XLIX.  When Stolo drew breath, no one asked any questions, and so, believing that enough had been said on the subject of the care of the growing crops, he resumed.

4 deg.  HARVEST TIME

“I will now speak about the gathering of the crops.”

Of the hay harvest

And first of the meadows:  when the grass ceases to grow and begins to dry out with the heat, then it should be cut with scythes and, as it begins to cure, turned with forks.  When it is cured it should be tied in bales and hauled into the steading; then what hay was left lying should be raked together and stacked, and, finally, when this has all been done, the meadow should be gleaned, that is, gone over with the sickle to save what ever grass escaped the mowing, such as that left standing on tussocks.  From this act of cutting (sectare) I think that the word sicilire (to glean with a sickle) is derived.

Of the wheat harvest

L. The word harvest (messis) is properly used with respect to the ingathering of those crops which are reaped, and from this action (metere) its name is derived, but it is mostly used in respect of corn.  There are three methods of harvesting corn, one as in Umbria, where they cradle the straw close to the earth and shock up the sheaves as they are cut:  when a sufficient number of shocks has been made, they go over them again and cut each sheaf between the spikes and the straw, the spikes being thrown into baskets and sent off to the threshing floor, while the straw is left in the field and stacked.  A second method of harvesting is practised in Picenum, where they have a curved wooden header[96] on the edge of which is fixed an iron saw:  when this instrument engages the spikes of grain it cuts them off, leaving the straw standing in the field, where it is afterwards cut.  A third method of harvesting, which is used in the vicinity of Rome and in most places, is to cut the straw in the middle and take away the upper part with the left hand (whence the word to reap [metere] is, I think, derived from the word medium—­connoting a cutting in the middle).  The lower part of the straw which remains standing is cut later,[97] while the rest, which goes with the grain, is hauled off in baskets to the threshing floor and there in an airy place is winnowed with a shovel (pala) from which perhaps the chaff (palea) takes its name.  Some derive the name of straw (stramentum) from the fact that it stands (stare), as they think the word stamen is also derived, while others derive it from the fact that it is spread (strare), because straw is used as litter for cattle.

The grain should be harvested when it is ripe:  it is considered that under normal conditions and in an easy field one man should reap almost a jugerum a day and still have time to carry the grain in baskets to the threshing floor.

The threshing floor