A common knowledge of agriculture, like a common knowledge of the alphabet, of war chariots, of purple, and other implements and ornaments, far more frequently warrants the inference of an ancient intercourse between nations than of their original unity.

But as regards the Greeks and Italians, whose mutual relations are comparatively well known, the hypothesis that agriculture as well as writing and coinage first came to Italy by means of the Hellenes may be characterized as wholly inadmissible.
On the other hand, the existence of a most intimate connection between the agriculture of the one country and that of the other is attested by their possessing in common all the oldest expressions relating to it; -ager-, -- agros--; -aro aratrum-, -- aroo arotron--; -ligo-alongside of -- lachaino--; -hortus-, -- chortos--; -hordeum-, -- krithei--; -milium-, -- melinei--; -rapa-, -- raphanis-; -malva-, -- malachei--; -vinum-, -- oinos--.

It is likewise attested by the agreement of Greek and Italian agriculture in the form of the plough, which appears of the same shape on the old Attic and the old Roman monuments; in the choice of the most ancient kinds of grain, millet, barley, spelt; in the custom of cutting the ears with the sickle and having them trodden out by cattle on the smooth-beaten threshing-floor; lastly, in the mode of preparing the grain -puls- -- poltos--, -pinso- -- ptisso--, -mola- -- mulei--; for baking was of more recent origin, and on that account dough or pap was always used in the Roman ritual instead of bread.

That the culture of the vine too in Italy was anterior to the earliest Greek immigration, is shown by the appellation "wine-land" (-- Oinotria--), which appears to reach back to the oldest visits of Greek voyagers.

It would thus appear that the transition from pastoral life to agriculture, or, to speak more correctly, the combination of agriculture with the earlier pastoral economy, must have taken place after the Indians had departed from the common cradle of the nations, but before the Hellenes and Italians dissolved their ancient communion.