Complete Works of Xenophon (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics) (147 page)

“‘I presume you know that in winter there is a heavy rainfall?’

“‘Of course.’

“‘Let us assume, then, that part of the corn is waterlogged and covered with mud, and some of the roots are exposed by flooding. And it often happens, you know, that in consequence of rain weeds spring up among the corn and choke it.’
[13]

“‘All these things are likely to happen.’

“‘Then don’t you think that in such circumstances the corn needs prompt succour?’

“‘Certainly.’

“‘What should be done, do you think, to succour the part that is under the mud?’

“‘The soil should be lifted.’

“‘And the part that has its roots exposed?’

“‘It should be earthed up.’
[14]

“‘What if weeds are springing up, choking the corn and robbing it of its food, much as useless drones rob bees of the food they have laid in store by their industry?’

“‘The weeds must be cut, of course, just as the drones must be removed from the hive.’
[15]

“‘Don’t you think, then, that we have good reason for putting on men to hoe?’

“‘No doubt; but I am reflecting, Ischomachus, on the advantage of bringing in an apt simile. For you roused my wrath against the weeds by mentioning the drones, much more than when you spoke of mere weeds.’”

18.
“‘However,’ I continued, ‘after this comes reaping, I fancy. So give me any information you can with regard to that too.’

“‘Yes — unless I find that you know just what I do about that subject too. You know, then, that the corn must be cut.’

“‘I know that, naturally.’

“‘Are you for standing with your back to the wind when you cut corn, or facing it?’

“‘Not facing it, no! I think it is irritating both to the eyes and to the hands to reap with cornstalks and spikes blowing in your face.’
[2]

“‘And would you cut near the top or close to the ground?’

“‘If the stalk is short, I should cut low down, so that the straw may be more useful; but if it is long, I think it would be right to cut in the middle, in order that the threshers and winnowers may not spend needless trouble on what they don’t want. I imagine that the stubble may be burnt with advantage to the land, or thrown on the manure heap to increase its bulk.’
[3]

“‘Do you notice, Socrates, that you stand convicted of knowing just what I know about reaping too?’

“‘Yes, it seems so; and I want to know besides whether I understand threshing as well.’

“‘Then you know this much, that draught animals are used in threshing?’
[4]

“‘Yes, of course I do; and that the term draught animals includes oxen, mules and horses.’

“‘Then do you not think that all the beasts know is how to trample on the corn as they are driven?’

“‘Why, what more should draught animals know?’
[5]

“‘And who sees that they tread out the right corn, and that the threshing is level, Socrates?’

“‘The threshers, clearly. By continually turning the untrodden corn and throwing it under the animal’s feet they will, of course, keep it level on the floor and take least time over the work.’

“‘So far, then, your knowledge is quite as good as mine.’
[6]

“‘Will not our next task be to clean the corn by winnowing, Ischomachus?’

“‘Yes, Socrates; and tell me, do you know that if you start on the windward side of the floor, you will find the husks carried right across the floor?’

“‘It must be so.’
[7]

“‘Is it not likely, then, that some will fall on the grain?’

“‘Yes, it is a long way for the husks to be blown, right over the grain to the empty part of the floor.’

“‘But what if you start winnowing against the wind?’

“‘Clearly the chaff will at once fall in the right place.’
[8]

“‘And as soon as you have cleaned the corn over one half of the floor, will you at once go on throwing up the rest of the chaff while the corn lies about just as it is, or will you first sweep the clean corn towards the edge, so as to occupy the smallest space?’

“‘Of course I shall first sweep the clean corn up, so that my chaff may be carried across into the empty space, and I may not have to throw up the same chaff twice.’
[9]

“‘Well, Socrates, it seems you are capable of teaching the quickest way of cleaning corn.’ things; and so I have been thinking for some time whether my knowledge extends to smelting gold, playing the flute, and painting pictures. For I have never been taught these things any more than I have been taught farming; but I have watched men working at these arts, just as I have watched them farming.’
[10]

“‘And didn’t I tell you just now that farming is the noblest art for this among other reasons, because it is the easiest to learn?’

“‘Enough, Ischomachus; I know. I understood about sowing, it seems, but I wasn’t aware that I understood.’”

19.
“‘However, is the planting of fruit trees another branch of agriculture?’ I continued.

“‘It is, indeed,’ answered Ischomachus.

“‘Then how can I understand all about sowing, and yet know nothing of planting?’
[2]

“‘What, don’t you understand it?’

“‘How can I, when I don’t know what kind of soil to plant in, nor how deep a hole to dig, nor how broad, nor how much of the plant should be buried, nor how it must be set in the ground to grow best?’
[3]

“‘Come then, learn whatever you don’t know. I am sure you have seen the sort of trenches they dig for plants.’

“‘Yes, often enough.’

“‘Did you ever see one more than three feet deep?’

“‘No, of course not — nor more than two and a half.’

“‘Well, did you ever see one more than three feet broad?’

“‘Of course not, nor more than two feet.’

“‘Come then, answer this question too.
[4]
Did you ever see one less than a foot deep?’

“‘Never less than a foot and a half, of course. For the plants would come out of the ground when it is stirred about them if they were put in so much too shallow.’
[5]

“‘Then you know this well enough, Socrates, that the trenches are never more than two and a half feet deep, nor less than a foot and a half.’

“‘A thing so obvious as that can’t escape one’s eyes.’
[6]

“‘Again, can you distinguish between dry and wet ground by using your eyes?’

“‘Oh, I should think that the land round Lycabettus and any like it is an example of dry ground, and the low-lying land at Phalerum and any like it of wet.’
[7]

“‘In which then would you dig the hole deep for your plant, in the dry or the wet ground?’

“‘In the dry, of course; because if you dug deep in the wet, you would come on water, and water would stop your planting.’

“‘I think you are quite right. Now suppose the holes are dug; have you ever noticed how the plants for each kind of soil should be put in?’

“‘Oh, yes.’
[8]

“‘Then assuming that you want them to grow as quickly as possible, do you think that if you put some prepared soil under them the cuttings will strike sooner through soft earth into the hard stuff, or through unbroken ground?’

“‘Clearly, they will form roots more quickly in prepared soil than in unbroken ground.’
[9]

“‘Then soil must be placed below the plant?’

“‘No doubt it must.’

“‘And if you set the whole cutting upright, pointing to the sky, do you think it would take root better, or would you lay part of it slanting under the soil that has been put below, so that it lies like a gamma upside down?’
[10]

“‘Of course I would; for then there would be more buds underground; and I notice that plants shoot from the buds above ground, so I suppose that the buds under the ground do just the same; and with many shoots forming underground, the plant will make strong and rapid growth, I suppose.’
[11]

“‘Then it turns out that on these points too your opinion agrees with mine. But would you merely heap up the earth, or make it firm round the plant?’

“‘I should make it firm, of course; for if it were not firm, I feel sure that the rain would make mud of the loose earth, and the sun would dry it up from top to bottom; so the plants would run the risk of damping off through too much water, or withering from too much heat at the roots.’
[12]

“‘About vine planting then, Socrates, your views are again exactly the same as mine.’ too?’ I asked.

“‘Yes, and to all other fruit trees, I think; for in planting other trees why discard anything that gives good results with the vine?’
[13]

“‘But the olive — how shall we plant that, Ischomachus?’

“‘You know quite well, and are only trying to draw me out again. For I am sure you see that a deeper hole is dug for the olive (it is constantly being done on the roadside); you see also that all the growing shoots have stumps adhering to them; and you see that all the heads of the plants are coated with clay, and the part of the plant that is above ground is wrapped up.’
[14]

“‘Yes, I see all this.’

“‘You do! Then what is there in it that you don’t understand? Is it that you don’t know how to put the crocks on the top of the clay, Socrates?’

“‘Of course there is nothing in what you have said that I don’t know, Ischomachus. But I am again set thinking what can have made me answer ‘No’ to the question you put to me a while ago, when you asked me briefly, Did I understand planting? For I thought I should have nothing to say about the right method of planting. But now that you have undertaken to question me in particular, my answers, you tell me, agree exactly with the views of a farmer so famous for his skill as yourself!
[15]
Can it be that questioning is a kind of teaching, Ischomachus? The fact is, I have just discovered the plan of your series of questions! You lead me by paths of knowledge familiar to me, point out things like what I know, and bring me to think that I really know things that I thought I had no knowledge of.’
[16]

“‘Now suppose I questioned you about money,’ said Ischomachus, ‘whether it is good or bad, could I persuade you that you know how to distinguish good from false by test? And by putting questions about flute-players could I convince you that you understand flute-playing; and by means of questions about painters and other artists—’

“‘You might, since you have convinced me that I understand agriculture, though I know that I have never been taught this art.’

“‘No, it isn’t so, Socrates.
[17]
I told you a while ago that agriculture is such a humane, gentle art that you have but to see her and listen to her, and she at once makes you understand her.
[18]
She herself gives you many lessons in the best way of treating her. For instance, the vine climbs the nearest tree, and so teaches you that she wants support. And when her clusters are yet tender, she spreads her leaves about them, and teaches you to shade the exposed parts from the sun’s rays during that period.
[19]
But when it is now time for her grapes to be sweetened by the sun, she sheds her leaves, teaching you to strip her and ripen her fruit. And thanks to her teeming fertility, she shows some mellow clusters while she carries others yet sour, so saying to you: Pluck my grapes as men pluck figs, — choose the luscious ones as they come.’”

20.
“And now I asked, ‘How is it then, Ischomachus, if the operations of husbandry are so easy to learn and all alike know what must needs be done, that all have not the same fortune? How is it that some farmers live in abundance and have more than they want, while others cannot get the bare necessaries of life, and even run into debt?’

“‘Oh, I will tell you, Socrates.
[2]
It is not knowledge nor want of knowledge on the part of farmers that causes one to thrive while another is needy.
[3]
You won’t hear a story like this running about: The estate has gone to ruin because the sower sowed unevenly, or because he didn’t plant the rows straight, or because someone, not knowing the right soil for vines, planted them in barren ground, or because someone didn’t know that it is well to prepare the fallow for sowing, or because someone didn’t know that it is well to manure the land.
[4]
No, you are much more likely to hear it said: The man gets no corn from his field because he takes no trouble to see that it is sown or manured. Or, The man has got no wine, for he takes no trouble to plant vines or to make his old stock bear. Or, The man has neither olives nor figs, because he doesn’t take the trouble; he does nothing to get them.
[5]
It is not the farmers reputed to have made some clever discovery in agriculture who differ in fortune from others: it is things of this sort that make all the difference, Socrates.
[6]
This is true of generals also: there are some branches of strategy in which one is better or worse than another, not because he differs in intelligence, but in point of carefulness, undoubtedly. For the things that all generals know, and most privates, are done by some commanders and left undone by others.
[7]
For example, they all know that when marching through an enemy’s country, the right way is to march in the formation in which they will fight best, if need be. Well, knowing this, some observe the rule, others break it.
[8]
All know that it is right to post sentries by day and night before the camp; but this too is a duty that some attend to, while others neglect it.
[9]
Again, where will you find the man who does not know that, in marching through a defile, it is better to occupy the points of vantage first? Yet this measure of precaution too is duly taken by some and neglected by others.
[10]
So, too, everyone will say that in agriculture there is nothing so good as manure, and their eyes tell them that nature produces it. All know exactly how it is produced, and it is easy to get any amount of it; and yet, while some take care to have it collected, others care nothing about it.
[11]
Yet the rain is sent from heaven, and all the hollows become pools of water, and the earth yields herbage of every kind which must be cleared off the ground by the sower before sowing; and the rubbish he removes has but to be thrown into water, and time of itself will make what the soil likes. For every kind of vegetation, every kind of soil in stagnant water turns into manure.
[12]