He next treats of the management of vineyards and olives; the proper mode of planting, grafting, propping, and fencing: And he is here naturally led to furnish directions for making and preserving the different sorts of wine and oil; as also to specify how much of each is to be allowed to the servants of the family.
In discoursing of the cultivation of fields for corn, Cato enjoins the farmer to collect all sorts of weeds for manure. Pigeons' dung he prefers to that of every animal. He gives orders for burning lime, and for making charcoal and ashes from the branches or twigs of trees. The Romans seem to have been at great pains in draining their fields; and Cato directs the formation both of open and covered drains. Oxen being employed in ploughing the fields, instructions are added for feeding and taking due care of them. The Roman plough has been a subject of much discussion: Two sorts are mentioned by Cato, which he calls _Romanicum_, and _Campanicum_--the first being proper for a stiff, and the other for a light soil. Dickson conjectures, that the _Romanicum_ had an iron Share, and the _Campanicum_ a piece of timber, like the Scotch plough, and a sock driven upon it. The plough, with other agricultural implements, as the _crates_, _rastrum_, _ligo_, and _sarculum_, most of which are mentioned by Cato, form a curious point of Roman antiquities.
The preservation of corn, after it has been reaped, is a subject of much importance, to which Cato has paid particular attention. This was a matter of considerable difficulty in Italy, in the time of the Romans; and all their agricultural writers are extremely minute in their directions for preserving it from rot, and from the depredations of insects, by which it was frequently consumed.
A great part of the work of Cato is more appropriate to the housewife than the farmer. We have receipts for making all sorts of cakes and puddings, fattening hens and geese, preserving figs during winter; as also medical prescriptions for the cure of various diseases, both of man and beast. _Mala punica_, or pomegranates, are the chief ingredient, in his remedies, for Diarrhoea, Dyspepsia, and Stranguary. Sometimes, however, his cures for diseases are not medical recipes, but sacrifices, atonements, or charms. The prime of all is his remedy for a luxation or fracture.--"Take," says he, "a green reed, and slit it along the middle--throw the knife upwards, and join the two parts of the reed again, and tie it so to the place broken or disjointed, and say this charm--'Daries, Dardaries, Astataries, Dissunapiter.' Or this--'Huat, Hanat, Huat, Ista, Pista, Fista, Domiabo, Damnaustra.' This will make the part sound again(18)."