st and Present_.

It remained for Jethro Tull of the _Horseshoeing Husbandry_ to unloose
in England the long spell of the magic of Virgil's poetry upon
practical agriculture.]

[Footnote 84: The Julian calendar, which took effect on January 1, B.C.
45, had been in use only eight years when Varro was writing.]

[Footnote 85: Schneider and others have attempted to emend the
enumeration of the days in this succession of seasons, but Keil
justly observes: "As we do not know what principle Varro followed in
establishing these divisions of the year, it is safer to set them
down as they are written in the codex than to be tempted by uncertain
emendation." I have accordingly followed Keil here.]

[Footnote 86: The practice of ridging land seeded to grain was
necessary before the invention of the modern drill. Dickson, in his
_Husbandry of the Ancients_, XXIV, argues that, while wasteful of
land, it had the advantage of preventing the grain from lodging.
Walter of Henley, who followed the Roman methods by tradition without
knowing it, advises with them that to be successful in this kind of
seeding the furrow at the last ploughing of the fallow should be so
narrow as to be indistinguishable. "At sowing do not plough large
furrows," he says, "but little and well laid together that the seed
may fall evenly: if you plough a large furrow to be quick you will do
harm. How? I will tell you. When, the ground is sown then the harrow
will come and pull the corn into the hollow which is between the two
ridges and the large ridge shall be uncovered, then no corn shall grow
there. And will you see this? When the corn is above ground go to the
end of the ridge and you will see that I tell you truly. And if the
land must be sown below the ridge see that it is ploughed with small
furrows and the earth raised as much as you are able. And see that the
ridge which is between the two furrows is narrow. And let the earth,
which lies like a crest in the furrow under the left foot after the
plough, be over-turned, and then shall the furrow be narrow enough."]

[Footnote 87: Farrago was a mixture of refuse _far_, or spelt, with
vetch, sown thick and cut green to be fed to cattle in the process
now called soiling. The English word "forage" comes from this Latin
original.]

[Footnote 88: Spanish American engineers today insert in their
specifications for lumber the stipulation that it be cut on the wane
of the moon. The rural confidence in the inf