History of Horticulture: Lecture 191Lecture 19Lecture 19Roman Agricultural WritersMarcus Porcius Cato (234–148 BCE)Earliest of Latin writersCato the CensorProlific author, Father of Latin proseOnly writings to survive are De Agri CulturaEarliest specimen of treatise in Latin proseList of disjointed notesPractical aspects of farmingOn Acquiring FarmsFertilizationPropagation TechniquesInstruction for Female HousekeepersMarcus Porcius Cato (234–148 BCE)History of Horticulture: Lecture 192On Acquiring FarmsI. When you are thinking of acquiring a farm, keep in mind thesepoints: that you be not overeager in buying nor spare your painsin 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. CatoDo 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; ifthere 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; 2nd, a watered garden; 3rd, an osier-bed; 4than olive yard; 5th, a meadow; 6th, grain land; 7th, a wood lot; 8th, an arbustum; 9th, a mast grove.FertilizationXXXVI. 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.CatoHistory of Horticulture: Lecture 193Propagation Techniques (grafting, cuttage, and layerage)XLI. 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 2ndmethod 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 3rdmethod is: With an awl bore a hole through the vine which you are grafting, and fit tightly to the pith 2 vine shoots of whatever variety you wish, cut obliquely. Join pith to pith, and fit them into the perforation, 1 on each side. Have these shoots each 2 feet long; drop them to theground and bend them back toward the vine stock, fastening the middle of the vine to the ground with forked sticks and coveringwith dirt. Smear all these with the kneaded mixture, tie them up and protect them in the way I have described for olives.CatoInstructions for Female HousekeepersCXLIII. 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. Shemust not go out to meals, or be a gad-about. 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 opportunity offers. CatoShe 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. Shemust also keep preserved grapes in grape-pulp and in pots buried in the ground, as well as fresh Praenestinenuts 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 grind spelt fine.History of Horticulture: Lecture 194Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BCE)Soldier and scholarAssembled enormous collection or writings (700 on a wide variety of topics)Nine works remain, 3 on Latin languages, 3 on agricultureRes Rustica began in his 80thyear and addressed to his wife Fundanias who had just purchased a farmThree books cover agriculture and livestock, including game, birds, and beesEach book in the form of a dialogueWork was a source for Virgil and PlinyStyle is erudite and windy, forever quoting other scholarsMarcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BCE)On GraftingYou cannot, for instance, graft a pear on an oak, even though you can on an apple. This is a matter of importance to many people who pay considerable attention to soothsayers; for these have a saying that when a tree has been grafted with several varieties, the one that attracts the lightning turns into as many bolts as there are varieties, though
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