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

AGRICULTURA. AGRICULTURA. ^57
fies this assertion, we do not hazard a conjecture. of the ploughman, if the land was newly broken
(Plin. It. N. xviii. 10. ~ 1 —22, xxii. 75.) up, but only one if it had been cropped the previous
We may conclude this section with an enumera- season; harrowing occupied one day and a half;
tion of the technical terms employed to denote the the first hoeing one day and a half, the second and
different parts of an ear and stalk of corn. third each one day, reaping one day; in all, seven
The whole ear was named spice; the beard or or eight days.
awn arista; the ear, when beardless, spica mu- Bean meal (lomentuzm, crl'7yma) was baked into
tica, the white solid substance of the grain, inti- bread or cakes (hapTrS Ktcvy ivOS), especially if
Mn7U, solidulmc- 2nudaca nzedull -gracnum; the mixed with the flour of wheat or millet; when
husk which immediately envelopes the granum, made into porridge (.fe6tacia, puls fahata), it was
glaina, with which cortex, tzfnicca, folliculus, are accounted an acceptable offering to the gods and
used as synonymous; the outer husk acus; the termed Refi'iva, -a name properly applied to the
outer husk with the short straw attached, palee; beans brought home and set apart for holy purthe stem, stipula, culmus, to which scapus, caulis poses. (Heom. II. xiii. 589; Cat. 35; Varr. i. 44;
correspond in leguminous plants; the knots or Colum. ii. 0, 12; Pallad. ii. 9, vii. 3; Plin. H. N.
joints in the stem, genicali, articali; the sheath- xvii. 5, xviii. 12, xix. 3; Geopon. ii. 35; Dioscorid.
like blade in the stem from which the ear issues ii. 127; Theophr. It. P. iv. 2, vii. 3, viii, 1; comp.
forth, vagina. Fest. s. v. Refriva; Gell. iv. 11, x. 15; Macrob.
2. eg inos Cops po g t. i. 12; Cic. deDiv. i. 30; Ov. Fast. v. 436.)
b. Lupinus, the aEipteos of the Greeks, seems to
The vegetables falling properly under this head, include the Lupinus albus, the L. luteus, and the
chiefly cultivated by the ancients, were: a. Faba; L. pilosus of botanists, the common white, yellow,
b. Lupines; c. Lens s. Lenticula; d.. Cicer; e. and rose lupines of our gardens. The first of the
Cicercula; f: Phiaseolus; g. Pisunz; to which, above species was that chiefly cultivated by the
in order to avoid multiplying subdivisions, we Romans, and is pronounced by Columella to be
may add Napi and Rapa, since in common with the most valuable of the legumina, because it dethe legumina they served as food both for men and manded very little labour, was a sure crop, and
cattle. instead of exhausting, actually refreshed and mae. Foaba. The ancient fi6ba, the KcvdaOS of the nured the land. Steeped in water and afterwards
Greeks, notwithstanding all that has been urged to boiled, it formed an excellent food for oxen in
the contrary, was certainly one of the varieties of winter, and might be used even for man during
our common field bean, the Vlicia Faba, or Faba periods of scarcity. It could be sown as soon as
vulgaris arvensis of botanists. It required either thrashed, might be cast upon ground unprepared
rich and strong, or well manured land. If sown upon by ploughing or any other operation (crudis novallmoist low-lying ground that had remained long bes), and was covered up anyhow, or not covered
uncropped (veteretumn), no previous preparation was up at all, being protected by its bitterness from the
necessary; but the seed was scattered and at once attacks of birds and other animals.
ploughed in; the field was then ribbed and finally The proper season for sowing was early in anharrowed (uese senzen cruado solo ingesserimus, inara- tumn, in order that the stalks might acquire vl;gour
bimus, imporcatuemquze occabizmus), the object being before the cold weather set in; the quantity of
to bury the seed as deep as possible. But if beans seed was ten modii to the juger, and the crop was
were to be sown upon land from which a corn crop reaped after it had remained a year in the ground.
had been just reaped (restibilis cger),afterthe stubble It succeeded well in any dry light land, but not in
was cleared away, manure was spread at the rate wet tenacious soil. Ten modii required in all only
of twenty four vehes to'the juger, and then the re- three days' work; one for covering up, one for
maining operations were the same as above. Rich harrowing, and one for reaping, and of these operaland required from four to six modii to the juger, tions, the two first might, if there was a press of
poorer soil somewhat more. A portion of the seed work, be dispensed with. (Cat. v. 35; Colurn. ii.
was committed to the ground about the middle 10, 16, xi. 2; Pallad. i. 6, ii. 9, vi. 3; vii. 3, ix. 2;
(media senmenti), the remainder at the end of the Plin. H. IN. xviii. 14; Geopon. ii. 39; Virg.
corn-sowing season (septimontialis satio). Virgil Geoag. i. 75.)
(Georg. i. 215), indeed, following the practice of his c. Lens s. Lenticusla, the baKods of the Greeks,
own district, directs that beans should be sown in the modern Ervum Lens, Vicia Lens, or Lentile,
spring; but this was disapproved of in the rest of was sown twice a year, late in autumn (per mediam
Italy because the stalks (caules-/fbalia), the pods sementim) and early in spring, on dry light soil, in
(siliquae), and the husks (acusfilsayinuma), all of the proportion of rather more than a modius to the
which were of great value as food for cattle, were juger. It was recommended to mix the seed with
less luxuriant in the spring-sown (trimnesiris faba) dry manure, and after leaving it in this state for
than in the autumnal crop. Columella recommends four or five days, then to scatter it. A modius and
that beans should be hoed three times, in which a halfrequired eight days'work -ploughing, three;
case they required no weeding. When they had harrowing, one; hoeing, two; weeding, one; pularrived at maturity, they were reaped close to the ling, one. (Cat. 35; Virg. Geoas. i. 228; Colum.
ground, were made up into sheaves (.fsciculi), ii. 10, 12; xi. 2.; Plin. H. N. xviii. 12, 31;
were thrashed by men who tossed the bundles with Pallad. xii. 11; Theophr. H. P. viii. 3; Dioscorid.
forks, trampled them under foot, and beat them ii. 129; Geopon. ii. 37; comp. Martial, xiii. 9. 1
with flails (baculis), and finally, were cleaned by Gell. xviii. 8.)
winnowing. The harvest took place in Central d. Cicer, the pe'CLvOos of the Greeks. The
Italy about the end of May, and hence the first of Oicer arietinum (tcpmts) and the Cicer Punicurn, vaJune was named Calendae Fabcriae, because on rieties of our common chick-pea, were sown in
that day new beans were used in sacred rites. From rich soil, during the month of March, in the profour to six modii of seed required two days' work portion of three modii to the juger, the seeds