work is impossible, the generous owner will add a fourth to the price.
15 Construct the enclosure walls of mortar, rough stone, and rubble (the owner furnishing all the materials) five feet high, 1½ feet thick, with a one-foot coping, 14 feet long, and let out the plastering. If he lets the walls of the steading by the hundred feet, that is, ten feet on every side, 5 libellae to the foot, and 10 victoriati for a strip one foot by ten. The owner shall build the foundation 1½ feet thick, and will furnish one modius of lime and two modii of sand for each linear foot.
16 The following are proper terms of a contract for burning lime on shares: The burner prepares the kiln, burns the lime, takes it from the kiln, and cuts the wood for the kiln. The owner furnishes the necessary stone and wood for the kiln.
17 Oak wood and also wood for vine props is always ripe for cutting at the time of the winter solstice. Other species which bear seed are ripe when the seeds are mature, while those which are seedless are ripe when they shed bark. The pine, because it has both green and ripe seed (such seed may be gathered from the cypress and the pine at any season) is ripe and ready at any season. The same tree has second-year cones from which the seed will fall, and first-year cones; when the latter are just beginning to open, they are ready for gathering. They begin to ripen at seed-time, and continue to ripen then for more than eight months. The first-year cones are green. The elm is fit for cutting a second time when the leaves fall.
18 If you wish to build a pressing-room with four vats facing each other, lay off the vats as follows: Anchor-posts 2 feet thick, 9 feet high, including tenons; 2 openings hollowed out 3½ feet long, 6 fingers wide, the bottom of the opening 1½ feet from the ground; 2 feet between anchor-post and wall; 1 foot between the two anchor-posts, and 16 feet straight to the first guide-posts; guide-posts 2 feet in diameter and 10 feet high, including the tenons; windlass 9 feet high, exclusive of mortice; press-beam 25 feet long, and the tongue on it 2½ long. Allow 30 feet of floor space for each pair of vats, with their conduits, and 20 feet for four mills, right and left. Allow 22 feet between the guide-posts of one press and those of the next for the levers. Allow 20 feet for the second set of vats facing them, from the last guide-post to the wall behind the anchor-posts. Total for the pressing-room with four vats, 66 feet by 52 feet. Between the walls, where you intend to mount the anchor-posts, make solid foundations 5 feet deep; cover the whole area 5 feet by 2½ feet with hard stones to a depth of 1½ feet; in this clear a place for two bolts, and fix the posts firmly in the stone with the bolt. Fill the interval between the two anchor-posts with oak, and pour lead over it. Let the head of the anchor-posts project six fingers, and cap it with an oak head so as to make a place for the posts to stand. Make a 5‑foot foundation and lay on it a flat stone, 2½ by 2½ by 1½ feet, and set the posts on it. Mount the corresponding posts in the same way. Above the anchor-posts and the guide-posts lay a horizontal beam, 2 feet by 1, 37 feet long, or two beams if you have no solid ones of that size. Under these beams, between the conduits and the end walls, in the position of the mills, run a beam 1½ feet square and 23½ feet long, or two pieces. On these rest the beams which stand above the main posts, and on these timbers build a wall and join it to the timber to give it sufficient weight. Where you are to build a seat for the press make a foundation 5 feet deep, 6 feet across; the seat and circular conduit 4½ feet in diameter. For the rest of the pavement make the foundation uniformly 2 feet deep. First pack down the bottom, and then spread successive half-foot layers of finely crushed stone and sanded lime. Construct the pavement as follows: After levelling, spread the first layer of gravel and sanded lime, and tamp it down; then spread a similar layer over it, sift lime with a sieve to the depth of two fingers, and then lay a pavement of dry potsherds. When completed, pack and rub down so as to have a smooth surface. All anchor-posts and guide-posts should be of oak or pine. If you wish to use shorter timbers, cut conduits on the outside; if this method is employed you will need 22‑foot timbers. Make the disk 4 feet in diameter, 6 fingers thick, constructed in sections in the Punic style with dovetailed oak. When you have fitted them together, fasten with pins of dogwood. Fit three crossbars to the disk, and fasten them with iron nails. Make the disk of elm or hazel; if you have both, lay them alternately.
19 For a wine press make the guide-posts and anchor-posts two feet higher, and above the holes in the anchor-posts, which should be one foot apart, make a place for one pin. Cut six openings, a half-foot square, in each of the windlass beams, placing the first a half-foot from the tenon, and the others at equal intervals. Set a hook in the middle of the windlass; the centre of the distance between the anchor-posts should correspond with the middle of the windlass, where the hook should be set, in order to have the press-beam exactly in the middle. When you set the tongue, measure from the centre of the press-beam so that it may be exactly midway between the anchor-posts; allow one thumb width play. The longest levers are 18 feet, the second size 16, the third 15; the hand-spikes are 12, 10, and 8 feet respectively.
20 Method of mounting the mill. The iron pivot which stands on the post must stand straight upright in the centre; it should be fastened firmly on all sides with willow wedges, and lead should be poured over it to prevent it from shaking; if it moves, take it out and fasten it again in the same way, so that it will not move. Make the sockets for the stones of orcite olive wood, and fasten them with lead, being careful to keep them tight. Fix them on the axle. Make one piece bushings, a thumb wide, flanged at both ends and double-nailed to keep them from falling out.
21 Make a ten-foot bar as thick as the sockets require, the mid-point to fit between the stones. Drill a hole in the middle as large as the iron pivot, so that the latter may be inserted in it. Insert here an iron casing to fit into the pivot and the bar. Make a hole in the bar, 4 finger-tips square and 3 finger-tips deep, and on the lower side of the bar fasten an iron plate of the breadth of the middle of the bar, perforated to fit over the pivot. After piercing the holes face them on both sides with metal plates, and bend back all four plates to the lower side of the bar; under these plates fasten thin metal strips on both sides, and fasten them together so that the holes in which the small handles are fitted may not spread. At the point where the bar enters the sockets be careful to face them on both sides with four trough-shaped iron plates and fasten them in the middle with nails. Above these plates pierce the bar on the outside for the bolt to fasten the stone. On top of the opening place a one-pound iron collar, 6 fingers wide, pierced on both sides to allow the bolt to enter. All this is for the purpose of preventing the bar from wearing on the stone. Make four rings to place around the stone to keep the bar and the bolt from wearing on the inside. Use elm or beech for the bar. The same smith should make and set the necessary iron work, at a cost of 60 sesterces; you can buy lead for the bar for 4 sesterces; wages of the workman who assembles and sets the sockets with lead, at least 8 sesterces, and the same man should adjust the mill. Total cost, 72 sesterces, exclusive of helpers.
22 The mill should be adjusted as follows: Level it so that the stones are set at equal distances from the rims and clearing the bottom of the mortar by a little finger's breadth; see that the stones do not rub the basin at all. There should be a finger's breadth between the stone and the column; if the space is greater and the stones are too far distant, wind a cord around the column tightly several times so as to fill in the excessive space. If the stones are set too deep and rub the bottom of the basin too much, place perforated wooden disks over the pivot and on the column and thus regulate the height. In the same way adjust the spread with wooden disks or iron rings until the stones fit accurately.
A mill is bought near Suessa for 400 sesterces and fifty pounds of oil. The cost of assembling is 60 sesterces, and the charge for transportation by oxen, with six days' wages of six men, drivers included, is 72 sesterces. The bar complete costs 72 sesterces, and there is a charge of 25 sesterces for oil; the total cost is 629 sesterces. At Pompeii one is bought complete for 384 sesterces, freight 280 sesterces. It is better to assemble and adjust on the ground, and this will cost 60 sesterces, making a total cost of 724 sesterces. If you are fitting old mills with stones, they should be 1 foot 3 fingers thick at the centre and 1 foot in diameter, with a half-foot square opening; alter them to fit the mill after they have been hauled. These can be bought at the yard of Rufrius for 180 sesterces, and fitted for 30 sesterces. The price is the same at Pompeii.
23 Have everything that is needed ready for the vintage; let vats be cleaned, baskets mended and pitched, necessary jars be pitched on rainy days; let hampers be made ready and mended, spelt be ground, salt fish be bought, and windfall olives be salted. Gather the inferior grapes for the sharp wine for the hands to drink, when the time comes. Divide the grapes gathered each day, after cleaning and drying, equally between the jars. If necessary, add to the new wine a fortieth part of must boiled down from untrod grapes, or a pound and a half of salt to the culleus. If you use marble dust,a add one pound to the culleus; mix this with must in a vessel and then pour into the jar. If you use resin, pulverize it thoroughly, three pounds to the culleus of must, place it in a basket, and suspend it in the jar of must; shake the basket often so that the resin may dissolve. When you use boiled must or marble dust or resin, stir frequently for twenty days and press down daily. Divide the must of the second pressing and add equally to each jar.
24 Directions for making Greek wine: Gather carefully well-ripened Apician grapes, and add to the culleus of must two quadrantals of old sea-water, or a modius of pure salt. If the latter is used, suspend it in a basket and let it dissolve in the must. If you wish to make a straw-coloured wine, take equal parts of yellow and Apician wine and add a thirtieth part of old boiled wine. Add a thirtieth part of concentrated must to any kind of blended wine.
25 When the grapes are ripe and gathered, let the first be kept for household use. See that they are not gathered until they are thoroughly ripe and dry, that the wine may not lose its reputation. Sift the fresh husks daily through a bed stretched on cords, or make a sieve for the purpose, and after treading place them in pitched jars or a pitched vat. Have this sealed tight, to feed to cattle through the winter; or if you wish you can soak some of it a while and you will have an after-wine for the hands to drink.
26 After the vintage is over order all the pressing utensils, hampers, baskets, ropes, props, and bars to be stored, each in its proper place. Have the jars containing wine wiped off twice a day, and see that you provide each jar with its own broom with which to wipe off the edges. Thirty days after the gathering, if the fermentation is complete, seal the jars. If you wish to draw off the wine from the lees, this will be the best time to do it.
27 Sow clover, vetch, fenugreek, beans and bitter-vetch as forage for cattle. Make a second and a third sowing of forage; then plant the other crops. Dig trenches in fallow ground for olives, elms, vines, and figs, and plant at seed-time. If the ground is dry, transplant olives at seed-time, prune the young olives which had been planted before, and trench the trees.
28 In transplanting olives, elms, figs, fruit trees, vines, pines, and cypresses, dig them up carefully, roots and all, with as much of their own soil as possible, and tie them up so that you can transport them. Have them carried in a box or basket. Be careful not to dig them up or transport them when the wind is blowing or when it is raining, for this is especially to be avoided. When you place them in the trench, bed them in top soil, spread dirt over them to the ends of the roots, trample it thoroughly, and pack with rammers and bars as firmly as possible; this is the most important thing. Before transplanting, cut off the tops of trees which are more than five fingers in diameter and smear the scars with dung and wrap them in leaves.
29 Divide your manure as follows: Haul one-half for the forage crops, and when you sow these, if this ground is planted with olives, trench and manure them at this time; then sow the forage crops. Add a fourth of the manure around the trenched olives when it is most needed, and cover this manure with soil. Save the last fourth for the meadows, and when most needed, as the west wind is blowing, haul it in the dark of the moon.
30 Feed the cattle elm, poplar, oak, and fig leaves as long as these last; and keep the sheep supplied with green leaves as long as you have them. Fold sheep on land which you intend to plant, and feed them leaves there until the forage is full grown. Save as carefully as possible the dry fodder which you have stored against winter, and remember how long winter lasts.
31 Let all necessary preparations be made for the olive harvest: Let ripe withes and willow branches be gathered betimes as material for making new baskets and mending old ones. Have dry oak, elm, nut, and fig sticks for making pins buried in the dunghill or in water, and make pins from them when needed. Have oak, ilex, laurel, and elm levers ready. Make the press-beam preferably of black hornbeam. Take out elm, pine, nut, and all other timber which you are felling, when the moon is on the wane, after noon, while there is no south wind. It is ready for cutting when the seed is ripe. Be careful not to haul it or work it in the wet. Timber that has no seed is ready for cutting when the bark peels. Do not handle any timber or vine when the south wind is blowing, unless you are compelled to do so.
32 See that you begin early to trim vines and trees. Layer vines into trenches, and, so far as possible, train them to grow vertically. The trees should be trimmed as follows: The branches which you leave should spread out, should be cut straight up, and should not be left too thick. The vines should be well knotted; and be especially careful not to bend them downward along any of the branches and not to tie them too tightly. See that the trees are well "wedded," and that a sufficient number of vines are planted for them; and wherever it is necessary let these be detached from the trees and buried in the ground, and two years later cut them off from the old stock.
33 Have the vineyard treated as follows: Tie a well-knotted vine straight up, keeping it from bending, and make it grow vertically, so far as you can. Leave fruit-bearing shoots and reserve stubs at proper intervals. Train the vines as high as possible and tie them firmly, but without choking them. Cultivate as follows: at seed-time trench the soil around the crown of the vine, and after pruning cultivate around it. Begin ploughing, and run straight furrows back and forth. Set out young vines as early as possible, then harrow; prune the old ones very slightly, or rather, if you need cuttings, layer the branches and take off the cuttings two years later. The proper time for cutting back the young plant is when it is strong. If there are gaps in the rows, run furrows and plant rooted cuttings, keep the furrows clear of shade, and cultivate frequently. In an old vineyard sow clover if the soil is lean (do not sow anything that will form a head), and around the roots apply manure, straw, grape dregs, or anything of the sort, to make it stronger. When the vine begins to form leaves, thin them. Tie up the young vines at frequent intervals to keep the stems from breaking, and when they begin to climb the props tie the tender branches loosely, and turn them so that they will grow vertically. When the grapes begin to turn, tie up the vines, strip the leaves so as to expose the grapes, and dig around the stocks.
Cut willows at the proper time, strip the bark, and tie them in tight bundles. Save the bark, and when you need it for the vines, steep some of it in water to make tapes. Save the withes for making baskets.
34 I return to the matter of planting. Plant the coldest and most humid ground first, and then the rest of the ground in turn to the warmest, which should come last. Do not work ground which is cariosa at all. Lupine will do well in soil that is reddish, and also in ground that is dark, or hard, or poor, or sandy, or not wet. Sow spelt preferably in soil that is chalky, or swampy, or red, or humid. Plant wheat in soil that is dry, free from weeds, and sunny.
35 Plant beans in strong soil which is protected from storms; vetch and fenugreek in places as clear of weeds as possible. Wheat and winter wheat should be sown on high, open ground, where the sun shines longest. Lentils should be planted in unfertile and reddish soil, free of weeds; barley in new ground, or ground which does not need to lie fallow. Spring wheat should be planted in ground in which you cannot ripen the regular variety, or in ground which, because of its strength, does not need to lie fallow. Plant turnips, kohlrabi seed, and radishes in land well manured or naturally strong.
36 Fertilizers for crops: Spread pigeon dung on meadow, garden, and field crops. Save carefully goat, sheep, cattle, and all other dung. Spread or pour amurca around trees, an amphora to the larger, an urn to the smaller, diluted with half its volume of water, after running a shallow trench around them.
37 Things which are harmful to crops: If you work land which is cariosa; chick peas are harmful, because they are torn out by the roots and are salty; barley, fenugreek, bitter vetch, and all crops which are pulled out by the roots, exhaust the soil. Do not bury olive seeds in land intended for crops.
Crops which fertilize land: Lupines, beans, and vetch.
You may make compost of straw, lupines, chaff, bean stalks, husks, and ilex and oak leaves. Pull up the elder and hemlock bushes which grow in the grain fields, and the high grass and sedge around the willow bed; use them for bedding down sheep, and decayed leaves for cattle. Separate part of the olive seeds and throw them into a pit, add water, and mix them thoroughly with a shovel. Make trenches around the olive trees and apply this mixture, adding also burned seeds. If a vine is unhealthy, cut its shoots into small bits and plough or spade them in around it.
The following is evening work for winter: Work up into vine poles and stakes the wood which was brought under cover the day before to dry out; make faggots; and clear out manure. Do not touch timber except in the dark of the moon, or in its last phase. The best time to take out timber which you dig up or fell is during the seven days following the full moon. Above all things, do not work, or fell, or, if you can avoid it, even touch timber which is wet, or frosted, or covered with dew. Hoe and weed grain twice, and strip the wild oats. Remove the twigs from the prunings of vines and trees, and make them into bundles; and heap the vine and fig sticks for the forge, and the split wood for the use of the master.
38 Build the lime-kiln ten feet across, twenty feet from top to bottom, sloping the sides in to a width of three feet at the top. If you burn with only one door, make a pit inside large enough to hold the ashes, so that it will not be necessary to clear them out. Be careful in the construction of the kiln; see that the grate covers the entire bottom of the kiln. If you burn with two doors there will be no need of a pit; when it becomes necessary to take out the ashes, clear through one door while the fire is in the other. Be careful to keep the fire burning constantly, and do not let it die down at night or at any other time. Charge the kiln only with good stone, as white and uniform as possible. In building the kiln, let the throat run straight down. When you have dug deep enough, make a bed for the kiln so as to give to it the greatest possible depth and the least exposure to the wind. If you lack a spot for building a kiln of sufficient depth, run up the top with brick, or face the top on the outside with field stone set in mortar. When it is fired, if the flame comes out at any point but the circular top, stop the orifice with mortar. Keep the wind, and especially the south wind, from reaching the door. The calcining of the stones at the top will show that the whole has calcined; also, the calcined stones at the bottom will settle, and the flame will be less smoky when it comes out.
If you cannot sell your firewood and faggots, and have no stone to burn for lime, make charcoal of the firewood, and burn in the field the faggots and brush you do not need. Where you have burned them plant poppies.
39 When the weather is bad and no other work can be done, clear out manure for the compost heap; clean thoroughly the ox stalls, sheep pens, barnyard, and farmstead; and mend wine-jars with lead, or hoop them with thoroughly dried oak wood. If you mend it carefully, or hoop it tightly, closing the cracks with cement and pitching it thoroughly, you can make any jar serve as a wine-jar. Make a cement for a wine-jar as follows: Take one pound of wax, one pound of resin, and two-thirds of a pound of sulphur, and mix in a new vessel. Add pulverized gypsum sufficient to make it of the consistency of a plaster, and mend the jar with it. To make the colour uniform after mending, mix two parts of crude chalk and one of lime, form into small bricks, bake in the oven, pulverize, and apply to the jar.
In rainy weather try to find something to do indoors. Clean up rather than be idle. Remember that even though work stops, expenses run on none the less.
40 The following work should be done in the spring: Trenches and furrows should be made, ground should be turned for the olive and vine nurseries, vines should be set out; elms, figs, fruit trees, and olives should be planted in rich, humid ground. Figs, olives, apples, pears, and vines should be grafted in the dark of the moon, after noon, when the south wind is not blowing. The following is a good method of grafting olives, figs, pears or apples: Cut the end of the branch you are going to graft, slope it a bit so that the water will run off, and in cutting be careful not to tear the bark. Get you a hard stick and sharpen the end, and split a Greek willow. Mix clay or chalk, a little sand, and cattle dung, and knead them thoroughly so as to make a very sticky mass. Take your split willow and tie it around the cut branch to keep the bark from splitting. When you have done this, drive the sharpened stick between the bark and the wood two finger-tips deep. Then take your shoot, whatever variety you wish to graft, and sharpen the end obliquely for a distance of two finger-tips; take out the dry stick which you have driven in and drive in the shoot you wish to graft. Fit bark to bark, and drive it in to the end of the slope. In the same way you may graft a second, a third, a fourth shoot, as many varieties as you please. Wrap the Greek willow thicker, smear the stock with the kneaded mixture three fingers deep, and cover the whole with ox-tongue, so that if it rains the water will not soak into the bark; this ox-tongue must be tied with bark to keep it from falling off. Finally, wrap it in straw and bind tightly, to keep the cold from injuring it.
41 Vine grafting may be done in the spring or when the vine flowers, the former time being best. Pears and apples may be grafted during the spring, for fifty days at the time of the summer solstice, and during the vintage; olives and figs should be grafted during the spring. Graft the vine as follows: Cut off the stem you are grafting, and split the middle through the pith; in it insert the sharpened shoots you are grafting, fitting pith to pith. A second method is: If the vines touch each other, cut the ends of a young shoot of each obliquely, and tie pith to pith with bark. A third method is: With an awl bore a hole through the vine which you are grafting, and fit tightly to the pith two vine shoots of whatever variety you wish, cut obliquely. Join pith to pith, and fit them into the perforation, one on each side. Have these shoots each two feet long; drop them to the ground and bend them back toward the vine stock, fastening the middle of the vine to the ground with forked sticks and covering with dirt. Smear all these with the kneaded mixture, tie them up and protect them in the way I have described for olives.
42 Another method of grafting figs and olives is: Remove with a knife the bark from any variety of fig or olive you wish, and take off a piece of bark containing a bud of any variety of fig you wish to graft. Apply it to the place you have cleared on the other variety, and make it fit. The bark should be three and a half fingers long and three fingers wide. Smear and protect as in the other operation.
43 Ditches, if the ground is swampy, should be dug trough-shaped, three feet wide at the top, four feet deep, sloping to a width of one foot one palm at the bottom. Blind them with stones, or lacking stones, with green willow sticks laid crosswise in layers; or, failing this, with bundles of brush. Then dig trenches three and a half feet deep, four feet wide, so placed that the water will run off from the trenches into the ditch; and so plant olives. Dig furrows and trenches for vines not less than two and a half feet deep and the same distance wide. If you wish the vines and olives which you have planted to grow fast, spade the furrows once a month, and dig around the foot of the olives every month until they are three years old. Treat other trees in the same way.
44 The trimming of the olive-yard should begin fifteen days before the vernal equinox; you can trim to advantage from this time for forty-five days. Follow this rule: If the land is very fertile, clear out all dead branches only and any broken by the wind; if it is not fertile, trim more closely and plough. Trim clean, and smooth the stems.
45 Cut olive slips for planting in trenches three feet long, and when you chop or cut them off, handle them carefully so as not to bruise the bark. Those which you intend to plant in the nursery should be cut one foot long, and planted in the following way: The bed should be turned with the trenching spade until the soil is finely divided and soft. When you set the slip, press it in the ground with the foot; and if it does not go deep enough, drive it in with a mallet or maul, but be careful not to break the bark in so doing. Do not first make a hole with a stick, in which to set out the slip. It will thrive better if you plant it so that it stands as it did on the tree. The slips are ready for transplanting at three years, when the bark turns. If you plant in trenches or furrows, plant in groups of three, and spread them apart. Do not let them project more than four finger-widths above the ground; or you may plant the eyes.
46 Make a nursery as follows: Choose the best, the most open, and the most highly fertilized land you have, with soil as nearly as possible like that into which you intend to transplant, and so situated that the slips will not have to be carried too far from the nursery. Turn this with a trench spade, clear of stones, build a stout enclosure, and plant in rows. Plant a slip every foot and a half in each direction, pressing into the ground with the foot; and if it does not go deep enough, drive it in with a mallet or maul. Let the slips project a finger above the ground, and smear the tops with cow dung, placing a mark by each; hoe often if you wish the slips to grow rapidly. Plant other slips in the same way.
47 The reed bed should be planted as follows: Plant the eyes three feet apart.
Use the same method for making and planting the vine nursery. Cut back the vine when it is two years old and transplant when it is three. If the ground on which you wish to plant the vine is to be used for pasture, see that the vine has been cut back three times before it is tied up to the tree; it should not be trained on the tree until it has five old knots. Plant a leek-bed every year, and you will have something to take off every year.
48 In making the fruit nursery follow the method used in making the olive nursery. Plant separately each variety of slip.
Turn the ground with a trench spade where you are going to plant cypress seed, and plant at the opening of spring. Make ridges five feet wide, add well-pulverized manure, hoe it in, and break the clods. Flatten the ridge, forming a shallow trough. Plant the seed as thickly as flax, sifting dirt a finger-breadth deep over it with a sieve. Level the ground with a board or the foot, and set forked stakes around the edges. Lay poles in the forks, and on these hang brush or fig-curtains, to keep off cold and sun. Make the covering high enough for a person to walk under. Hoe often, and clear off the weeds as soon as they begin to grow; for if you pull up the growth when it is hard, you will pull up the cypress with it.
Plant and cover pear and apple seed in the same way. use the same method for planting pine-nuts, but alter it slightly.
49 You may transplant an old vine if you wish, up to the thickness of your arm. First prune back so as to leave not more than two buds on each branch; clear the dirt thoroughly from the roots over their full length, and be careful not to injure them. Replace the vine just as it was, in a trench or furrow, cover with soil, and trample firmly. Plant, tie, and train it just as it was, and work it often.
50 Manure meadows at the opening of spring, in the dark of the moon. When the west wind begins to blow and you close the dry meadows to stock, clean them and dig up all noxious weeds by the roots.
After pruning vines, pile the wood and branches; prune fig trees moderately, and clear those in the vineyard to a good height, so that the vines will not climb them; make new nurseries and repair old ones. All this before you begin cultivating the vines.
As soon as the sacred feast has been offered and eaten, begin the spring ploughing, working first the driest spots and last the heaviest and wettest, provided they do not get hard in the meantime.
51 Layering of fruit trees and other trees: Press into the earth the scions which spring from the ground around the trees, elevating the tip so that it will take root. Then two years later dig up and transplant them. Fig, olive, pomegranate, quince, and all other fruit trees, laurel, myrtle, Praenestine nuts, and planes should all be layered, dug, and transplanted in the same way.
52 When you wish to layer more carefully you should use pots or baskets with holes in them, and these should be planted with the scion in the trench. To make them take root while on the tree, make a hole in the bottom of the pot or basket and push the branch which you wish to root through it. Fill the pot or basket with dirt, trample thoroughly, and leave on the tree. When it is two years old, cut off the branch below the basket; cut the basket down the side and through the bottom, or, if it is a pot, break it, and plant the branch in the trench with the basket or pot. Use the same method with a vine, cutting it off the next year and planting it with the basket. You can layer any variety you wish in this way.
53 Cut hay in season, and be careful not to wait too long. Harvest before the seed ripens, and store the best hay by itself for the oxen to eat during the spring ploughing, before you feed clover.
54 Feed for cattle should be prepared and fed as follows: When the sowing is over, gather the acorns and soak them in water. A half-modius of this should be fed each ox per day, though if the oxen are not working it will be better to let them forage; or feed a modius of the grape husks which you have stored in jars. During the day let them forage, and at night feed 25 pounds of hay a head; if you have no hay, feed ilex and ivy leaves. Store wheat and barley straw, husks of beans, of vetch, of lupines, and of all other crops. In storing litter, bring under cover that which has most leaves, sprinkle it with salt, and feed it instead of hay. When you begin feeding in spring, feed a modius of mast, or grape husks, or soaked lupine, and 15 pounds of hay. When clover is in season feed it first; pull it by hand and it will grow again, for if you cut it with the hook it will not. Continue to feed clover until it dries out, after which feed it in limited quantities; then feed vetch, then panic grass, and after this elm leaves. If you have poplar leaves, mix them with the elm to make the latter hold out; and failing elm, feed oak and fig leaves. There is nothing more profitable than to take good care of cattle. They should not be pastured except in winter, when they are not ploughing; for when they once eat green food they are always expecting it; and so they have to be muzzled to keep them from biting at the grass while ploughing.
55 Store firewood for the master's use on flooring, and cut olive sticks and roots and pile them out of doors.
56 Rations for the hands: Four modii of wheat in winter, and in summer four and a half for the field hands. The overseer, the housekeeper, the foreman, and the shepherd should receive three. The chain-gang should have a ration of four pounds of bread through the winter, increasing to five when they begin to work the vines, and dropping back to four when the figs ripen.
57 Wine ration for the hands: For three months following the vintage let them drink after-wine. In the fourth month issue a hemina a day, that is, 2½ congii a month; in the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth months a sextarius a day, that is, 5 congii a month; in the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth months 3 heminae a day, that is, an amphora a month. In addition, issue 3½ congii per person for the Saturnalia and the Compitalia. Total of wine for each person per year, 7 quadrantals; and an additional amount for the chain-gang proportioned to their work. Ten quadrantals of wine per person is not an excessive allowance for the year.
58 Relish for the hands: Store all the windfall olives you can, and later the mature olives which will yield very little oil. Issue them sparingly and make them last as long as possible. When they are used up, issue fish-pickle and vinegar, and a pint of oil a month per person. A modius of salt a year per person is sufficient.
59 Clothing allowance for the hands: A tunic 3½ feet long and a blanket every other year. When you issue the tunic or the blanket, first take up the old one and have patchwork made of it. A stout pair of wooden shoes should be issued every other year.
60 The following is a year's ration for a yoke of steers: 120 modii of lupines, or 240 of mast; 520 pounds of hay, and . . . of clover; 20 modii of beans; and 30 modii of vetch. See also that you sow enough vetch to allow some to go to seed. Make several sowings of forage crops.
61 What is good cultivation? Good ploughing. What next? Ploughing. What third? Manuring.
The planter who works his olives very often and very deep will plough up the very slender roots; while bad ploughing will cause the roots to come to the surface and grow too large, and the strength of the tree will waste into the roots. When you plough grain land do it well and at the proper season, and do not plough with an irregular furrow. The rest of the cultivation consists in hoeing often, taking up shoots carefully, and transplanting, at the proper time, as many roots as possible, with their soil. When you have covered the roots well, trample them firmly so that the water will not harm them. If one should ask what is the proper time for planting olives, I should say, at seed-time in dry ground, and in spring in rich ground.
62 You should have as many carts as you have teams, either of oxen, mules, or donkeys.
63 The press rope should be 55 feet long when stretched; there should be 60 feet of leather cordage for the cart, and 26 feet for reins; the yoke straps for the cart 18 feet, and the line 15; the yoke straps for the plough 16 feet and the line 8.
64 When the olives are ripe they should be gathered as soon as possible, and allowed to remain on the ground or the floor as short a time as possible, as they spoil on the ground or the floor. The gatherers want to have as many windfalls as possible, that there may be more of them to gather; and the pressers want them to lie on the floor a long time, so that they will soften and be easier to mill. Do not believe that the oil will be of greater quantity if they lie on the floor. The more quickly you work them up the better the results will be, and you will get more and better oil from a given quantity. Olives which have been long on the ground or the floor will yield less oil and of a poorer quality. If possible, draw off the oil twice a day, for the longer it remains on the amurca and the dregs, the worse the quality will be.
65 Observe the following directions in making green oil: Pick the olives off the ground as soon as possible, and if they are dirty, wash them and clean off leaves and dung. Mill them a day or two days after they have been gathered. Pick olives after they have turned black; the more acid the olives the better the oil will be, but the master will find it most profitable to make oil only from ripe olives. If frost has fallen on the olives, mill them three or four days after gathering. You may sprinkle such olives with salt, if you wish; and keep a high temperature in the pressing-room and the storeroom.
66 Duties of the watchman and the ladler: The watchman must keep a close watch on the store-room and the pressing-room, and must see that there is as little passing in and out as possible. He must see that the work is done as neatly and cleanly as possible, that copper vessels are not used, and that no seeds are crushed for oil; otherwise it will have a bad flavour. Place a lead cauldron in the basin into which the oil flows. As soon as the workmen press down the levers, at once the ladler must take off the oil with a shell very carefully, and without stopping, being careful not to take off the amurca. Pour the oil into the first vessel, then into the second, each time removing the dregs and the amurca. When you take the oil from the cauldron, skim off the amurca.
67 Further duties of the watchman: Those in the pressing-room must keep their vessels clean and see that the olives are thoroughly worked up and that they are well dried. They must not cut wood in the pressing-room. They must skim the oil frequently. He must give the workmen a sextarius of oil for each pressing, and what they need for the lamp. He must throw out the lees every day and keep cleaning the amurca until the oil reaches the last vat in the room. He must wipe off the baskets with a sponge, and change the vessel daily until the oil reaches the jar. He must be careful to see that no oil is pilfered from the pressing-room or the cellar.
68 When the vintage and the olive harvest are over, raise up the press beams, and hang up the mill ropes, cables, and cords on the meat-rack or the beam. Put the stones, pins, levers, rollers, baskets, hampers, grass baskets, ladders, props, and everything which will be needed again, each in its proper place.
69 To steep new oil jars: Fill them with amurca, maintaining a constant level, for seven days; then pour off the amurca and let the jars dry. When the drying is finished soak gum in water a day ahead, and the next day dilute it. Then heat the jar to a lower temperature than if you were to pitch it — it is sufficient for it to be warm, so heat it over a slow fire. When it is moderately warm, pour in the gum and rub it in. Four pounds of gum are enough for a jar holding 50 quadrantals, if you apply it properly.
70 Remedy for oxen: If you have reason to fear sickness, give the oxen before they get sick the following remedy: 3 grains of salt, 3 laurel leaves, 3 leek leaves, 3 spikes of leek, 3 of garlic, 3 grains of incense, 3 plants of Sabine herb, 3 leaves of rue, 3 stalks of bryony, 3 white beans, 3 live coals, and 3 pints of wine. You must gather, macerate, and administer all these while standing, and he who administers the remedy must be fasting. Administer to each ox for three days, and divide it in such a way that when you have administered three doses to each you will have used it all. See that the ox and the one who administers are both standing, and use a wooden vessel.
71 If an ox begins to sicken, administer at once one hen's egg raw, and make him swallow it whole. The next day macerate a head of leek with a hemina of wine, and make him drink it all. Macerate while standing, and administer in a wooden vessel. Both the ox and the one who administers must stand, and both be fasting.
72 To keep oxen from wearing down their feet, smear the bottom of their hoofs with melted pitch before you drive them anywhere on a road.
73 Give the cattle medicine every year when the grapes begin to change colour, to keep them well. When you see a snake skin, pick it up and put it away, so that you will not have to hunt for one when you need it. Macerate this skin, spelt, salt, and thyme with wine, and give it to all the cattle to drink. See that the cattle always have good, clear water to drink in summer-time; it is important for their health.
74 Recipe for kneaded bread: Wash your hands and a bowl thoroughly. Pour meal into the bowl, add water gradually, and knead thoroughly. When it is well kneaded, roll out and bake under a crock.
75 Recipe for libum: Bray 2 pounds of cheese thoroughly in a mortar; when it is thoroughly macerated, add 1 pound of wheat flour, or, if you wish the cake to be more dainty, ½ pound of fine flour, and mix thoroughly with the cheese. Add 1 egg, and work the whole well. Pat out a loaf, place on leaves, and bake slowly on a warm hearth under a crock.
76 Recipe for placenta: Materials, 2 pounds of wheat flour for the crust, 4 pounds of flour and 2 pounds of prime groats for the tracta. Soak the groats in water, and when it becomes quite soft pour into a clean bowl, drain well, and knead with the hand; when it is thoroughly kneaded, work in the 4 pounds of flour gradually. From this dough make the tracta, and spread them out in a basket where they can dry; and when they are dry arrange them evenly. Treat each tractum as follows: After kneading, brush them with an oiled cloth, wipe them all over and coat with oil. When the tracta are moulded, heat thoroughly the hearth where you are to bake, and the crock. Then moisten the 2 pounds of flour, knead, and make of it a thin lower crust. Soak 14 pounds of sheep's cheese (sweet and quite fresh) in water and macerate, changing the water three times. Take out a small quantity at a time, squeeze out the water thoroughly with the hands, and when it is quite dry place it in a bowl. When you have dried out the cheese completely, knead it in a clean bowl by hand, and make it as smooth as possible. Then take a clean flour sifter and force the cheese through it into the bowl. Add 4½ pounds of fine honey, and mix it thoroughly with the cheese. Spread the crust on a clean board, one foot wide, on oiled bay leaves, and form the placenta as follows: Place a first layer of separate tracta over the whole crust, cover it with the mixture from the bowl, add the tracta one by one, covering each layer until you have used up all the cheese and honey. On the top place single tracta, and then fold over the crust and prepare the hearth . . . then place the placenta, cover with a hot crock, and heap coals on top and around. See that it bakes thoroughly and slowly, uncovering two or three times to examine it. When it is done, remove and spread with honey. This will make a half-modius cake.
77 Recipe for spira: For the quantity desired do everything in proportion just as for the placenta, except that you shape it differently. Cover the tracta on the crust thickly with honey; then draw out like a rope and so place it on the crust, filling it closely with plain tracta. Do everything else as in the case of the placenta, and so bake.
78 Recipe for scriblita: Follow the same directions with respect to crust, tracta, and cheese, as for the placenta, but without honey.
79 Recipe for globi: Mix the cheese and spelt in the same way, sufficient to make the number desired. Pour lard into a hot copper vessel, and fry one or two at a time, turning them frequently with two rods, and remove when done. Spread with honey, sprinkle with poppy-seed, and serve.
80 Make the enyctum the same way as the globus, except that you use a vessel with a hole in the bottom; press it through this hole into boiling lard, and shape it like the spira, coiling and keeping it in place with two rods. Spread with honey and glaze while moderately warm. Serve with honey or with mulsum.
81 The erneum is made in the same way as the placenta, and has the same ingredients. Mix it in a trough, pour into an earthenware jar, plunge into a copper pot full of hot water, and boil over the fire. When it is done, break the jar and serve.
82 The spaerita is made in the same way as the spira, except that you shape it as follows: Mould balls as large as the fist, of tracta, cheese, and honey; arrange them on the crust as closely as in the spira, and bake in the same way.
83 Perform the vow for the health of the cattle as follows: Make an offering to Mars Silvanus in the forest during the daytime for each head of cattle: 3 pounds of meal, 4½ pounds of bacon, 4½ pounds of meat, and 3 pints of wine. You may place the viands in one vessel, and the wine likewise in one vessel. Either a slave or a free man may make this offering. After the ceremony is over, consume the offering on the spot at once. A woman may not take part in this offering or see how it is performed. You may vow the vow every year if you wish.
84 Recipe for the savillum: Take ½ pound of flour, 2½ pounds of cheese, and mix together as for the libum; add ¼ pound of honey and 1 egg. Grease an earthenware dish with oil. When you have mixed thoroughly, pour into a dish and cover with a crock. See that you bake the centre thoroughly, for it is deepest there. When it is done, remove the dish, cover with honey, sprinkle with poppy-seed, place back under the crock for a while, then remove from the fire. Serve in the dish, with a spoon.
85 Recipe for Punic porridge: Soak a pound of groats in water until it is quite soft. Pour it into a clean bowl, add 3 pounds of fresh cheese, ½ pound of honey, and 1 egg, and mix the whole thoroughly; turn into a new pot.
86 Recipe for wheat pap: Pour ½ pound of clean wheat into a clean bowl, wash well, remove the husk thoroughly, and clean well. Pour into a pot with pure water and boil. When done, add milk slowly until it makes a thick cream.
87 Recipe for starch: Clean hard wheat thoroughly, pour into a trough, and add water twice a day. On the tenth day drain off the water, squeeze thoroughly, mix well in a clean tray until it is of the consistency of wine-dregs. Place some of this in a new linen bag and squeeze out the creamy substance into a new pan or bowl. Treat the whole mass in the same way, and knead again. Place the pan in the sun and let it dry; then place in a new bowl and cook with milk.
88 Recipe for bleaching salt: Break off the neck of a clean amphora, fill with clear water, and place in the sun. Suspend in it a basket filled with common salt and shake and renew from time to time. Do this daily several times a day until the salt ceases to dissolve for two days. You can find when it is saturated by this test: place a small dried fish or an egg in it, and if it floats you have a brine strong enough to pickle meat or cheese or salted fish. Place this brine in flat vessels or in pans and expose it to sun. Keep it in the sun until it solidifies, and you will have a pure salt. In cloudy weather or at night put it under cover, but expose it to the sun every day when there is sunshine.
89 To cram hens or geese: Shut up young hens which are beginning to lay; make pellets of moist flour or barley-meal, soak in water, and push into the mouth. Increase the amount daily, judging from the appetite the amount that is sufficient. Cram twice a day, and give water at noon, but do not place water before them for more than one hour. Feed a goose the same way, except that you let it drink first, and give water and food twice a day.
90 To cram squabs: After catching the squab feed it first boiled and toasted beans, blowing them from your mouth into its mouth, and water the same way; do this for seven days. Then clean crushed beans and spelt; let one-third the quantity of beans come to a boil, then pour in the spelt, keeping it clean, and boil thoroughly. When you have turned it out of the pot, knead it thoroughly, after greasing the hand with oil — a small quantity first, then more — greasing and kneading until you can make pellets. Feed the food in moderate quantities, after soaking it.
91 To make a threshing-floor: Turn the soil for the floor and pour amurca over it thickly, letting it soak in. Then break up the clods carefully, level the ground, and pack it with rammers; then cover again with amurca and let it dry. If you build in this way the ants will not injure it, and weeds will not grow.
92 To keep weevils and mice from injuring grain, make a slime of amurca with a little chaff added, leaving it quite thin and working thoroughly. Cover the whole granary with the thick slime, and then add a coat of amurca over the whole. After it has dried, store cooled grain there, and the weevils will not injure it.
93 If an olive tree is sterile, trench it and wrap it with straw. Make a mixture of equal parts of amurca and water and pour it around the tree; an urna is sufficient for a large tree, and a proportionate quantity for the smaller trees. If you do the same thing for bearing trees they will be even more productive; do not wrap these with straw.
94 To make fig trees retain their fruit, do everything as for the olive, and in addition bank them deep in early spring. If you do this the fruit will not drop prematurely, the trees will not be scaly, and they will be much more productive.
95 To keep caterpillars off the vines: Strain stored amurca and pour 2 congii into a copper vessel; heat over a gentle fire, stirring constantly with a stick until it reaches the consistency of honey. Take one-third sextarius of bitumen, and one-fourth sextarius of sulphur, pulverize each in a mortar separately, and add in very small quantities to the warm amurca, at the same time stirring with a stick, and let it boil again in the open; for if you boil it under cover it will blaze up when the mixture of bitumen and sulphur is added. When it reaches the consistency of glue let it cool. Apply this around the trunk and under the branches, and caterpillars will not appear.
96 To keep scab from sheep; Take equal parts of old strained amurca, water in which lupines have been boiled, and dregs of good wine, and mix all together. After shearing, smear the whole body with this, and let them sweat two or three days. Then wash them in the sea, or, if you have no sea-water, make a brine and wash them in it. If you do this as directed, they will not have the scab, will bear more wool and of better quality, and ticks will not bother them. Use the same remedy for all quadrupeds if they have the scab.
97 Grease the axle, belts, shoes, and hides with boiled amurca; you will make them all better.
98 To protect clothing from moths: Boil amurca down to one-half its volume and rub it over the bottom, the outside, the feet, and the corners of the chest. After it is dry, store the clothing and the moths will not attack it. Also, if you rub it over the whole surface of wooden furniture it will prevent decay, and the article when rubbed will have a higher polish. You may also use it as a polish for any kind of copper vessel, after cleaning the article thoroughly. After applying the amurca, rub the vessel when it is to be used; it will have a lustre, and will be protected from rust.
99 If you wish to keep dried figs from spoiling, place them in an earthenware vessel and coat this with boiled amurca.
100 If you intend to store oil in a new jar, first wash down the jar with crude amurca, shaking for a long time so that it may soak up the amurca thoroughly. If you do this, the jar will not soak up the oil, it will make the oil better, and the jar itself will be stronger.
101 To preserve myrtle or any other twigs with the berries, or fig branches with the leaves, tie them together into bundles and plunge them into amurca until they are covered. But the fruit to be preserved should be picked a little before it is ripe, and the vessel in which it is stored should be sealed tight.
102 When a serpent has bitten an ox or any other quadruped, macerate an acetabulum of fennel flower, which the physicians call smyrnaeum, in a hemina of old wine. Administer through the nostrils, and apply swine's dung to the wound itself. Treat a person in the same way if occasion arises.
103 To keep cattle well and strong, and to increase the appetite of those which are off their feed, sprinkle the feed which you give with amurca. Feed in small quantities at first to let them grow accustomed to it, and then increase. Give them less often a draught of equal parts of amurca and water. Do this every fourth or fifth day. This treatment will keep them in better condition, disease will stay away from them.
104 Wine for the hands to drink through the winter: Pour into a jar 10 quadrantals of must, 2 quadrantals of sharp vinegar, 2 quadrantals of boiled must, 50 quadrantals of fresh water. Stir with a stick thrice a day for five consecutive days. Then add 64 sextarii of old sea-water, cover the jar, and seal ten days later. This wine will last you until the summer solstice; whatever is left over after the solstice will be a very sharp and excellent vinegar.
105 If your place is far from the sea, you may use this recipe for Greek wine: Pour 20 quadrantals of must into a copper or lead boiler and heat. As soon as the wine boils, remove the fire; and when the wine has cooled, pour into a jar holding 40 quadrantals. Pour 1 modius of salt and 1 quadrantal of fresh water into a separate vessel, and let a brine be made; and when the brine is made pour it into the jar. Pound rush and calamus in a mortar to make a sufficient quantity, and pour 1 sextarius into the jar to give it an odour. Thirty days later seal the jar, and rack off into amphorae in the spring. Let it stand for two years in the sun, then bring it under cover. This wine will not be inferior to the Coan.
106 Preparation of sea-water: Take 1 quadrantal of water from the deep sea where no fresh water comes; parch 1½ pounds of salt, add it, and stir with a rod until a boiled hen's egg will float; then stop the stirring. Add 2 congii of old wine, either Aminnian or ordinary white, and after mixing thoroughly pour into a pitched jar and seal. If you wish to make a larger quantity of sea-water, use a proportionate amount of the same materials.
107 To coat the brim of wine jars, so as to give a good odour and to keep any blemish from the wine: Put 6 congii of the best boiled must in a copper or lead vessel; take a hemina of dry crushed iris and 5 pounds of fragrant Campanian melilot, grind very fine with the iris, and pass through a sieve into the must. Boil the whole over a slow fire of faggots, stirring constantly to prevent scorching; continue the boiling, until you have boiled off a half. When it has cooled, pour into a sweet smelling jar covered with pitch, seal, and use for the brims of wine jars.
108 If you wish to determine whether wine will keep or not, place in a new vessel half an acetabulum of large pearl barley and a sextarius of the wine you wish to test; place it on the coals and bring it to a boil two or three times; then strain, throw away the barley, and place the wine in the open. Taste it the next morning. If it is sweet, you may know that the wine in the jar will keep; but if it is slightly acid it will not.
109 To make sharp wine mild and sweet: Make 4 pounds of flour from vetch, and mix 4 cyathi of wine with boiled must; make into small bricks and let them soak for a night and a day; then dissolve with the wine in the jar, and seal sixty days later. The wine will be mild and sweet, of good colour and of good odour.
110 To remove a bad odour from wine: Heat a thick clean piece of roofing-tile thoroughly in the fire. When it is hot coat it with pitch, attach a string, lower it gently to the bottom of the jar, and leave the jar sealed for two days. If the bad odour is removed the first time, that will be best; if not, repeat until the bad odour is removed.
111 If you wish to determine whether wine has been watered or not: Make a vessel of ivy wood and put in it some of the wine you think has water in it. If it contains water, the wine will soak through and the water will remain, for a vessel of ivy wood will not hold wine.
112 Recipe for Coan wine: Take sea-water at a distance from the shore, where fresh water does not come, when the sea is calm and no wind is blowing, seventy days before vintage. After taking it from the sea, pour into a jar, filling it not fully but to within five quadrantals of the top. Cover the jar, leaving space for air, and thirty days later pour it slowly and carefully into another jar, leaving the sediment in the bottom. Twenty days later pour in the same way into a third jar, and leave until vintage. Allow the grapes from which you intend to make the Coan wine to remain on the vine, let them ripen thoroughly, and pick them when they have dried after a rain. Place them in the sun for two days, or in the open for three days, unless it is raining, in which case put them under cover in baskets; clear out any berries which have rotted. Then take the above-mentioned sea-water and pour 10 quadrantals into a jar holding 50; then pick the berries of ordinary grapes from the stem into the jar until you have filled it. Press the berries with the hand so that they may soak in the sea-water. When the jar is full, cover it, leaving space for air, and three days later remove the grapes from the jar, tread out in the pressing-room, and store the wine in jars which have been washed clean and dried.
113 To impart a sweet aroma: Take a tile covered with pitch, spread over it warm ashes, and cover with aromatic herbs, rush and the palm which the perfumers keep, place in a jar and cover, so that the odour will not escape before you pour in the wine. Do this the day before you wish to pour in the wine. Pour the wine into the jars from the vat immediately, let them stand covered for fifteen days before sealing, leaving space for air, and then seal. Forty days later pour off into amphorae, and add one sextarius of boiled must to the amphora. Do not fill the amphorae higher than the bottom of the handles, and place them in the sun where there is no grass. Cover the amphorae so that water cannot enter, and let them stand in the sun not more than four years; four years later, arrange them in a wedge, and pack them closely.
114 If you wish to make a laxative wine: After vintage, when the vines are trenched, expose the roots of as many vines as you think you will need for the purpose and mark them; isolate and clear the roots. Pound roots of black hellebore in the mortar, and apply around the vines. Cover the roots with old manure, old ashes, and two parts of earth, and cover the whole with earth. Gather these grapes separately; if you wish to keep the wine for some time as a laxative, do not mix it with the other wine. Take a cyathus of this wine, dilute it with water, and drink it before dinner; it will move the bowels with no bad results.
115 Throw in a handful of black hellebore to the amphora of must, and when the fermentation is complete, remove the hellebore from the wine; save this wine for a laxative.
To prepare a laxative wine: When the vines are trenched, mark with red chalk so that you will not mix with the rest of the wine; place three bundles of black hellebore around the roots and cover with earth. Keep the yield from these vines separate during the vintage. Put a cyathus into another drink; it will move the bowels and the next day give a thorough purging without danger.
116 To preserve lentils: Infuse asafetida in vinegar, soak the lentils in the infusion of vinegar and asafetida, and expose to the sun; then rub the lentils with oil, allow them to dry, and they will keep quite sound.
117 To season green olives: Bruise the olives before they become black and throw them into water. Change the water often, and when they are well soaked press out and throw into vinegar; add oil, and a half pound of salt to the modius of olives. Make a dressing of fennel and mastic steeped in vinegar, using a separate vessel. If you wish to mix them together they must be served at once. Press them out into an earthenware vessel and take them out with dry hands when you wish to serve them.
118 To season green olives which you wish to use after vintage, add as much must as vinegar; for the rest, season them as stated above.
119 Recipe for a confection of green, ripe, and mottled olives. Remove the stones from green, ripe, and mottled olives, and season as follows: chop the flesh, and add oil, vinegar, coriander, cummin, fennel, rue, and mint. Cover with oil in an earthen dish, and serve.
120 If you wish to keep grape juice through the whole year, put the grape juice in an amphora, seal the stopper with pitch, and sink in the pond. Take it out after thirty days; it will remain sweet the whole year.
121 Recipe for must cake: Moisten 1 modius of wheat flour with must; add anise, cummin, 2 pounds of lard, 1 pound of cheese, and the bark of a laurel twig. When you have made them into cakes, put bay leaves under them, and bake.
122 To blend a wine as a remedy for retention of urine: Macerate capreida or Jupiter, add a pound of it, and boil in 2 congii of old wine in a copper or lead vessel. After it cools, pour into a bottle. Take a cyathus in the morning before eating; it will prove beneficial.
123 To blend a wine as a remedy for gout: Cut into small chips a piece of juniper wood a half-foot thick, boil with a congius of old wine, and after it cools pour into a bottle. Take a cyathus in the morning before eating; it will prove beneficial.
124 Dogs should be chained up during the day, so that they may be keener and more watchful at night.
125 Recipe for myrtle wine: Dry out black myrtle in the shade, and when dried keep it until vintage. Macerate a half-modius of myrtle into an urna of must and seal it. When the must has ceased to ferment remove the myrtle. This is a remedy for indigestion, for pain in the side, and for colic.
126 For gripes, for loose bowels, for tapeworms and stomach-worms, if troublesome: Take 30 acid pomegranates, crush, place in a jar with 3 congii of strong black wine, and seal the vessel. Thirty days later open and use. Drink a hemina before eating.
127 Remedy for dyspepsia and strangury: Gather pomegranate blossoms when they open, and place 3 minae of them in an amphora. Add one quadrantal of old wine and a mina of clean crushed root of fennel; seal the vessel and thirty days later open and use. You may drink this as freely as you wish without risk, when you wish to digest your food and to urinate. The same wine will clear out tapeworms and stomach-worms if it is blended in this way. Bid the patient refrain from eating in the evening, and the next morning macerate 1 drachm of pulverized incense, 1 drachm of boiled honey, and a sextarius of wine of wild marjoram. Administer to him before he eats, and, for a child, according to age, a triobolus and a hemina. Have him climb a pillar and jump down ten times, and walk about.
128 To plaster a dwelling: Take very chalky or red earth, pour amurca over it, and add chopped straw; let it soften for four days, and when it has softened thoroughly, work up with a spade; and when you have worked it up, plaster. With this treatment, the moisture will not injure the walls, nor the mice burrow in them, nor weeds grow, nor the plaster crack.
129 To make a floor for threshing grain: Break the ground fine, soak thoroughly with amurca and let it absorb as much as possible; then pulverize the dirt and level with a roller or rammer. When it is levelled the ants will not be troublesome, and there will be no mud when it rains.
130 Wet olive logs and other firewood with crude amurca and expose them to the sun so that they will absorb it thoroughly; with this treatment, they will not be smoky, but will burn well.
131 Make the offering for the oxen when the pear trees bloom; then begin the spring ploughing. Plough first the spots which are dry and sandy. Then, the heavier and wetter the spots are, the later they should be ploughed.
132 The offering is to be made in this way: Offer to Jupiter Dapalis a cup of wine of any size you wish, observing the day as a holiday for the oxen, the teamsters, and those who make the offering. In making the offering use this formula: "Jupiter Dapalis, forasmuch as it is fitting that a cup of wine be offered thee, in my house and in the midst of my people, for they sacred feast; and to that end, be thou honoured by the offering of this food." Wash the hands, then take the wine, and say: "Jupiter Dapalis, be thou honoured by the offering of thy feast, and be thou honoured by the wine placed before thee." You may make an offering to Vesta if you wish. Present it to Jupiter religiously, in the fitting form. The feast to Jupiter consists of roasted meat and an urn of wine. After the offering is made plant millet, panic grass, garlic, and lentils.
133 To layer fruit and other trees: Press back into the ground the scions which spring up from the ground, but raise their tips out, so that they will take root; dig up at the proper time and transplant vertically. In this way you should propagate from the crown and transplant fig, olive, pomegranate, quince, wild quince, and all other fruits, Cyprian and Delphic laurel, plum, conjuglan myrtle, as well as white and black myrtle, Abellan and Praenestine nuts, and plane trees. Those which you wish to have planted more carefully should be planted in pots. To make them take root while on the tree, take a pot perforated at the bottom or a basket, run the shoot through it, fill the basket with earth, pack it, and leave it on the tree. When it is two years old cut off the tender branch below and plant along with the basket. By this method you can make any variety of tree take root firmly. Vines may also be layered by thrusting them through a basket, packing firmly with earth, cutting a year later, and planting along with the basket.
134 Before harvest the sacrifice of the porca praecidanea should be offered in this manner: Offer a sow as porca praecidanea to Ceres before harvesting spelt, wheat, barley, beans, and rape seed; and address a prayer, with incense and wine, to Janus, Jupiter, and Juno, before offering the sow. Make an offering of cakes to Janus, with these words: "Father Janus, in offering these cakes, I humbly beg that thou wilt be gracious and merciful to me and my children, my house and my household." Then make an offering of cake to Jupiter with these words: "In offering this cake, O Jupiter I humbly beg that thou, pleased by this offering, wilt be gracious and merciful to me and my children, my house and my household." Then present the wine to Janus, saying: "Father Janus, as I prayed humbly in offering the cakes, so wilt thou to the same end be honoured by this wine placed before thee." And then pray to Jupiter thus: "Jupiter, wilt thou deign to accept the cake; wilt thou deign to accept the wine placed before thee." Then offer up the porca praecidanea. When the entrails have been removed, make an offering of cakes to Janus, with a prayer as before; and an offering of a cake to Jupiter, with a prayer as before. After the same manner, also, offer wine to Janus and offer wine to Jupiter, as was directed before for the offering of the cakes, and the consecration of the cake. Afterwards offer entrails and wine to Ceres.
135 Tunics, togas, blankets, smocks, and shoes should be bought at Rome; caps, iron tools, scythes, spades, mattocks, axes, harness, ornaments, and small chains at Cales and Minturnae; spades at Venafrum; carts and sledges at Suessa and in Lucania; jars and pots at Alba and at Rome; and tiles at Venafrum. Roman ploughs will be good for heavy soil, Campanian for black loam. Roman yokes are the best made. You will find detachable ploughshares the best. The following cities are the best markets for the articles named: oil mills at Pompeii, and at Rufrius's yard at Nola; nails and bars at Rome; pails, oil-urns, water-pitchers, wine-urns, other copper vessels at Capua and at Nola; Campanian baskets from Capua will be found useful; 3 pulley ropes and all sorts of cordage at Capua; Roman baskets at Suessa and Casinum; . . . at Rome will be found best.
Lucius Tunnius, of Casinum, and Gaius Mennius, son of Lucius Mennius, of Venafrum, make the best press-ropes. Eight good native hides, freshly tanned, should be used for these, and should have very little salt; they should be tanned, rubbed down with fat, and then dried. The rope should be laid down 72 feet long, and should have 3 splices, with 9 leather thongs, 2 fingers wide, at each splice. When twisted it will be 49 feet long; 3 feet will be lost in the fastening, leaving 46 feet; when stretched, 5 feet will be added, and the length will be 51 feet. The press-rope should be 55 feet long for the largest presses and 51 for the smaller when stretched. Proper length of thongs for the cart 60 feet, cords 45 feet, leather reins for the cart 36 feet and for the plough 26 feet; traces 27½ feet; yoke straps for the cart 19 feet, lines 15; for the plough, yoke straps 12 feet and line 8 feet.
The largest mills are 4½ feet in diameter; the stones 3½ feet, the centre (when quarried) a foot and a palm thick. Interval between the column and the basin 1 foot, 2 fingers; basin 5 fingers thick. Those of the second size are 4 feet and a palm in diameter, interval between column and basin 1 foot, 1 finger, basin 5 fingers thick; stones 3 feet, 5 fingers in diameter, 1 foot, 3 fingers thick. Cut a hole ½ foot square in the stones. Those of the third size are 4 feet in diameter, interval between column and basin 1 foot, thickness of basin 5 fingers; stones 3 feet, 3 fingers in diameter, 1 foot, 2 fingers thick. Assemble and adjust the press after it has been brought to the place where you wish to set it up.
136 Terms for letting the tending of the land to a share tenant: In the district of Casinum and Venafrum, on good land he should receive one-eighth of the unthreshed grain, on fairly good land one-seventh, on land of third quality one-sixth; if the threshed grain is shared, one-fifth. In the district of Venafrum the division is one-ninth of the unthreshed grain on the best land. If they mill in common, the caretaker shall pay for the milling in proportion to the share he receives. He should receive one-fifth of threshed barley and one-fifth of shelled beans.
137 Terms for letting the care of the vineyard to a share tenant: he must take good care of the estate, the orchard, and the grain land. The share worker is to have enough hay and fodder for the cattle on the place; everything else is in common.
138 Oxen may be yoked on feast days for these purposes: to haul firewood, bean stalks, and grain for storing. There is no holiday for mules, horses, or donkeys, except the family festivals.
139 The following is the Roman formula to be observed in thinning a grove: A pig is to be sacrificed, and the following prayer uttered: "Whether thou be god or goddess to whom this grove is dedicated, as it is thy right to receive a sacrifice of a pig for the thinning of this sacred grove, and to this intent, whether I or one at my bidding do it, may it be rightly done. To this end, in offering this pig to thee I humbly beg that thou wilt be gracious and merciful to me, to my house and household, and to my children. Wilt thou deign to receive this pig which I offer thee to this end."
140 If you wish to till the ground, offer a second sacrifice in the same way, with the addition of the words: "for the sake of doing this work." So long as the work continues, the ritual must be performed in some part of the land every day; and if you miss a day, or if public or domestic feast days intervene, a new offering must be made.
141 The following is the formula for purifying land: Bidding the suovetaurilia to be led around, use the words: "That with the good help of the gods success may crown our work, I bid thee, Manius, to take care to purify my farm, my land, my ground with this suovetaurilia, in whatever part thou thinkest best for them to be driven or carried around." Make a prayer with wine to Janus and Jupiter, and say: "Father Mars, I pray and beseech thee that thou be gracious and merciful to me, my house, and my household; to which intent I have bidden this suovetaurilia to be led around my land, my ground, my farm; that thou keep away, ward off, and remove sickness, seen and unseen, barrenness and destruction, ruin and unseasonable influence; and that thou permit my harvests, my grain, my vineyards, and my plantations to flourish and to come to good issue, preserve in health my shepherds and my flocks, and give good health and strength to me, my house, and my household. To this intent, to the intent of purifying my farm, my land, my ground, and of making an expiation, as I have said, deign to accept the offering of these suckling victims; Father Mars, to the same intent deign to accept the offering of these suckling offering." Also heap the cakes with the knife and see that the oblation cake be hard by, then present the victims. When you offer up the pig, the lamb, and the calf, use this formula: "To this intent deign to accept the offering of these victims." . . . If favourable omens are not obtained in response to all, speak thus: "Father Mars, if aught hath not pleased thee in the offering of those sucklings, I make atonement with these victims." If there is doubt about one or two, use these words: "Father Mars, inasmuch as thou wast not pleased by the offering of that pig, I make atonement with this pig."
142 Those things which are the duty of the overseer, the instructions which the master has given, all those things which should be done on the farm and what should be bought or brought in, and how food and raiment should be issued to the servants — the same I warn that he do and perform, and that he hearken to the master's instructions. Furthermore, he must know how to manage the housekeeper and how to give her directions, so that the master, at his coming, will find that all necessary preparations and arrangements have been made with care.
143 See that the housekeeper performs all her duties. If the master has given her to you as wife, keep yourself only to her. Make her stand in awe of you. Restrain her from extravagance. She must visit the neighbouring and other women very seldom, and not have them either in the house or in her part of it. She must not go out to meals, or be a gadabout. She must not engage in religious worship herself or get others to engage in it for her without the orders of the master or the mistress; let her remember that the master attends to the devotions for the whole household. She must be neat herself, and keep the farmstead neat and clean. She must clean and tidy the hearth every night before she goes to bed. On the Kalends, Ides, and Nones, and whenever a holy day comes, she must hang a garland over the hearth, and on those days pray to the household gods as the opportunity offers. She must keep a supply of cooked food on hand for you and the servants. She must keep many hens and have plenty of eggs. She must have a large store of dried pears, sorbs, figs, raisins, sorbs in must, preserved pears and grapes and quinces. She must also keep preserved grapes in grape-pulp and in pots buried in the ground, as well as fresh Praenestine nuts kept in the same way, and Scantian quinces in jars, and other fruits that are usually preserved, as well as wild fruits. All these she must store away diligently every year. She must also know how to make good flour and to grind spelt fine.
144 Terms for letting the gathering of olives: The contractor will gather the whole harvest carefully, according to the directions of the owner or his representative or the purchaser of the crop. He will not pick or beat down olives without the orders of the owner or his representative. If anyone violates this rule, no one will pay or be liable for what he has picked that day. All gatherers will take an oath before the owner or his representative that they have not stolen olives, nor has anyone with their connivance stolen olives from the estate of Lucius Manlius during that harvest; if any refuse to take the oath, no one will pay or be liable for what he has gathered. He must give security for the proper harvesting of the olives, satisfactory to Lucius Manlius. Ladders are to be returned in as good condition as when they were issued, except those which have been broken because of age; if they are not returned, a fair deduction will be made by arbitration of an honest man. Whatever damage is done the owner through the fault of the contractor the latter will make good, the amount to be deducted after arbitration by an honest person. The contractor will furnish as many gatherers and pickers as are needed; and if he fails to do so, a deduction will be made of the cost of hiring or contracting, and the total will be less by that amount. He is not to remove firewood or olives from the farm; and if any of his gatherers carry them off, a deduction will be made of 2 sesterces for each load, and that amount will not be due. All olives will be measured clean in an olive measure. He is to furnish fifty active workmen, two-thirds being pickers. No one shall form a combination for the purpose of raising the contract price for harvesting and milling olives, unless he names his associate at the time; in case of a violation of this rule, if the owner or his representative wish, all the associates shall take an oath, and if anyone refuses so to swear, no one will pay or be liable for pay for the gathering or milling of the olives to one who has not so sworn. Bonuses: The extra allowance for a harvest of 1200 modii will be 5 modii of salted olives, 9 pounds of pure oil, 5 quadrantals of vinegar for the whole harvest; for that part of the salted olives which they do not take during the harvesting, an allowance of 5 sesterces per modius of the aforesaid will be made.
145 Terms on which contracts are to be made for the milling of olives: Mill them honestly, to the satisfaction of the owner or his representative in charge of the work. If necessary, supply six complete equipments. Furnish workmen to the satisfaction of the representative of the owner or the one who has bought the olives. If a mill is necessary, set it up. If labourers are hired, or the work has to be sublet, settle for this, or let it be deducted. Do not touch any oil by way of use or pilfering beyond what the owner or his representative issues; if he takes it, 40 sesterces will be deducted for each offence, and that amount will not be due. All hands engaged in the manufacturing will take an oath before the owner or his representative that neither they nor anyone with their connivance has stolen oil or olives from the farm of Lucius Manlius. If any one of them will not take such an oath, his share of the pay will be deducted, and that amount will not be due. You will have no partner without the approval of the owner or his representative. Any damage done to the owner through the fault of the contractor will be deducted on the decision of an honest person. If green oil is required, make it. There will be an allowance of a sufficient quantity of oil and salt for his own use, and two victoriati as toll.
146 Terms for the sale of olives on the tree: Olives for sale on the tree on an estate near Venafrum. The purchaser of the olives will add one per cent. of all money more than the purchase price; the auctioneer's fee of 50 sesterces; and pay 1500 pounds of Roman oil, 200 pounds of green oil, 50 modii of windfall olives, 10 modii of picked olives, all measured by olive measure, and 10 pounds of lubricating oil; and pay 2 cotylae of the first pressing for the use of the weights and measures of the owner. Date of payment: within ten months from the first of November he will pay the contract price for gathering and working up the olives, even if the purchaser has made a contract, on the Ides. Sign a contract and give bond to the satisfaction of the owner or his representative that such payments will be made in good faith, and that all will be done to the satisfaction of the owner or his representative. Until payment is made, or such security has been given, all property of the purchaser on the place will be held in pledge, and none of it shall be removed from the place; whatever is so removed becomes the property of the owner. All presses, ropes, ladders, mills, and whatever else has been furnished by the owner, will be returned in the same good condition, except articles broken because of age; and a fair price will be paid for all not returned. If the purchaser does not pay the gatherers and the workmen who have milled the oil, the owner may, if he wishes, pay the wages due; and the purchaser will be liable to the owner for the amount, and give bond, and his property will be held in pledge as described above.
147 Terms for the sale of grapes on the vine: The purchaser will leave unwashed lees and dregs. Storage will be allowed for the wine until the first of October next following; if it is not removed before that time, the owner will do what he will with the wine. All other terms as for the sale of olives on the tree.
148 Terms for the sale of wine in jars: Forty-one urns to the culleus will be delivered, and only wine which is neither sour nor musty will be sold. Within three days it shall be tasted subject to the decision of an honest man, and if the purchaser fails to have this done, it will be considered tasted; but any delay in the tasting caused by the owner will add as many days to the time allowed the purchaser. The acceptance will take place before the first of January next following; and in default of the acceptance by the purchaser the owner will measure the wine, and settlement will be made on the basis of such measurement; if the purchaser wishes the owner will take an oath that he has measured it correctly. Storage will be allowed for the wine until the first of October next following; if it is not removed before that date, the owner will do what he wishes with the wine. Other terms as for olives on the tree.
149 Terms for the lease of winter pasturage: The contract should state the limits of pasturage. The use of the pasturage should begin on the first of September, and should end on dry meadows when the pear trees begin to bloom, and on water meadows when the neighbours above and below begin irrigating, or on a definite date fixed for each; on all other meadows on the first of March. The owner reserves the right to pasture two yoke of oxen and one gelding while the renter pastures; the use of vegetables, asparagus, firewood, water, roads, and right of way is reserved for the owner. All damage done to the owner by the renter or his herdsmen or cattle shall be settled for according to the decision of an honest man; and all damage done to the renter by the owner or his servants or cattle shall be settled for according to the decision of good man. Until such damage is settled for in cash or by security, or the debt is assigned, all herds and servants on the place shall be held in pledge; and if there arises any dispute over such matters, let the decision be made at Rome.
150 Terms for the sale of the increase of the flock: The lessee will pay per head 1½ pounds of cheese, one-half dry; one-half of the milking on holy days; and an urn of milk on other days. For the purpose of this rule a lamb which lives for a day and a night is counted as increase; the lessee will end the increase on the first of June, or, if an intercalation intervene, on the first of May. The lessor will not promise more than thirty lambs; ewes which have borne no lambs count in the increase two for one. Ten months after the date of the sale of wool and lambs he shall receive his money from the collector. He may feed one whey-fed hog for every ten sheep. The lessee will furnish a shepherd for two months; and he shall remain in pledge until the owner is satisfied either by security or by payment.
151 As to cypress seed, the best method for its gathering, planting, and propagation, and for the planting of the cypress bed has been given as follows by Minius Percennius of Nola: The seed of the Tarentine cypress should be gathered in the spring, and the wood when the barley turns yellow; when you gather the seed, expose it to the sun, clean it, and store it dry so that it may be set out dry. Plant the seed in the spring, in soil which is very mellow, the so‑called pulla, close to water. First cover the ground thick with goat or sheep dung, then turn it with the trenching spade and mix it well with the dung, cleaning out grass and weeds; break the ground fine. Form the seed-beds four feet wide, with the surface concave, so that they will hold water, leaving a footway between the beds so that you may clean out the weeds. After the beds are formed, sow the seed as thickly as flax is usually sowed, sift dirt over it with a sieve to the depth of a half-finger, and smooth carefully with a board, or the hands or feet. In case the weather is dry so that the ground becomes thirsty, irrigate by letting a stream gently into the beds; or, failing a stream, have the water brought and poured gently; see that you add water whenever it is needed. If weeds spring up, see that you free the beds of them. Clean them when the weeds are very young, and as often as necessary. This procedure should be continued as stated throughout the summer. The seed, after being planted, should be covered with straw, which should be removed when they begin to sprout.
152 Of brush-brooms, according to the directions of the Manlii: At several times during the thirty days of the vintage, make brooms of dry elm twigs bound around a stick. With these scrape continually the inner surfaces of the wine jars, to keep the wine dregs from sticking to the sides.
153 To make lees-wine: Keep two Campanian olive baskets for the purpose; fill them with lees, place them under the press-beam, and force out the juice.
154 A convenient method of measuring wine for buyers: Take for this purpose a cask of culleus size, with four handles at the top for easy handling; make a hole at the bottom, fitting into it a pipe so that it can be stopped tight, and also pierce near the top at the point where it will hold exactly a culleus. Keep it on the elevation among the jars, so that the wine can run from the jar into the cask; and when the cask is filled close it up.
155 Land ought to be drained during the winter, and the drain-ditches on the hillsides kept clean. The greatest danger from water is in the early autumn, when there is dust. When the rains begin, the whole household must turn out with shovels and hoes, open the ditches, turn the water into the roads, and see that it flows off. You should look around the farmstead while it is raining, and mark all leaks with charcoal, so that the tile can be replaced after the rain stops. During the growing season, if water is standing anywhere, in the grain or the seed-bed or in ditches, or if there is any obstruction to the water, it should be cleared, opened and removed.
156 Of the medicinal value of the cabbage: It is the cabbage which surpasses all other vegetables. It may be eaten either cooked or raw; if you eat it raw, dip it into vinegar. It promotes digestion marvellously and is an excellent laxative, and the urine is wholesome for everything. If you wish to drink deep at a banquet and to enjoy your dinner, eat as much raw cabbage as you wish, seasoned with vinegar, before dinner, and likewise after dinner eat some half a dozen leaves; it will make you feel as if you had not dined, and you can drink as much as you please.
If you wish to clean out the upper digestive tract, take four pounds of very smooth cabbage leaves, make them into three equal bunches and tie them together. Set a pot of water on the fire, and when it begins to boil sink one bunch for a short time, which will stop the boiling; when it begins again sink the bunch briefly while you count five, and remove. Do the same with the second and third bunches, then throw the three together and macerate. After macerating, squeeze through a cloth about a hemina of the juice into an earthen cup; add a lump of salt the size of a pea, and enough crushed cummin to give it an odour, and let the cup stand in the air through a calm night. Before taking a dose of this, one should take a hot bath, drink honey-water, and go to bed fasting. Early the next morning he should drink the juice and walk about for four hours, attending to any business he has. When the desire comes on him and he is seized with nausea, he should lie down and purge himself; he will evacuate such a quantity of bile and mucus that he will wonder himself where it all came from. Afterwards, when he goes to stool, he should drink a hemina or a little more. If it acts too freely, if he will take two conchas of fine flour, sprinkle it into water, and drink a little, it will cease to act. Those who are suffering from colic should macerate cabbage in water, then pour into hot water, and boil until it is quite soft. Pour off the water, add salt, a bit of cummin, barley flour dust, and oil, and boil again; turn into a dish and allow it to cool. You may break any food you wish into it and eat it; but if you can eat the cabbage alone, do so. If the patient has no fever, administer a very little strong, dark wine, diluted; but if he has fever give only water. The dose should be repeated every morning, but in small quantities, so that it may not pall but continue to be eaten with relish. The treatment is the same for man, woman, and child. Now for those who pass urine with difficulty and suffer from strangury: take cabbage, place it in hot water and boil until it is half-done; pour off most of the water, add a quantity of oil, salt, and a bit of cummin, and boil for a short time. After that drink the broth of this and eat the cabbage itself, that it may be absorbed quickly. Repeat the treatment daily.
157 Of Pythagoras's cabbage, what virtue and health-giving qualities it has. The several varieties of cabbage and the quality of each should first be known; it has all the virtues necessary for health, and constantly changes its nature along with the heat, being moist and dry, sweet, bitter, and acid. The cabbage has naturally all the virtues of the so‑called "Seven Blessings" mixture. To give, then, the several varieties: the first is the so‑called smooth; it is large, with broad leaves and thick stem; it is hardy and has great potency. The second is the curly variety, called "parsley cabbage"; it has a good nature and appearance, and has stronger medicinal properties than the above-mentioned variety. So also has the third, the mild, with small stalk, tender, and the most pungent of all; and its juice, though scanty, has the most powerful effect. No other variety of cabbage approaches it in medicinal value. It can be used as a poultice on all kinds of wounds and swellings; it will cleanse all sores and heal without pain; it will soften and open boils; it will cleanse suppurating wounds and tumours, and heal them, a thing which no other medicine can do. But before it is applied, the surface should be washed with plenty of warm water, and then the crushed cabbage should be applied as a poultice, and renewed twice a day; it will remove all putridity. The black ulcer has a foul odour and exudes putrid pus, the white is purulent but fistulous, and suppurates under the surface; but if you macerate cabbage it will cure all such sores — it is the best remedy for sores of this kind. Dislocations will be healed quickly if they are bathed twice a day in warm water and a cabbage poultice is applied; if applied twice a day, the treatment will relieve the pain. A contusion will burst, and when bruised cabbage is applied, it will heal. An ulcer on the breast and a cancer can be healed by the application of macerated cabbage; and if the spot is too tender to endure the astringency, the cabbage should be mixed with barley-flour and so applied. All sores of this kind it will heal, a thing which no other medicine can do or cleanse. When applied to a sore of this kind on a boy or girl the barley-meal should be added. If you eat it chopped, washed, dried, and seasoned with salt and vinegar, nothing will be more wholesome. That you may eat it with better appetite, sprinkle it with grape vinegar, and you will like a little better when washed, dried, and seasoned with rue, chopped coriander and salt. This will benefit you, allow no ill to remain in the body, and promote digestion; and will heal any ill that may be inside. Headache and eyeache it heals alike. It should be eaten in the morning, on an empty stomach. Also if you are bilious, if the spleen is swollen, if the heart is painful, or the liver, or the lungs, or the diaphragm — in a word, it will cure all the internal organs which are suffering. (If you grate silphium into it, it will be good.) For when all the veins are gorged with food they cannot breathe in the whole body, and hence a disease is caused; and when from excess of food the bowels do not act, if you eat cabbage proportionately, prepared as I direct above, you will have no ill effects from these. But as to disease of the joints, nothing so purges it as raw cabbage, if you eat it chopped, and rue, chopped dry coriander, grated asafetida, and cabbage out of vinegar and honey, and sprinkled with salt. After using this remedy you will have the use of all your joints. There is no expense involved; and even if there were, you should try it for your health's sake. It should be eaten in the morning, on an empty stomach. One who is sleepless or debilitated you can make well by this same treatment. But give the person, without food, simply warm cabbage, oiled, and a little salt. The more the patient eats the more quickly will he recover from the disease. Those suffering from colic should be treated as follows: Macerate cabbage thoroughly, then put in a pot and boil well; when it is well done pour off the water, add plenty of oil, very little salt, cummin, and fine barley-flour, and let it boil very thoroughly again. After boiling turn it into a dish. The patient should eat it without bread, if possible; if not, plain bread may be soaked in it and if he has no fever he may have some dark wine. The cure will be prompt. And further, whenever such occasion arises, if a person who is debilitated will eat cabbage prepared as I have described above, he will be cured. And still further, if you save the urine of a person who eats cabbage habitually, heat it, and bathe the patient in it, he will be healed quickly; this remedy has been tested. Also, if babies are bathed in this urine they will never be weakly; those whose eyes are not very clear will see better if they are bathed in this urine; and pain in the head or neck will be relieved if the heated urine is applied. If a woman will warm the privates with this urine, they will never become diseased. The method is as follows: when you have heated it in a pan, place under a chair whose seat has been pierced. Let the woman sit on it, cover her, and throw garments around her.
Wild cabbage has the greatest strength; it should be dried and macerated very fine. When it is used as a purge, let the patient refrain from food the previous night, and in the morning, still fasting, take macerated cabbage with four cyathi of water. Nothing will purge so well, neither hellebore, nor scammony; it is harmless, and highly beneficial; it will heal persons whom you despair of healing. The following is the method of purging by this treatment: Administer it in a liquid form for seven days; if the patient has an appetite, feed him on roast meat, or, if he has not, on boiled cabbage and bread. He should drink diluted mild wine, bathe rarely, and rub with oil. One so purged will enjoy good health for a long time, and no sickness will attack him except by his own fault. If one has an ulcer, whether suppurated or new, sprinkle this wild cabbage with water and apply it; you will cure him. If there is a fistula, insert a pellet; or if it will not admit a pellet, make a solution, pour into a bladder attached to a reed, and inject into the fistula by squeezing the bladder. It will heal quickly. An application of wild cabbage macerated with honey to any ulcer, old or new, will heal it. If a nasal polypus appears, pour macerated dry wild cabbage into the palm of the hand; apply to the nostril and sniff with the breath as vigorously as possible. Within three days the polypus will fall out, but continue the same treatment for several days after it has fallen out, so that the roots of the polypus may be thoroughly cleaned. In case of deafness, macerate cabbage with wine, press out the juice, and instil warm water into the ear, and you will soon know that your hearing is improved. An application of cabbage to a malignant scab will cause it to heal without ulcerating.
158 Recipe for a purgative, if you wish to purge thoroughly: Take a pot and pour into it six sextarii of water and add the hock of a ham, or, if you have no hock, a half-pound of ham-scraps with as little fat as possible. Just as it comes to a boil, add two cabbage leaves, two beet plants with the roots, a shoot of fern, a bit of the mercury-plant, two pounds of mussels, a capito fish and one scorpion, six snails, and a handful of lentils. Boil all together down to three sextarii of liquid, without adding oil. Take one sextarius of this while warm, add one cyathus of Coan wine, drink, and rest. Take a second and a third dose in the same way, and you will be well purged. You may drink diluted Coan wine in addition, if you wish. Any one of the many ingredients mentioned above is sufficient to move the bowels; but there are so many ingredients in this concoction that it is an excellent purgative, and, besides, it is agreeable.
159 To prevent chafing: When you set out on a journey, keep a small branch of Pontic wormwood under the anus.
160 Any kind of dislocation may be cured by the following charm: Take a green reed four or five feet long and split it down the middle, and let two men hold it to your hips. Begin to chant: "motas uaeta daries dardares astataries dissunapiter" and continue until they meet. Brandish a knife over them, and when the reeds meet so that one touches the other, grasp with the hand and cut right and left. If the pieces are applied to the dislocation or the fracture, it will heal. And none the less chant every day, and, in the case of a dislocation, in this manner, if you wish: "huat haut haut istasis tarsis ardannabou dannaustra."
161 Method of planting asparagus: Break up thoroughly ground that is moist, or is heavy soil. When it has been broken, lay off beds, so that you may hoe and weed them in both directions without trampling the beds. In laying off the beds, leave a path a half-foot wide between the beds on each side. Plant along a line, dropping two or three seeds together in a hole made with a stick, and cover with the same stick. After planting, cover the beds thickly with manure; plant after the vernal equinox. When the shoots push up, weed often, being careful not to uproot the asparagus with the weed. The year it is planted, cover the bed with straw through the winter, so that it will not be frostbitten. Then in the early spring uncover, hoe, and weed. The third year after planting burn it over in the early spring; after this do not work it before the shoots appear, so as not to injure the roots by hoeing. In the third or fourth year you may pull asparagus from the roots; for if you break it off, sprouts will start and die off. You may continue pulling until you see it going to seed. The seed ripens in autumn; when you have gathered it, burn over the bed, and when the asparagus begins to grow, hoe and manure. After eight or nine years, when it is now old, dig it up, after having thoroughly worked and manured the ground to which you are to transplant it, and made small ditches to receive the roots. The interval between the roots of the asparagus should be not less than a foot. In digging, loosen the earth around the roots so that you can dig them easily, and be careful not to break them. Cover them very deep with sheep dung; this is the best for this purpose, as other manure produces weeds.
162 Method of curing hams and Puteolan ofella. You should salt hams in the following manner, in a jar or large pot: When you have bought the hams cut off the hocks. Allow a half-modius of ground Roman salt to each ham. Spread salt on the bottom of the jar or pot; then lay a ham, with the skin facing downwards, and cover the whole with salt. Place another ham over it and cover in the same way, taking care that meat does not touch meat. Continue in the same way until all are covered. When you have arranged them all, spread salt above so that the meat shall not show, and level the whole. When they have remained five days in the salt remove them all with their own salt. Place at the bottom those which had been on top before, covering and arranging them as before. Twelve days later take them out finally, brush off all the salt, and hang them for two days in a draught. On the third day clean them thoroughly with a sponge and rub with oil. Hang them in smoke for two days, and the third day take them down, rub with a mixture of oil and vinegar, and hang in the meat-house. No moths or worms will touch them.
