Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

AGRICULTURA. AGRICULTU RA, $$
Yirgilian precept, after the morning setting of the read of trilicea farina, siliginea farina, hordeacea
Pleiades, that is, by the Roman calendar (ix. Kal. farina, even avezaceafairina (Plin. II. N. xviii. 9,
Nov.), after the 24th of October, and was always xx. 13, xxii. 25). In the expressionsfar triticeum,
concluded before the 9th of December, it being a far hordaceuse found in Columella (viii. 5, 11), Jfr
maxim strictly observed among prudent husband- is evidently used for fJrina, and we shall see
nlen to abstain from all field work for fifteen days that even siligo is in like manner used to denote, not
before, and fifteen days after the winter solstice. only the solid grain, but the flour produced by
In wet or light soils, however, and in all ex- grinding it. This being premised, we may proposed situations, where it was important that the ceed to examine the meaning of the terms pollen,
roots should have a firm hold of the ground before ss7zilago s. sinila, cibarium, siligo, flos, alica, avsythe rains and frosts set in, the sowving was fre- lunr, granea, &c., several of which have never been
quently completed by the end of September. clearly explained. Here again we can give the reSpring sowing (statio tirinestris) was practised sult only of an investigation, in the course of which
only when the farmer had been prevented by ac- we are obliged to thread our way through statecidental circumstances from completing his work in ments at once obscure and irreconcilable. Regardautumn; or in those localities where, from the ex- ing triticuaz. and siligo as two well distinguished
treme cold and heavy snows, it was feared that the varieties of wheat, their products when ground
young blades would be destroyed in winter; or were thus classed by millers:finally, where, from the depth and stiffness of the
soil (crassitudine), it might be cropped repeatedly triticum,
without a fallow. In every case it was considered 1. Pollen, the finest flour dust, double dressed,
advisable to throw the seed as soon as the weather 2. Sim7zila, or Sihril(go, the best first flour.
would permit, that is, in ordinary seasons, early in 3. Ci/Mriu2n secundar'izm72 second flour.
Mlarch. The quantity of seed required was from 4. Fmufi/res, bran.
four to six modii of trsiticumn or siligo to the juger
according as the soil was rich or poor; and from
nine to ten modii of far. To understand this dif- 1. Siligo, the finest double-dressed flour, used
ference, we must recollect that the far was stored exclusively for pastry and hancy bread.
up and sown out in its thick husks; and, therefore, 2. F/os (silizzinis), first flour.
would occupy almost twice as much space as when 3. Cibariua secundariuaz, second flour.
cldened like the triticum. The various operations 4. F]l:sfitres, bran.
performed upon the above quantity of seed before It would appear that Celsus (ii. 18), considerit could be brought to the thrashing-floor, required ing wheat generally as triticum, called the finest
ten days and a half of work.-Four for the plough- and purest flour siligo; ordinary flour, simila; the
man (bubulcus); one for the harrower (occator); whole produce of the grain, bran, and flour mixed
three for the hoer (sarritor), two days on the first together, arVTd7rupos. (Plin. II. N. xviii. 8, 9,
occasion, and one on the second; one for the weeder 10, 11.)
(runcator); one and a half for the reaper (nmessor). Alica is placed by Pliny among the different
The finest Italian wheat weighed from twenty- kinds of corn (xviii. 7), and is probably the same
five to twenty-six pounds the modius, which cor- with the Halicastruln, Alicastruzn, or spring-sown
responds to upwards of seventy English pounds far of Columella. But alice is also used to denote,
avoirdupois to the imperial bushel, the Roman not only the grain, but a particular preparation of
pound being very nearly 11-8 oz. avoird., and the it, most clearly described in another passage of
modius'99119 of an imperial peck. The lightest Pliny (xviii. 11). The finest was made from
was that brought from Gaul and from the Cherso- Campanian zea, which was first rubbed in a wooden
nese. It did not weigh more than twenty pounds mortar to -remove the husk, and then (excussis
the modius. Intermediate were the Sardinian, the tmnicis) the pure grain (nudata meedulla) was
Alexandrian, the Sicilian, the Beotian, and the pounded. In this manner three sorts were proAfrican, the two last approaching most nearly in duced and classed according to their fineness, the
excellence to the Italian. 7zinzimum, the secundariu7z, and the coarsest or
The proportion which the produce bore to the caplaereiea, and each was mixed with a kind of fine
seed sown varied, when Cicero and Varro wrote, white chalk, found between Naples and Puteoli,
in the richest and most highly cultivated districts which became intimately amalgamated with it
of Sicily and Italy from 8 to 10 for 1; 15 for 1 (transit in corpus, colorenmque et tkneritateom ap't).
was regarded as an extraordinary crop obtained in This compound was the principle ingredient in a
a few highly favoured spots only, while in the age sort of porridge also called alica, while alicariu,,
of Columella, when agriculture had fallen into signifying properly one who pounded alica, fredecay, the average return awuas less than 4 for 1. quently denotes a miller in general. (Plin. H. I.
Parts l:f Egypt, the region of Byzacium in Africa, xviii. 7, 11, 29, xxii. 25; Cat. 76; Cels. vi, 6;
the neighbgurhood of Garada in Syria, and the Mart. ii. 37, xiii. 6; Geopon. iii. 7.)
territory of Sybaris were said to render a hundred Anzyluin is starch, and the modes of preparing
or even a hundred and fifty fold; but these ac- it are described by Cato (87), and Pliny (H. AN,
counts were in all likelihood greatly exaggerated. xviii. 7).
(Cic. in Verr. iii. 47; Varr. i. 44; Colum. iii. 3. Granea was wheat, not ground, but merely
~ 4; Plin. H. N. xviii. 21.) divested of its husk, and made into a sort of poer
Far is uniformly represented as having been the ridge by boiling it in water and then adding milk,
first species of grain ever cultivated in Italy, and (Cat. 86.)
as such was employed exclusively in religious cere- b. Hordeum s. Ordelum (rpl077; p?, Horn.).
monies. Hence also farina became the generic Next in importance to triticnme and adoreum, was
term for flour or meal whether derived from far, hiordeun2 or barley, which was a more appropriate
from triticum, or from any other cereal. Thus we food for the lower animals than wheat, was better
a 4