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The AREA, or threshing-floor, was placed near the house, Col. i. 6. on high ground, open on all sides to the wind, of a round figure, and raised in the middle, Varr. i. 2.

It was sometimes paved with flint-stones, Col, i. 6. but usually laid with clay, consolidated with great care, and smoothed with a huge roller, Virg. G. i. 178.

The grains of the corn were beaten out, (excutiebantur, tundebantur, terebantur vel exterebantur) by the hoofs of cattle driven over it, or by the trampling of horses, (equarum gressibus, Plin. xvii. 30. Virg. G. iii. 132. Col. ii. 21. hence Area dum messes sole calente teret; for frumenta in area terentur, Tibùll. i. 5. 22. or by flails, (baculi, fustes, vel pertica), ibid. or by a machine, called TRAHA, V. trahea, a dray or sledge, a carriage without wheels; or TRIBULA, vel -um, made of a board or beam, set with stones, or pieces of iron, (tabula lapidibus, aut ferro asperata), with a great weight laid on it, and drawn by yoked cattle, jumentis junctis, Ibid. et Varr. i. 52.

Tribula, a threshing machine, has the first syllable long, from pißw, tero, to thresh: but tribulus, a kind of thistle, (or warlike machine, with three spikes or more, for throwing or fixing in the ground, called also murex, usually plural, murices, v. tribuli, caltrops, Plin. xix. 1. s. 6. Curt. iv. 13. Veget. iii. 24.) has tri short, from pets, three; and Bon, a spike or prickle.

These methods of beating out the corn were used by the Greeks, Homer. Il. xx. 495. and Jews, Isai. xxviii. 27.

Corn was winnowed, (ventilabatur,) or cleaned from the chaff, (acus, -eris), by a kind of shovel, (vallus, pala, vel ventilabrum), which threw the corn across the wind, Varr. i. 52. or by a sieve, (vannus vel cribrum), which seems to have been used with or without wind, Col. ii. 21. as among the Greeks, Homer. H. xiii. 588. and Jews, Is. xxx. 24. Amos, ix. 9. Luke, xxii. 31.

The corn, when cleaned, (expurgatum), was laid up in granaries, (horrea vel granaria), variously constructed, Plin. xviii. 30. sometimes in pits, (in scrobibus), where it was preserved for many years; Varro says fifty, Id. & Varr. i. 57.

The straw was used for various purposes; for littering cattle, (pecori, ovibus bubusque substernebatur, unde STRAMEN, V. -tum dictum), Varr. i. 1. 3. for fodder, Plin. xviii. 30. and for covering houses; whence CULMEN, the roof, from culmus, a stock of corn, Id.

The straw cut with the ears was properly called PALEA; that left in the ground, and afterwards cut, STRAMEN, vel stromentum, vel stipula, the stubble, which was sometimes burnt in the fields, to meliorate the land, and destroy the weeds, Id. & Virg. G. i. 84.

As oxen were chiefly used for ploughing, so were the fleeces of sheep for clothing; hence these animals were reared by the Ro

mans with the greatest care. Virgil gives directions about the breeding of cattle, (qui cultus habendo sit pecori); of oxen and horses (ARMENTA), G. iii. 49. 72. of sheep and goats, (GREGES), d. 286. also of dogs, 404. and bees, iv. as a part of husbandry.

While individuals were restricted by law to a small portion of land, and citizens themselves cultivated their own farms, there was abundance of provisions, without the importation of grain; and the republic could always command the service of hardy and brave warriors, when occasion required. But in after ages, especially under the Emperors, when landed property was in a manner engrossed by a few, Juvenal. ix. 55. and their immense estates in a great measure cultivated by slaves, Liv. vi. 12. Senec. Ep. 114. Rome was forced to depend on the provinces, both for supplies of provisions, and of men to recruit her armies: Hence Pliny ascribes the ruin first of Italy, and then of the provinces, to overgrown fortunes, and too extensive possessions, (Latifundia, sc. nimis ampla, perdidere Italiam; jam vero et provincias), xviii. 3. & 6.

The price of land in Italy was increased by an edict of Trajan, that no one should be admitted as a candidate for an office who had not a third part of his estate in land, Plin. Ep. vi. 19.

THE

PROPAGATION of TREES.

HE Romans propagated trees and shrubs much in the same way as we do.

Those are properly called trees (arbores) which shoot up in one great stem, body, or trunk, (stirps, truncus, caudex, vel stipes), and then, at a good distance from the earth, spread into branches and leaves, (rami et folia); shrubs, (FRUTICES, vel virgulta), which divide into branches, (rami, v. -uli), and twigs or sprigs, (virga, v. -ulæ), as soon as they rise from the root. These shrubs which approach near to the nature of herbs, are called by Pliny, suffru

tices.

Virgil enumerates the various ways of propagating trees and shrubs, (sylva fruticesque), both natural and artificial; G. ii. 9. &c.

I. Some were thought to be produced spontaneously; as the osier (siler); the broom, (genista); the poplar and willow, (salix). But the notion of spontaneous propagation is now universally exploded. Some by fortuitous seeds; as the chesnut, the esculus, and oak: Some from the roots of other trees; as the cherry, (CERASUS, first brought into Italy by Lucullus from Cerasus, a city in Pontus; A. U. 680. and 120 years after that, introduced into Britain, Plin. xv. 25. s. 30.) the elm and laurel, (laurus), which some take to be the bay tree.

II. The artificial methods of propagating trees, were,-1. By

suckers, (STOLONES, unde cognomen, STOLO, Plin. xvii. 1. Varr. i. 2.) or twigs pulled from the roots of trees, and planted in furrows or trenches, (sulci v. fossa).

-2. By sets, i. e. fixing in the ground branches, (rami, v. talea), sharpened (acuminati) like stakes, (acuto robore valli vel pali, cut into a point; sudes quadrif idæ, slit at the bottom into four), Virg. G. ii. 25. Plin. xvii. 17. or pieces of the cleftwood, (caudices secti), Id. or by planting the trunks with the roots, (stirpes), Id. When plants were set by the root, (cum radice serebantur), they were called VIVIRAD CEs, quicksets, Cic. Sen. 13,

-3. By layers, (propagines), i. e. bending a branch, and fixing it in the earth, without disjoining it from the mother-tree, whence new shoots spring, (viva suâ plantaria terrâ), v. 27. This method was taught by nature from the bramble, (ex rubo), Plin. xvii. 13. s. 21. It was chiefly used in vines and myrtles, Virg. G. ibid. v. 63. the former of which, however, were more frequently propagated.

4. By slips or cuttings, small shoots cut from a tree, and planted in the ground, (surculi, et MALLEOLI, i. e. surculi utrinque capitulati) with knops or knobs, i. e. protuberances on each side, like a small hammer, Plin. xvii. 21.

-5. By grafting, or ingrafting, (INSITIO), i. e. inserting a cion, a shoot or sprout, a small branch or graff, (tradux, v. surculus), of one tree into the stock or branch of another. There were several ways of ingrafting; of which Virgil describes only one; namely, what is called cleft grafting; which was performed by cleaving the head of a stock, and putting a cion from another tree into the cleft, (feraces plantæ immittuntur, Ibid. v. 78. Alterius ramos vertere in alterius, 31.); thus beautifully expressed by Ovid, Fissaque adoptivas accipit arbor opes, Medic. fac. 6.

It is a received opinion in this country, that no graft will succeed, unless it be upon a stock, which bears fruit of the same kind. But Virgil and Columella say, that any cion may be grafted on any stock, Omnis surculus omni arbori inseri potest, si non est ei, cui inseritur, cortice dissimilis, Col. v. 11. as apples on a pear-stock, and cornels, or Cornelian cherries on a prune or plum-stock, Virg. G. ii. 33. apples on a plane-tree, pears on a wild asb, &c. v. 70. Plin. xv. 1. 5. s. 17.

Similar to ingrafting, is what goes by the name of inoculation, or budding, (oculos imponere, inoculare, v. -atio). The parts of a plant whence it budded, (unde germinaret), were called OCULI, eyes, Plin. xvii. 21. s. 35. and when these were cut off, it was said occæcari, to be blinded, Id. xvii. 22.

Inoculation was performed by making a slit in the bark of one tree, and inserting the bud (gemma v. germen) of another tree, which united with it, v. 73. called also EMPLASTRATIO, Col. v. 11.

1

But Pliny seems to distinguish them, xvii. 16. s. 26. The part of the bark taken out, (pars exempta; angustus in ipso nodo sinus), was called SCUTULA D. TESSELLA, the name given also to any one of the small divisions in a chequered table or pavement, Id. See p. 503.

Forest-trees, (arbores sylvestres,) were propagated chiefly by seeds. Olives by truncheons, (trunci, caudices secti, v. lignum siccum), i. e. by cutting or sawing the trunk or thick branches into pieces of a foot, or a foot and a half in length, and planting them; whence a root, and soon after a tree was formed, Vir. G. ii. 30. & 63.

Those trees which were reared only for cutting, were called ARBORES CEDUÆ, or which being cut, sprout up again, (succisa repullulant), from the stem or root, Plin. xii. 19. Some trees grew to an immense height. Pliny mentions a beam of larix or larch 120 feet long, and 2 feet thick, xvi. 40. s. 74.

The greatest attention was paid to the cultivation of vines. They were planted in ground well trenched and cleaned, (in pastinato, sc. agro), in furrows, or in ditches, Plin. xvii. 22. disposed in rows, either in the form of a square, or of a quincunx, Virg. G. ii. 277. The outermost rows were called ANTES, Id. 417. & Festus.

When a vineyard was dug up, (refodiebatur), to be planted anew, it was properly said repastinari, from an iron instrument with two forks, called pastinum, Col. iii. 18. which word is also put for a field ready for planting, (ager pastinatus.) An old vineyard thus prepared was called VINETUM RESTIBILE, Id.

The vines were supported by reeds, (arundines), or round stakes, (PALI; whence vites palare, i. e. fulcire vel pedare), or by pieces of cleft-oak or olive, not round, (ridica), Plin. xvii. 22. which served as props, (adminicula, v. pedamenta); round which the tendrils (clavicule, v. capreoli, i. e. colliculi v. cauliculi vitei intorti, ut cincinni, Varr. 1. 31.) twined. Two reeds or stakes, (valli furcæque bidentes), supported each vine, with a stick, (pertica), or reed across, called JUGUM or CANTHERIUM, Col. iv. 12. and the tying of the vines to it, CAPITUM CONJUGATIO, et RELIGATIO, Cic. Sen. 15. was effected by osier or willow-twigs, many of which grew near Ameria in Umbria, Virg. G. i. 265. Col. iv. 30. 4, Plin. xvi. 37. s. 69.

Sometimes a vine had but a single pole or prop to support it, without a jugum or cross-pole; sometimes four poles, with a jugum to each; hence called vitis COMPLUVIATA, (a cavis ædium compluviis), Plin. xvii. 21. if but one jugum, UNIJUGA, 22. Concerning the fastening of vines to certain trees, See p. 432. The arches formed by the branches joined together, (cum palmiles sarmento inter

se junguntur funium modo), were called FUNETA, Plin. xvii. 22. and branches of elms extended to sustain the vines, Tabulata, stories, Virg. G. ii. 361.

When the branches, (palmites v. pampini), were too luxuriant, the superfluous shoots or twigs (sarmenia) were lopt off with the pruning knife, (ferro amputatu), Cic. Sen. 15. Hence VITES compescere vel castigare; comas stringere, brachia tendere, Virg. G. ii. 368. Pampinare for pampinos decerpere, to lop off the small branches, Plin. xviii. 27.

The highest, shoots were called FLAGELLA, Virg. G. ii. 299. the branches on which the fruit grew, PALMA; the ligneous, or woody part of a vine, MATERIA; a branch springing from the stock, PAMPINARIUM; from another branch, FRUCTUARIUM; the mark of a hack or chop, CICATRIX; whence cicatricosus, Plin. xvii. 22. Col. v. 6.

The vines supported by cross stakes in dressing, were usually cut in the form of the letter X, which was called DECUSSATIO, Colum. iv. 17.

The fruit of the vine was called UVA, a grape; put for a vine, Virg. G. ii. 60. for wine, Horat. od. i. 20. 10. for a vine branch, (pampinus), Ovid. Met. iii. 666. for a swarm, (examen) of bees, Virg. G. iv. 558. properly not a single berry, (acinus, v. -um), Suet. Aug. 76. but a cluster, (RACEMUS, i. e. acinorum congeries, cum pe diculis), Col. xi. 2.

The stone of the grape was called VINACEUS, V. um, or acinus vinaceus, Cic. Sen. 15. Any cluster of flowers, or berries, (racemus in orbem circumactus), particularly of ivy, (hedera), was called CORYMBUS, Plin. xvi. 34. Virg. Ecl. iii. 39. Ovid. Met. iii. 665. crocei corymbi, i. e. flores, Col. x. 301.

The season when the grapes were gathered, was called VindeMIA, the vintage, (a vino demendo, i. e. uvis legendis); whencevindemiator, a gatherer of grapes, Horat. Sat. i. 7. 30.

Vineyards, (VINEÆ vel vineta), as fields, were divided by cross paths, called LIMITES; (hence limitare, to divide or separate; and limes, a boundary): The breadth of them was determined by law See lex MAMILIA. A path or road from east to west, was called DECIMANUS, sc. limes, (a mensura denûm actuum); from south to north, CARDO, (a cardine mundi, i. e. the north pole; thus, Mount Taurus is called CARDO, Lis. xxxvii. 34.) or semita; whence semitare, to divide by-paths in this direction, because they were usually narrower than the other paths. The spaces, (area), included between two semita, were called PAGINE, comprehending each the breadth of five pali, or capita vitium, distinct vines, Plin. xvii. 22. Hence agri COMPAGINANTES, Contiguous grounds.

Vines were planted (serebantur) at different distances, according to the nature of the soil, usually at the distance of five feet, sometimes

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