Roman Farm Management eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 336 pages of information about Roman Farm Management.

Roman Farm Management eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 336 pages of information about Roman Farm Management.

If you have irrigated meadows, proceed to water them at this season, as soon as you have saved the hay.

During droughts water your grafted fruit trees every evening.  They probably derive their name, (poma), from their appetite for drink (potus).

4 deg. June 24-July 21

XXXII.  During the fourth season between the summer solstice and the rising of the Dog Star most farmers make their harvest, because it is claimed that to mature properly corn should be allowed fifteen days to germinate and shoot, fifteen days to bloom and fifteen days to ripen.

Finish your ploughing:  it will be more profitable in proportion as the earth is ploughed warm, when the land is broken up, fine it, that is, work it again in order that all the clods may be reduced, for at the first ploughing large clods are always turned up.  This is the time also to sow vetch, lentils, the small variety of chick peas, pulse (ervilia) and the other things which we call legumes, but which others, as for example the Gauls, call legarica, both of which names come from the practice of picking their fruit (legere) because they are not cut but gathered.

Work the old vines a second time and the young ones thrice, especially if there are any clods left.

5 deg. July 21-September 26

XXXIII.  During the fifth season between the rising of the Dog Star and the autumn equinox thresh your straw and rick it, continue the harrowing of your fallow land, prune your fruit trees, and mow your irrigated meadow the second time.

6 deg. September 26-October 28

XXXIV.  The authorities advise you to begin to sow at the commencement of the sixth season immediately after the autumn equinox and to keep it up for the following 91 days, but not to attempt to sow any thing after the winter solstice, unless it is absolutely necessary, because seed sown before the winter solstice germinates in seven days, while that sown later hardly ever sprouts for 40 days.

In like manner the authorities say that you should not begin your sowing before the equinox, lest continued rains cause the seed to rot in the ground.  The best time to plant beans is at the setting of the Pleiades, but gather the grapes and make the vintage between the equinox and the setting of the Pleiades.  Immediately afterward begin to prune the vines, to propagate them and plant fruit trees, but in those regions where the frost comes early it is better to postpone these operations until the following spring.

7 deg. October 28-December 24.

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Roman Farm Management from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.