Page:The history of Rome. Translated with the author's sanction and additions.djvu/217

Rh, several of which stood in the Palatine and in the Roman Forum ;.

The farmer and his sons guided the plough, and performed generally the necessary labours of husbandry: it is not probable that slaves or free day-labourers were regularly employed in the work of the ordinary farm. The plough was drawn by the ox or by the cow; horses, asses, and mules served as beasts of burden. The rearing of cattle for the production of butchers' meat or of milk did not exist at all as a distinct branch of husbandry, or was prosecuted only to a very limited extent, at least on land remaining the property of the clan; but, in addition to the smaller cattle which were driven out together to the common pasture, swine and poultry, particularly geese, were kept upon the farm. As a general rule, there was no end of ploughing and re-ploughing: a field was reckoned imperfectly tilled, in which the furrows were not drawn so close that harrowing could be dispensed with; but the method of culture was more earnest than intelligent, and no improvement took place in the defective plough, or in the imperfect processes of reaping and of thrashing. This result is probably attributable rather to the scanty development of rational mechanics than to the obstinate clinging of the farmers to use and wont; for mere attachment to the system of tillage transmitted with the patrimonial soil was far from influencing the practical Italian; and evident improvements in agriculture, such as the cultivation of fodder-plants and the irrigation of meadows, were probably adopted from neighbouring peoples or independently developed by themselves at an early period. Roman literature itself in fact began with the discussion of the theory of agriculture. Welcome rest followed diligent and judicious labour; and here too religion asserted her right to soothe the toils of lite to the common man by pauses of refreshment and of greater freedom of movement. Four times a month, and therefore on an average every eighth day (nonæ), the farmer went to town to buy and sell and transact his other business. But rest from labour, in the strict sense, took place only on the several festival days, and especially in the holiday-month after the completion of the winter sowing (feriæ sementivæ): during these set terms the plough rested by command of the