griculture," he said.

"Yes, by Hercules," said Scrofa, "and especially in his recipe for
removing superfluous hair, in which he bids you take a yellow frog and
stew it down to a third of its size and then rub the body with what is
left."[56]

"I would rather cite," said I, "Sasernas' prescription for the malady
from which Fundanius suffers, for his corns make wrinkles on his
brow."

"Tell me, pray, quickly," exclaimed Fundanius, "for I had rather learn
how to root out my corns than how to plant beet roots."

"I will tell you," said Stolo, "in the very words he wrote it, or at
least as I heard Tarquenna read it: 'When a man's feet begin to hurt
he should think of you to enable you to cure him.'"

"I am thinking of you," said Fundanius, "now cure my feet."

"Listen to the incantation," said Stolo.

'May the earth keep the malady,
May good health remain here.'

Saserna bids you chant this formula thrice nine times, to touch the
earth, to spit and be sure that you do it all before breakfast."

"You will find," said I, "many other wonderful secrets in Saserna, all
equally foreign to agriculture, and so all to be left where they are.
But it must be admitted that such digressions are found in many other
authors. Does not the agricultural treatise of the great Cato himself
fairly bristle with them, as for instance his instructions how to make
must cake and cheese cake, and how to cure hams?"

"You forget," said Agrius, "his most important precept: 'If you wish
to drink freely and dine well in company, you should eat five leaves
of raw cabbage steeped in vinegar, before sitting down to the table.'"

_b. What agriculture is_

III. "And so," said Agrasius, "as we have agreed upon and eliminated
from the discussion all those things which agriculture is not, it
remains to discuss what it is. Is it an art, and, if so, what are its
principles and its purposes?"

Stolo turned to Scrofa and said: "You are our senior in age, in
reputation and in experience, you should speak." And Scrofa, nothing
loath, began as follows:

"In the first place, agriculture is not only an art but an art which
is as useful as it is important. It is furthermore a science, which
teaches how every kind of land should be planted and cultivated, and
how to know what kind of land will produce the largest crops for the
longest time.[57]"

_The purposes of agriculture are profit and pleasure_

IV. The elements with which this science dea