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[Transcriber's note: The extensive and lengthy footnotes have beenrenumbered and placed at the end of the book.]
1918
The present editor made the acquaintance of Cato and Varro standing ata book stall on the Quai Voltaire in Paris, and they carried him awayin imagination, during a pleasant half hour, not to the vineyards andolive yards of Roman Italy, but to the blue hills of a far distantVirginia where the corn was beginning to tassel and the fat cattlewere loafing in the pastures. Subsequently, when it appeared thatthere was then no readily available English version of the Romanagronomists, this translation was made, in the spirit of old PieroVettori, the kindly Florentine scholar, whose portrait was painted byTitian and whose monument may still be seen in the Church of SantoSpirito: in the preface of his edition of Varro he says that heundertook the work, not for the purpose of displaying his learning,but to aid others in the study of an excellent author. Victorius wasjustified by his scholarship and the present editor has no suchclaim to attention: he, therefore, makes the confession frankly (toanticipate perhaps such criticism as Bentley's "a very pretty poem,Mr. Pope, but don't call it Homer") and offers the little book tothose who love the country, and to read about the country amidst thecrowded life of towns, with the hope that they may find in it somemeasure of the pleasure it has afforded the editor.
The texts and commentaries used have been those of Schneider and Keil,the latter more accurate but the former more sympathetic.
F.H. BELVOIR,
Fauquier County,
Virginia.
December, 1912.
The call for a reprint of this book has afforded the opportunity tocorrect some errors and to make several additions to the notes.
In withholding his name from the title page the editor sought not somuch to conceal his identity as to avoid the appearance of a parade inwhat was to him the unwonted field of polite literature. As, however,he is neither ashamed of the book nor essays the rôle of
A violet by a mossy stone
Half hidden from the eye,
he now and here signs his name.
BELVOIR HOUSE,
Christmas, 1917.
* * * * *
Introduction: Of the Dignity of the Farmer
Of Buying a Farm
Of the Duties of the Owner
Of Laying out the Farm
Of Stocking the Farm
Of the Duties of the Overseer
Of the Duties of the Housekeeper
Of the Hands
Of Draining
Of Preparing the Seed Bed
Of Manure
Of Soil Improvement
Of Forage Crops
Of Planting
Of Pastures
Of Feeding Live Stock
Of the Care of Live Stock