New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1917-07-11
Form Lore KnoaUn of Old.

Form Lore KmoUn of Old.
Ancient wise men were familiar with
the intensive farming plans now taken
up by the United States as war measure
Allen Maui, development agent OF
an Atlantic coast line steamship company
claims that this is fact, and brings proof
that he is correct in his contention. He
says that many of the intensive farming
schemes now used and advocated as war
measures in this country, and believed
to be strictly modern, are in reality
similar to those used in the time of
classic Greece and Rome.
Mr.. Maull declares that ancient
literature of farm management is
volumirous. Varro, he says, cites fifty
Greek authors whose works on the SUBJ
ject were of great value. Margo of
Carthage wrote treatise on agriculture
in the Punic tongue, which was so highly
esteemed that the Roman senate ordered
it translated into Latin. ~ ~
Varro stated one of the most funda-
mental things relating to farming when
he said that the obligations of every
farmer are, "the ability to- make full
and comfortable living from the land;
to rear family comfortably and well; to
be of good service to the community;
to leave the farm more productive than
when he took it" In this last clause is
embodied one of the most important
rules of so-called modern farming.
Soiling, seed selection, the testing of
soil for sourness, intensive cultivation OF
fallow as we'll as crop, conservative
rotation, the Importance of livestock in
system of general farming, the preser-
walton of the chemical content OF
fertilizer and the composing of the
rubbish of farm, we're some OF the
things relating to farm operations which
the ancient Greeks and Romans knew,
but they brot to their operations some
thing more, which we have not alto
gether learned-the character which
made them a people of enduring achieve
ment. The Greeks and Romans achieved
| their results by thoroness and patience.
They realized there are no shortcuts in
the processes of nature, and that the
law of compensation is invariable.
Columella, Spaniard, in the second
century before Christ, said it was Cato
that taught agriculture to speak Latin,"
and it is a known fact that Virgil and
Varro wrote agricultural history in the
Ausustan period. Marcus Terentius
Varro, whom many call the most modern
of the ancients, and whom Quintillian
called the most learned of the Romans,
studied agriculture before he studied
anything else, and wrote his "Recum
Rusticarium' in his eightieth year.
Marcus Porcius Cato, known to
students as the elder Cato, was type
of Roman produced in the vigorous days
of the Republic He it was who put his
finger on the true reason why scientific
agriculture frequently fails to pay, when
he said: ''The man who does not depend
on his land for his living too often permits
his farm to get the spending habit"
The Romans had another maxim
which has distinct connection with
the present day advice now being given
so freely to Minnesota farmers, and
which does not exactly agree with
that which is being daily preached. 1t
was, Nothing is so Instantaneous as
to cultivate land in the highest style CT
perfection"
Pliny also said, ''To cultivate land will
be absolutely necessary, but to cultivate
it in the highest degree is mere ex-
travagance, unless, indeed the work is
done by the mans own family, his tenants
or those whom he is obliged to keep"
MARCO was evidently looking down
the vistas of time when he said that the
farmer should be no larger than his farm
meaning that no man should attempt to
cultivate more acres than he has the
labor and intelligence to handle.
Mr.. Maui has a large collection of the
writings of ancient authorities on agrl-
culture, and it is certain that some of the
present-day self-appointed advisors Of
Minnesota farmers could learn con
siderable by reading up along the lines
of the old-time agriculturalists.