§ 1.pr.1  Book I Preface
Again and again I hear leading men of our state condemning now the unfruitfulness of the soil, now the inclemency of the climate for some seasons past, as harmful to crops; and some I hear reconciling the aforesaid complaints, as if on well-founded reasoning, on the ground that, in their opinion, the soil was worn out and exhausted by the over-production of earlier days and can no longer furnish sustenance to mortals with its old-time benevolence.

§ 1.pr.2  Such reasons, Publius Silvinus, I am convinced are far from the truth; for it is a sin to suppose that Nature, endowed with perennial fertility by the creator of the universe, is affected with barrenness as though with some disease; and it is unbecoming to a man of good judgment to believe that Earth, to whose lot was assigned a divine and everlasting youth, and who is called the common mother of all things — because she has always brought forth all things and is destined to bring them forth continuously — has grown old in mortal fashion.

§ 1.pr.3  And, furthermore, I do not believe that such misfortunes come upon us as a result of the fury of the elements, but rather because of our own fault; for the matter of husbandry, which all the best of our ancestors had treated with the best of care, we have delivered over to all the worst of our slaves, as if to a hangman for punishment.
As for me, I cannot cease to wonder why those who wish to become speakers are so careful in the choosing of an orator whose eloquence they may imitate; those who investigate the science of surveying and mathematics emulate a master of the art of their choice; those who devote themselves to the study of dancing and music are most scrupulous in their search for one to teach modulation of the speaking and singing voice, and no less for an instructor in graceful movement of the body;

§ 1.pr.4  even those who wish to build call in joiners and master-builders; those who entrust ships to the sea send for skilful pilots; those who make preparations for war call for men practised in arms and in campaigning; and, not to go through the list one by one, for any study which one wishes to pursue he employs the most expert director; in short, everyone summons from the company of the wise a man to mould his intellect and instruct him in the precepts of virtue; but agriculture alone, which is without doubt most closely related and, as it were, own sister to wisdom, is as destitute of learners as of teachers.

§ 1.pr.5  For that there are to this day schools for rhetoricians and, as I have said, for mathematicians and musicians, or, what is more to be wondered at, training-schools for the most contemptible vices — the seasoning of food to promote gluttony and the more extravagant serving of courses, and dressers of the head and hair — I have not only heard but have even seen with my own eyes; but of agriculture I know neither self-professed teachers nor pupils.

§ 1.pr.6  For even if the state were destitute of professors of the aforementioned arts, still the commonwealth could prosper just as in the times of the ancients — for without the theatrical profession and even without case-pleaders cities were once happy enough, and will again be so; yet without tillers of the soil it is obvious that mankind can neither subsist nor be fed.

§ 1.pr.7  For this reason, what has come to pass is the more amazing — that the art of the highest importance to our physical welfare and the needs of life should have made, even up to our own time, the least progress; and that this method of enlarging and passing on an inheritance, entirely free from guilt, should be looked upon with scorn. For other methods, diverse and in conflict as it were, are at odds with justice; unless we think it more equitable to have acquired spoils by the soldier's method, which profits us nothing without bloodshed and disaster to others.

§ 1.pr.8  Or, to those who detest war, can the hazard of the sea and of trade be more desirable, that man, a terrestrial being, violating the law of nature and exposing himself to the wrath of wind and sea, should hang on the waves and always wander over an unknown world in the manner of birds, a stranger on a distant shore? Or is usury more commendable, a thing detested even by those whom it appears to aid?

§ 1.pr.9  But certainly no more admirable is the “canine pursuit,” as the ancients called it, of barking at every man of outstanding wealth, and the practice of legal banditry against the innocent and in defence of the guilty — a fraud despised by our ancestors, but even allowed by us within the city and in the very forum. Or should I regard as more honourable the hypocritical fawning of the man who frequents the levees, for a price, and hovers about the thresholds of the mighty, divining the sleeping hours of his lord by hearsay? For the servants do not deign to reply to his questions as to what is going on indoors.

§ 1.pr.10  Or am I to think it a greater gift of fortune for a man, rebuffed by a door-keeper in chains, to loiter about those ungrateful doors, often until late at night, and by the most demeaning servility to purchase at the price of dishonour the honour and power of the fasces, though with the dissipation of his own inheritance? For it is not with voluntary servitude, but with bribes, that preferments are bought.
If good men are to shun these pursuits and their kind, there remains, as I have said, one method of increasing one's substance that befits a man who is a gentleman and free-born, and this is found in agriculture.

§ 1.pr.11  If the precepts of this science were put in practice in the old-fashioned way, even in imprudent fashion by those without previous instruction (provided, however, that they were owners of the land), the business of husbandry would sustain smaller loss; for the diligence that goes with proprietorship would compensate in large measure the losses occasioned by lack of knowledge; and men whose interests were at stake would not wish to appear forever ignorant of their own affairs, and for that reason more zealous to learn, they would gain a thorough knowledge of husbandry.

§ 1.pr.12  As it is, we think it beneath us to till our lands with our own hands, and we consider it of no importance to appoint as an overseer a man of very great experience or at least, if he is inexperienced, one who is wide-awake and active, that he may learn more quickly what he does not know. But if a rich man purchases a farm, out of his throng of footmen and litter-bearers he sends off to the fields the one most bankrupt in years and strength, whereas such work requires, not only knowledge, but the age of vigour and physical strength as well, to endure its hardships; or, if the owner is of moderate means, out of the number of his hands for hire he orders someone who now refuses him the daily tribute money, since the man cannot be a source of income, to be made a foreman, though he may know nothing of the work which he is to superintend.

§ 1.pr.13  When I observe these things, reviewing in my mind and reflecting upon the shameful unanimity with which rural discipline has been abandoned and passed out of use, I am fearful lest it may be disgraceful and, in a sense, degrading or dishonourable to men of free birth. But when I am reminded by the records of many writers that it was a matter of pride with our forefathers to give their attention to farming, from which pursuit came Quinctius Cincinnatus, summoned from the plough to the dictatorship to be the deliverer of a beleaguered consul and his army, and then, again laying down the power which he relinquished after victory more hastily than he had assumed it for command, to return to the same bullocks and his small ancestral inheritance of four iugera;

§ 1.pr.14  from which pursuit came also Gaius Fabricius and Curius Dentatus, the one after his rout of Pyrrhus from the confines of Italy, the other after his conquest of the Sabines, tilling the captured land which they had received in the distribution of seven iugera to a man, with an energy not inferior to the bravery in arms with which they had gained it; and, not unseasonably to run through individual cases at this time, when I observe that so many other renowned captains of Roman stock were invariably distinguished in this twofold pursuit of either defending or tilling their ancestral or acquired estates, I understand that yesterday's morals and strenuous manner of living are out of tune with our present extravagance and devotion to pleasure.

§ 1.pr.15  For, even as Marcus Varro complained in the days of our grandfathers, all of us who are heads of families have quit the sickle and the plough and have crept within the city-walls; and we ply our hands in the circuses and theatres rather than in the grainfields and vineyards; and we gaze in astonished admiration at the posturings of effeminate males, because they counterfeit by their womanish motions a sex which nature has denied to men, and deceive the eyes of the spectators.

§ 1.pr.16  And presently, then, that we may come to our gluttonous feasts in proper fettle, we steam out our daily indigestion in sweat-baths, and by drying out the moisture of our bodies we arouse a thirst; we spend our nights in licentiousness and drunkenness, our days in gaming or sleeping, and account ourselves blessed by fortune in that “we behold neither the rising of the sun nor its setting.”

§ 1.pr.17  The consequence is that ill health attends so slothful a manner of living; for the bodies of our young men are so flabby and enervated that death seems likely to make no change in them.
But, by heaven, that true stock of Romulus, practised in constant hunting and no less in toiling in the fields, was distinguished by the greatest physical strength and, hardened by the labours of peace, easily endured the hardships of war when occasion demanded, and always esteemed the common people of the country more highly than those of the city. For as those who kept within the confines of the country houses were accounted more slothful than those who tilled the ground outside, so those who spent their time idly within the walls, in the shelter of the city, were looked upon as more sluggish than those who tilled the fields or supervised the labours of the tillers.

§ 1.pr.18  It is evident, too, that their market-day gatherings were employed for this purpose — that city affairs might be transacted on every ninth day and country affairs on the other days. For in those times, as we have previously remarked, the leading men of the state used to pass their time in the fields and were summoned from their farms to the senate when advice on matters of state was wanted; as a result of which those who summoned them were called viatores or “road-men.”

§ 1.pr.19  And so long as this custom was preserved, with a most persevering enthusiasm for tilling their lands, those old Sabine Quirites and our Roman forefathers, even though exposed to fire and sword, and despite the devastation of their crops by hostile forays, still laid by a greater store of crops than do we, who, with the sufferance of long-continued peace, might have extended the practice of agriculture.

§ 1.pr.20  So, then, in “this Latium and Saturnian land,” where the gods had taught their offspring of the fruits of the fields, we let contracts at auction for the importation of grain from our provinces beyond the sea, that we may not suffer hunger; and we lay up our stores of wine from the Cyclades Islands and from the districts of Baetica and Gaul. Nor is it to be wondered at, seeing that the common notion is now generally entertained and established that farming is a mean employment and a business which has no need of direction or of precept.

§ 1.pr.21  But for my part, when I review the magnitude of the entire subject, like the immensity of some great body, or the minuteness of its several parts, as so many separate members, I am afraid that my last day may overtake me before I can comprehend the entire subject of rural discipline.

§ 1.pr.22  For one who would profess to be a master of this science must have a shrewd insight into the works of nature; he must not be ignorant of the variations of latitude, that he may have ascertained what is suitable to every region and what is incompatible. He should tell over in his mind the rising and setting of the stars, that he may not begin his operations when rains and winds are threatening, and so bring his toils to naught.

§ 1.pr.23  He must observe the behaviour of the current weather and season, for they do not always wear the same habit as if according to a fixed rule; summer and winter do not come every year with the same countenance; the spring is not always rainy or the autumn moist. These matters I cannot believe that any man can know beforehand without the light of intelligence and without the most accurate instruction. Indeed, it is granted to few to discern what the very diversity of land and the nature of each soil may deny us, or what they may promise us.

§ 1.pr.24  Of how many, in fact, is it the lot to survey all parts of this science, so as thoroughly to understand the practice of cropping and ploughing and to have an accurate knowledge of the varied and very unlike types of soil (of which some deceive us by their colour, some by their texture; in some lands the black soil which they call pulla, as in Campania, is commended; in others a fat, glutinous soil answers better; in some countries, as in Africa and Numidia, a crumbling, sandy soil surpasses in fertility even the strongest land; while in Asia and Mysia a stiff and viscous soil is especially productive)?

§ 1.pr.25  Of how many is it the lot to have an understanding in the matter of these soils, as to what crop a hillside will refuse to yield, what a level situation, what a cultivated land, what a wooded land, what a land that is moist and grassy or dry and blasted; to discern also the method of planting and tending trees and vineyards, of which there are endless varieties; and of acquiring and keeping cattle, since we have admitted this as a part of agriculture, though the herdsman's art is distinct from husbandry?

§ 1.pr.26  And yet even this is not of one pattern; for a stud of horses requires one kind of management; a herd of cattle another; a flock of sheep still another, and of these the Tarentine breed demands a different method from the coarse-wooled; a still different treatment is required by the goat kind, and of these the hornless and thin-haired are cared for in one way, the horned and shaggy-haired, as in Cilicia, in another way. Moreover, the business of the swine-breeder and swineherd is different, their method of feeding is different; nor do light-coated and heavy-coated swine require the same climate, rearing, and care.

§ 1.pr.27  And, to take my leave of cattle, as a part of which the care of farmyard poultry and bees is reckoned, who has extended his studies so far as to be acquainted, in addition to the points which I have enumerated, with the many methods of grafting and pruning? to put in practice the cultivation of the many fruits and vegetables? to devote his attention to the many varieties of figs as well as to rose-gardens, when even greater things are neglected by most people even though they have now begun to be, for many farmers, not the least part of their revenue?

§ 1.pr.28  For meadows and willow-thickets, broom-plants and reeds, though they require little attention, still require some.
After this announcement of subjects so many and so varied, it does not escape me that, if I demand, of those who are concerned with farm-work, the farmer whom we seek and shall describe, the enthusiasm of the learners will be cooled; for, being disheartened by the hopelessness of mastering so varied and so vast a science, they will not wish to try what they distrust their ability to attain.

§ 1.pr.29  Nevertheless, as Marcus Tullius has very properly said in his Orator, it is right that those who have an earnest desire to investigate subjects of the greatest utility for the human race, and to transmit to posterity their carefully weighed findings, should try everything. And if the force of an outstanding genius or the equipment of celebrated arts is wanting, we should not immediately relapse into idleness and sloth, but rather that which we have wisely hoped for we should steadfastly pursue. For if only we aim at the topmost peak, it will be honour enough for us to be seen even on the second summit.

§ 1.pr.30  Have not the Muses of Latium admitted to their sanctuaries, not Accius and Vergil alone, but also assigned seats of honour to those next to them and to those far from second rank? The far-famed fulminations of Cicero did not deter from the pursuit of eloquence Brutus or Caelius, Pollio or Messala or Calvus; for Cicero himself had not yielded in fright to the thunderings of Demosthenes and Plato, and the father of eloquence, that divine Maeonian, with the mighty floods of his rhetoric had not quenched the zeal of those who came after him.

§ 1.pr.31  And we observe that even artists of lesser fame, who through these many generations have been admirers of Protogenes and Apelles and Parrhasius, have not ceased from their own labours; and, though stunned by the beauty of Phidias' Olympian Jove and of his Minerva, men of the succeeding age, Bryaxis, Lysippus, Praxiteles, and Polyclitus, were not reluctant to try what they could do or how far they could advance. But in every branch of knowledge the highest have attained to admiration and reverence, and those of lesser worth have received their meed of praise.

§ 1.pr.32  Added to this is that in the case of the man whom we wish to be a finished husbandman, even though he be not a man of consummate skill, though he may not have attained to the sagacity of a Democritus or a Pythagoras in the nature of the universe, and the foreknowledge of Meton or Eudoxus in the movements of the stars and the winds, the learning of Chiron and Melampus in the care of cattle and the prudent wisdom of Triptolemus or Aristaeus in the tilling of the fields and the soil, still he will have made great progress if he has equalled in practice our own Tremelliuses and Sasernas and Stolos.

§ 1.pr.33  For agriculture can be conducted without the greatest mental acuteness, but not on the other hand, “by the fat-witted,” to use a frequent expression. For far from the truth is the belief, held by many, that the business of husbandry is extremely easy and requires no mental keenness. There is no occasion for further discussion of the subject as a whole at this point, inasmuch as its several divisions are to be set forth in the several Books assigned to them, which I shall carry through, each in its own order, but only after I have said by way of preface what I judge to be especially pertinent to the science in general.
Book I

§ 1.1.1  One who devotes himself to agriculture should understand that he must call to his assistance these most fundamental resources: knowledge of the subject, means for defraying the expenses, and the will to do the work. For in the end, as Tremelius remarks, he will have the best-tilled lands who has the knowledge, the wherewithal, and the will to cultivate them. For the knowledge and willingness will not suffice anyone without the means which the tasks require;

§ 1.1.2  on the other hand, the will to do or the ability to make the outlay will be of no use without knowledge of the art, since the main thing in every enterprise is to know what has to be done — and especially so in agriculture, where willingness and means, without knowledge, frequently bring great loss to owners when work which has been done in ignorance brings to naught the expense incurred.

§ 1.1.3  Accordingly, an attentive head of a household, whose heart is set on pursuing a sure method of increasing his fortune from the tillage of his land, will take especial pains to consult on every point the most experienced farmers of his own time; he should study zealously the manuals of the ancients, gauging the opinions and teachings of each of them, to see whether the records handed down by his forefathers are suited in their entirety to the husbandry of his day or are out of keeping in some respects.

§ 1.1.4  For I have found that many authorities now worthy of remembrance were convinced that with the long wasting of the ages, weather and climate undergo a change; and that among them the most learned professional astronomer, Hipparchus, has put it on record that the time will come when the poles will change position, a statement to which Saserna, no mean authority on husbandry, seems to have given credence.

§ 1.1.5  For in that book on agriculture which he has left behind he concludes that the position of the heavens had changed from this evidence: that regions which formerly, because of the unremitting severity of winter, could not safeguard any shoot of the vine or the olive planted in them, now that the earlier coldness has abated and the weather is becoming more clement, produce olive harvests and the vintages of Bacchus in the greatest abundance. But whether this theory be true or false, we must leave it to the writings on astronomy.

§ 1.1.6  Other precepts of husbandry are not to be concealed from the tiller of the soil; and while Punic writers from Africa have handed them down in large numbers, yet many of them are assailed as erroneous by our farmers, as, for example, by Tremelius, who, though he brings this very charge, provides the excuse that the soil and the climate of Italy and of Africa, being of a different nature, cannot produce the same results. But whatever the causes by reason of which the agricultural practice of our times is at variance with the ancient principles, they should not discourage the learner from reading them; for in the works of the ancients far more is found to merit our approval than our rejection.

§ 1.1.7  There is, furthermore, a great throng of Greeks who give instruction on husbandry; and the first of them, that most renowned poet, Hesiod of Boeotia, has contributed in no small degree to our art. It was then further assisted by men who have come from the well-spring of philosophy — Democritus of Abdera, Xenophon the follower of Socrates, Archytas of Tarentum, and the two Peripatetics, master and pupil, Aristotle and Theophrastus.

§ 1.1.8  Sicilians, too, have pursued that occasion with no ordinary zeal, Hieron and Epicharmus, whose pupil was even Attalus Philometor. Athens assuredly has been the mother of a host of writers, of whom our most outstanding authorities are Chaereas, Aristandrus, Amphilochus, Euphronius, and Chrestus — Euphronius being not, as many believe, the Euphronius of Amphipolis (who is himself regarded as a praiseworthy farmer), but a native of Attica.

§ 1.1.9  The islands, too, have honoured the study, as witness Epigenes of Rhodes, Agathocles of Chios, and Evagon and Anaxipolis of Thasos. Menander and Diodorus also, fellow-countrymen of the renowned Bias, one of the Seven, were among the first to lay claim to a knowledge of agriculture. Not inferior to these are Bacchius and Mnaseas of Miletus, Antigonus of Cyme, Apollonius of Pergamus, Dion of Colophon, and Hegesias of Maronea.

§ 1.1.10  As a matter of fact, Diophanes of Bithynia epitomized the treatise of the Carthaginian Mago. Other writers, too, though of lesser fame, whose countries we have not learned, have made some contribution to our study. Such are Androtion, Aeschrion, Aristomenes, Athenagoras, Crates, Dadis, Dionysius, Euphyton, and Euphorion.

§ 1.1.11  And with no less fidelity have Lysimachus and Eubulus, Menestratus and Plentiphanes, Persis and Theophilus, to the best of their ability, brought us their tribute.

§ 1.1.12  And that we may endow Agriculture at last with Roman citizenship (for it has belonged thus far to writers of the Greek race), let us now recall that illustrious Marcus Cato the Censor, who first taught her to speak in Latin; after him the two Sasernas, father and son, who continued her education with greater care; then Tremelius Scrofa, who gave her eloquence, and Marcus Terentius, who added refinement; and presently Vergil, who gave her the power of song as well.

§ 1.1.13  And finally, let us not disdain to mention her paedagogus, so to speak, Julius Hyginus, though still paying greatest reverence to the Carthaginian Mago as the father of husbandry, inasmuch as his twenty-eight memorable volumes were translated into the Latin tongue by senatorial decree.

§ 1.1.14  No less honour, however, is due to men of our own time, Cornelius Celsus and Julius Atticus; for Cornelius has embraced the whole substance of the subject in five books, while the latter has published just one book on one kind of agriculture, that concerned with vines. And his pupil, as it were, Julius Graecinus, has taken care that two volumes of similar instructions on vineyards, composed in a more elegant and learned style, should be handed down to posterity.

§ 1.1.15  These, then, Publius Silvinus, are the men whom you are to call into consultation before you make any contract with agriculture, yet not with any thought that you will attain perfection in the whole subject through their maxims; for the treatises of such writers instruct rather than create the craftsman.

§ 1.1.16  It is practice and experience that hold supremacy in the crafts, and there is no branch of learning in which one is not taught by his own mistakes. For when a venture turns out unsuccessfully through wrong management, one avoids the mistake that he had made, and the instructions of a teacher cast a light upon the right course.

§ 1.1.17  Hence these precepts of ours promise, not to bring the science to perfection, but to lend a helping hand. And no man will immediately become a master of agriculture by the reading of these doctrines, unless he has the will and the resources to put them into practice. We set them forth, therefore, in the nature of supports to those who wish to learn, not intended to be beneficial by themselves alone, but in conjunction with other requirements.

§ 1.1.18  And, as I have stated, not even those aids, nor the constant toil and experience of the farm overseer, nor the means and the willingness to spend money, avail as much as the mere presence of the master; for if his presence does not frequently attend the work, all business comes to a standstill, just as in an army when the commander is absent. And I believe that Mago the Carthaginian was pointing this out most particularly when he began his writings with such sentiments as these: “One who has bought land should sell his town house, so that he will have no desire to worship the household gods of the city rather than those of the country; the man who takes greater delight in his city residence will have no need of a country estate”.

§ 1.1.19  This precept, if it could be carried out in our times, I would not change. But as things are, since political ambition often calls most of us away, and even more often keeps us away when called, I consequently rate it as most advantageous to have an estate near town, which even the busy man may easily visit every day after his business in the forum is done.

§ 1.1.20  For men who purchase lands at a distance, not to mention estates across the seas, are making over their inheritances to their slaves, as to their heirs and, worse yet, while they themselves are still alive; for it is certain that slaves are corrupted by reason of the great remoteness of their masters and, being once corrupted and in expectation of others to take their places after the shameful acts which they have committed, they are more intent on pillage than on farming.

§ 1.2.1  I am of the opinion, therefore, that land should be purchased nearby, so that the owner may visit it often and announce that his visits will be more frequent than he really intends them to be; for under this apprehension both overseer and labourers will be at their duties. But whenever the chance offers, he should stay in the country; and his stay should not be an idle one nor spent in the shade. For it behooves a careful householder to go around every little bit of his land quite frequently and at every season of the year, that he may the more intelligently observe the nature of the soil, whether in foliage and grass or in ripened crops, and that he may not be ignorant of what may properly be done on it.

§ 1.2.2  For it is an old saying of Cato that land is most grievously maltreated when its master does not direct what is to be done thereon but listens to his overseer. Therefore, let it be the chief concern of one who owns a farm inherited from his ancestors, or of one who intends to buy a place, to know what kind of ground is most approved, so that he may either be rid of one that is unprofitable or purchase one that is to be commended.

§ 1.2.3  But if fortune attends our prayer, we shall have a farm in a healthful climate, with fertile soil, partly level, partly hills with a gentle eastern or southern slope; with some parts of the land cultivated, and other parts wooded and rough; not far from the sea or a navigable stream, by which its products may be carried off and supplies brought in. The level ground, divided into meadows, arable land, willow groves, and reed thickets, should be adjacent to the steading.

§ 1.2.4  Let some of the hills be bare of trees, to serve for grain crops only; still these crops thrive better in moderately dry and fertile plains than in steep places, and for that reason even the higher grainfields should have some level sections and should be of as gentle a slope as possible and very much like flat land. Again, other hills should be clad with olive groves and vineyards, and with copses to supply props for the latter; they should be able to furnish wood and stone, if the need of building so requires, as well as grazing ground for herds; and then they should send down coursing rivulets into meadows, gardens, and willow plantations, and running water for the villa.

§ 1.2.5  And let there be no lack of herds of cattle and of other four-footed kind to graze over the tilled land and the thickets. But such a situation as we desire is hard to find and, being uncommon, it falls to the lot of the few; the next best is one which possesses most of these qualities, and one is passable which lacks the fewest of them.

§ 1.3.1  Porcius Cato, indeed, held the opinion that in the inspection of farm land two considerations were of chief importance — the wholesomeness of the climate, and the fruitfulness of the region; and that if either of these were wanting and one had the desire none the less to live there, he had lost his senses and should be turned over to his legal guardians.

§ 1.3.2  For no one in his right mind should go to the expense of cultivating barren soil, and, on the other hand, in an unhealthful climate, no matter how fruitful and rich the soil, the owner cannot live to the harvest; for where the reckoning must be made with Orcus, not only the harvesting of the crops but also the life of the husbandmen is uncertain, or rather death is more certain than gain.

§ 1.3.3  After these two primary considerations he added, as deserving no less attention, the following: the road, the water, and the neighbourhood. A handy road contributes much to the worth of land: first and most important, the actual presence of the owner, who will come and go more cheerfully if he does not have to dread discomfort on the journey; and secondly its convenience for bringing in and carrying out the necessaries — a factor which increases the value of stored crops and lessens the expense of bringing things in, as they are transported at lower cost to a place which may be reached without great effort;

§ 1.3.4  and it means a great deal, too, to get transportation at low cost if you make the trip with hired draught-animals, which is more expedient than looking after your own; furthermore, that the slaves who are to accompany the master will not be reluctant to begin the journey on foot. As to the goodness of the water, the point is so apparent to everyone that it needs no further discussion;

§ 1.3.5  for who can doubt that water — without which none of us, whether of sound or delicate health, can prolong his life — is most highly esteemed? As to the suitability of a neighbour, there is, as a matter of fact, no fixed rule, since death and various other circumstances sometimes change him in our eyes. It is for this reason that some people reject Cato's opinion, though they appear to be badly mistaken. For, as it is the part of a wise man to endure the blows of fortune with a stout heart, so it is the mark of a madman to create misfortunes for himself voluntarily; and this is what he does who spends his money in the purchase of a worthless neighbour, even though he might have heard, from his first days in the cradle, provided he comes of gentle stock, the Greek proverb:
Not even an ox would be lost but for an evil neighbour.

§ 1.3.6  And this saying applies not only to the ox, but to all parts of our estate; to such an extent, in fact, that many have preferred to forsake their homes because of the wrongdoing of their neighbours; unless we attribute it to some other motive than their inability to put up with bad neighbours that whole nations (I speak of the Achaeans and Hiberians, the Albanians, too, and the Sicilians as well; and, to touch upon our own beginnings, the Pelasgians, the Aborigines, and the Arcadians) abandoned their native soil and sought out a different part of the world.

§ 1.3.7  And not to speak merely of disasters affecting communities at large, it is a matter of tradition that private individuals too, both in the countries of Greece and in our own Hesperia, have been abominable neighbours; unless anyone could have endured that infamous Autolycus on an adjoining place, or unless Cacus, a resident of the Aventine mount, brought joy to his neighbours on the Palatine! For I prefer to speak of men of past time rather than of the present, so as not to call by name a neighbour of my own who does not allow a tree of any great spread to stand on our common line; who does not let a seed-bed go unhurt, or stakes to support the vines; who does not even let the cattle graze undisturbed. Rightly, then, as far as my opinion goes, did Marcus Porcius advise the avoidance of such a nuisance and particularly warn the farmer-to-be not to come near it of his own free will.

§ 1.3.8  To the other injunctions we add one which one of the Seven Sages delivered to posterity for all time: that measure and proportion be applied to all things, and that this be understood as spoken not only to those who are to embark on some other enterprise, but also to those who are to acquire land — not to want to buy more than a regard for their reckonings allows. For this is the meaning of that famous maxim of our own poet:
Admire large farms, but yet a small one till.

§ 1.3.9  This precept, which a most learned man has expressed in verse, is, in my opinion, a heritage from antiquity, inasmuch as it is agreed that the Carthaginians, a very shrewd people, had the saying that the farm should be weaker than the farmer; for, as he must wrestle with it, if the land prove the stronger, the master is crushed. And there is no doubt that an extensive field, not properly cultivated, brings in a smaller return than a little one tilled with exceeding care.

§ 1.3.10  For this reason those seven iugera of Licinius, which the tribune of the plebs distributed to each man after the expulsion of the kings, rewarded the ancients with greater returns than our very extensive fallow-lands bestow upon us nowadays. So great an amount, in fact, did Manius Curius Dentatus, whom we mentioned a little above, regard as a good fortune greater than that of one who had been consul and had received a triumph, when after the winning of a victory under his successful leadership, the people bestowed upon him, in token of reward for his unusual ability, fifty iugera of land; and, declining the generosity of the state, he was content with the portion allotted to his fellow-citizens and to the common people.

§ 1.3.11  Later one, even though our victories and the annihilation of the enemy had desolated vast stretches of country, it was still a criminal matter for a senator to have more than fifty iugera in his possession. And Gaius Licinius was condemned under the terms of his own law when, with an unrestrained passion for ownership, he had exceeded the limit of landholdings which he had set up by legislation proposed when he was a tribune; and this not only because it was a mark of arrogance to occupy holdings of such extent, but quite as much for the reason that it seemed the more scandalous for a Roman citizen, by extending his ownership in unheard-of fashion beyond the sufficiency of his inheritance, to leave untilled those lands which the enemy by their flight had abandoned.

§ 1.3.12  Therefore, as in all matters, so too in the acquiring of land, moderation shall be exercised. For only so much is to be occupied as is needed, that we may appear to have purchased what we may keep under control, not to saddle ourselves with a burden and to deprive others of its use and enjoyment after the manner of men of enormous wealth who, possessing entire countries of which they cannot even make the rounds, either leave them to be trampled by cattle and wasted and ravaged by wild beasts, or keep them occupied by citizens enslaved for debt and by chain-gangs. But every man's limit will be determined by his own desire plus his means;

§ 1.3.13  for, as I have said before, the desire for possession does not suffice if you lack the wherewithal for cultivation.

§ 1.4.1  Next in order is the precept of Caesonius, which Marcus Cato also is said to have employed, that land which one intends to purchase should be visited again and again; for at the first examination it does not reveal the hidden qualities, bad or good, which are more readily apparent to those who go over it again soon afterwards. Our ancestors, too, have handed down to us what may be called a stand for the appraisal of rich and fertile land, of whose properties we shall speak in a fitting place, when we come to the discussion of types of soil.

§ 1.4.2  I have, however, a general rule which should be an attesting witness, so to speak, and should be proclaimed again and again; a rule which Marcus Atilius Regulus, a general of the greatest renown in the first Punic War, is reported to have laid down: that as a farm, even of the richest soil, is not to be purchased if it be unwholesome, just so we are not to buy a piece of worn-out land even though it be most wholesome. This advice Attilus gave to the husbandmen of his day with the greater authority as coming from the knowledge of experience;

§ 1.4.3  for history relates that he was once the tiller of a pestilential and lean piece of ground in Pupinia. Wherefore, though it may be the part of a wise man not to buy anywhere and everywhere and not to be beguiled by either the allurements of fruitful land or the charm of its beauty, it is just as truly the part of an industrious master to render fruitful and profitable any land that he has acquired by purchase or otherwise; for our predecessors have left to us many means of relief from a noxious climate, whereby pernicious plagues may be alleviated, and even on lean land the good sense and painstaking of the husbandmen can overcome the thinness of the soil.

§ 1.4.4  These results we shall attain, moreover, if we pay heed, as to an oracle, to the truest of poets, who says:
Be it our care to learn betimes the winds and moods of heaven,
To learn the tillage of our sires and nature of the place,
What fruits each district does produce and what it does refuse.
And yet, not content with the authority of either former or present-day husbandmen, we must hand down our own experiences and set ourselves to experiments as yet untried.

§ 1.4.5  This practice, though sometimes detrimental in part, nevertheless proves advantageous on the whole; because no field is tilled without profit if the owner, through much experimentation, causes it to be fitted for the use which it can best serve. Such management also increases the profit from the most fertile land. Accordingly, there should be no neglect, anywhere, of experimentation in many forms; and far greater daring should be shown on rich soil, because the return will not render the toil and expense a total loss.

§ 1.4.6  But as the nature of the farm and the method of its cultivation is a matter of importance, even so is the construction of the farmstead and the convenience of its arrangement; for tradition has it that many have made mistakes, as is the case of two very eminent men, Lucius Lucullus and Quintus Scaevola, of whom the one put up too large a stand of buildings, the other not large enough to meet the requirements of his acreage; though either error is contrary to the interests of the owner.

§ 1.4.7  For not only are we put to excessive expense in erecting buildings on too large a scale, but also we pay more for upkeep; on the other hand, when they are smaller than the farm requires, its products are wasted. For both the moist and the dry products which the earth produces are easily spoiled if there are no buildings into which they may be carried, or if such buildings are unsuitable because of their scantiness.

§ 1.4.8  Furthermore, the master should be housed as well as possible in proportion to his means, so that he may more willingly visit the country and find more pleasure in staying there. And especially, if his wife also accompanies him, since her disposition, like her sex, is daintier, she must be humoured by amenities of some sort to make her stay more contentedly with her husband. The farmer, then, should build handsomely, but without letting building become his passion, and he should take in only so large a plot that, as Cato says, “the buildings may not seek for land, nor the land for buildings.” As to the qualities of a building site, I shall now speak in general terms.

§ 1.4.9  As a building which is begun should be situated in a healthful region, so too in the most healthful part of that region; for when the surrounding atmosphere is bad, it is a contributing factor to a host of physical ills. There are certain places, such as Thebes in Boeotia is said to be, which are comparatively free from heat in midsummer but become frightful and unbearable with the cold of winter; there are places which are mild in winter but glow with a most cruel heat in summer, as they say of Chalcis in Euboea.

§ 1.4.10  Let there be sought, then an atmosphere free from excesses of heat and cold; this is usually maintained halfway up a hill, because, not being in a hollow, it is not numbed with winter's frosts or baked with steaming heat in summer, and, not being perched on the top of a mountain, it is not fretted at every season of the year with every little breeze or rain. The best situation, then, is halfway up a slope, but on a little eminence, so that when a torrent formed by the rains at the summit pours around it the foundations will not be torn away.

§ 1.5.1  Let there be, moreover, a never-failing spring either within the steading or brought in from outside; a wood-lot and pasture near by. If running water is wanting, make a search for a well close by, to be not too deep for hoisting the water, and not bitter or brackish in taste.

§ 1.5.2  If this too fails, and if scanty hope of veins of water compels it, have large cisterns built for people and ponds for cattle; this rain-water is after all most suitable to the body's health, and is regarded as uncommonly good if it is conveyed through earthen pipes into a covered cistern. Next to this is flowing water which, having its source in the mountains, comes tumbling down over rocks as on Mount Gaurus in Campania. The third choice is well-water which is found on a hillside or in a valley, if not in its lowest part.

§ 1.5.3  Worst of all is swamp-water, which creeps along with sluggish flow; and water that always remains stagnant in a swamp is laden with death. But the same water, harmful though its nature is, is purified by the rains of the winter season and loses its virulence; from this fact water from the heavens is known to be most healthful, as it even washes away the pollution of poisonous water, and we have stated that this is most approved for drinking.

§ 1.5.4  On the other hand, bubbling brooks contribute greatly to the alleviation of summer heat and to the attractiveness of places; and, if local conditions will allow, I think that they, by all means, should be conducted into the villa, regardless of the quality of the water if only it is sweet.
But if the stream is far removed from the hills, and if the healthfulness of the region and the somewhat elevated position of its banks allow the placing of the villa above flowing water, care must still be taken that it have the stream at the rear rather than in front of it, and that the front of the structure face away from the harmful winds peculiar to the region and towards those that are most friendly; for most streams reek with mists, hot in summer and cold in water, and these, unless dispersed by the greater force of winds that blow upon them, are the cause of destruction to man and beast.

§ 1.5.5  It is best, moreover, as I have said, for a villa to face the east or the south in healthful situations, the north in noxious. A villa is always properly placed when it overlooks the sea and receives the shock of the waves and is sprinkled with their spray; yet never on the shore but not a little distance removed from the edge of the water.

§ 1.5.6  For it is better to move back a considerable distance from the sea rather than a short way, since the intermediate space is filled with a heavier air. And neither should there be any marsh-land near the buildings, and no military highway adjoining; for the former throws off a baneful stench in hot weather and breeds insects armed with annoying stings, which attack us in dense swarms; then too it sends forth plagues of swimming and crawling things deprived of their winter moisture and infected with poison by the mud and decaying filth, from which are often contracted mysterious diseases whose causes are even beyond the understanding of physicians; and at every season of the year rust and dampness play havoc with farm implements and equipment, and with unstored and stored produce;

§ 1.5.7  the highway, moreover, impairs an estate through the depredations of passing travellers and the constant entertainment of those who turn in for lodging. For these reasons my advice is to avoid disadvantages of this sort and to place the villa neither on a highway nor far from a highway, at a greater height, and to build it in such a way that it faces the point where the sun rises at the time of the equinox.

§ 1.5.8  For the situation of this kind maintains an even and steady balance between the winds of winter and those of summer; and the more the site of the building slopes toward the east the more freely can it catch the passing breezes in summer and the less be molested by the storms of winter, and it can be warmed by the morning sun so that the frosts will melt — since ground is regarded as well-nigh pestilential when it is inaccessible and unfavourably situated with reference to the sun and the sun-warmed breezes; and if it is cut off from these, no other force can dry up or clear away the night frosts and any mould or dirt that has settled there. And these are destructive not only to men but to cattle and growing crops and their fruits as well.

§ 1.5.9  But one who desires to erect a building on a sloping site should always begin operations at the lower side; for when the foundations start from the less elevated point, they will not only easily support their own superstructure but will also serve as a buttress and underpinning for any additions which may later be made to the upper side, if it should prove desirable to enlarge the villa — for of course the previous structure below will offer strong support for any that may be built above and rest on it afterwards.

§ 1.5.10  On the contrary, if the foundation at the upper side of the slope supports a load of its own, anything that you may later add below will be full of cracks and chinks; for when new construction is added to old, it draws away as if objecting to the growing burden, and the older structure will press upon it as it gives way until, gradually, overpowered by its own weight, it will topple in ruins. Such a structural defect must therefore be avoided at the start when the foundations are first laid.

§ 1.6.1  The size of the villa and the number of its parts should be proportioned to the whole inclosure, and it should be divided into three groups: the villa urbana or manor house, the villa rustica or farmhouse, and the villa fructuaria or storehouse. The manor house should be divided in turn into winter apartments and summer apartments, in such a way that the winter bedrooms may face the sunrise at the winter solstice, and the winter dining-room face the sunset at the equinox.

§ 1.6.2  The summer bedrooms, on the other hand, should look toward the midday sun at the time of the equinox, but the dining-rooms of that season should look toward the rising sun of winter. The baths should face the setting sun of summer, that they may be lighted from midday up to evening. The promenades should be exposed to the midday sun at the equinox, so as to receive both the maximum of sun in winter and the minimum in summer.

§ 1.6.3  But in the part devoted to farm uses there will be placed a spacious and high kitchen, that the rafters may be free from the danger of fire, and that it may offer a convenient stopping-place for the slave household at every season of the year. It will be best that cubicles for unfettered slaves be built to admit the midday sun at the equinox; for those who are in chains there should be an underground prison, as wholesome as possible, receiving light through a number of narrow windows built so high from the ground that they cannot be reached with the hand.

§ 1.6.4  For cattle there should be stables which will not be troubled by either heat or cold; for animals broken to work, two sets of stalls — one for winter, another for summer; and for the other animals which it is proper to keep within the farmstead there should be places partly covered, partly open to the sky, and surrounded with high walls so that the animals may rest in the one place in winter, in the other in summer, without being attacked by wild beasts.

§ 1.6.5  But stables should be roomy and so arranged that no moisture can flow in and that whatever is made there may run off very quickly, to prevent the rotting of either the bases of the walls or the hoofs of the cattle.

§ 1.6.6  Ox-stalls should be ten feet wide, or nine at the least — a size which will allow room for the animal to lie down and for the oxherd to move around it in performing his duties. The feed-racks should not be too high for the ox or pack-animal to feed from without inconvenience while standing.

§ 1.6.7  Quarters should be provided for the overseer alongside the entrance, so that he may have oversight of all who come in and go out; and for the steward over the entrance for the same reason, and also that he may keep close watch on the overseer; and near both of these there should be a storehouse in which all farm gear may be collected, and within it a closet for the storing of the iron implements.

§ 1.6.8  Cells for the herdsmen and shepherds should be adjacent to their respective charges, so that they may conveniently run out to care for them. And yet all should be quartered as close as possible to one another, so that the diligence of the overseer may not be overtaxed in making the rounds of the several places, and also that they may be witnesses of one another's industry and negligence.

§ 1.6.9  As to the part devoted to the storage of produce, it is divided into rooms for oil, for presses, for wine, for the boiling down of must, lofts for hay and chaff, storerooms, and granaries, that such of them as are on the ground floor may take care of liquid products for the market, such as oil and wine; while dry products, such as grain, hay leaves, chaff, and other fodder, should be stored in lofts.

§ 1.6.10  But the granaries, as I have said, should be reached by ladders and should receive ventilation through small openings on the north side; for that exposure is the coolest and the least humid, and both these considerations contribute to the preservation of stored grain.

§ 1.6.11  The same reason holds true in the placing of the wine-room on the ground floor; and it should be far removed from the baths, oven, dunghill, and other filthy places which give off a foul odour, and no less so from cisterns and running water, from which is derived a moisture that spoils the wine.

§ 1.6.12  And I am not unaware that some consider the best place for storing grain to be a granary with a vaulted ceiling, its earthen floor, before it is covered over, dug up and soaked with fresh and unsalted lees of oil and packed down with rammers as is Signian work.

§ 1.6.13  Then, after this has dried thoroughly, it is overlaid in the same way with a pavement of tiles consisting of lime and sand mixed with oil lees instead of water, and these are beaten down with great force by rammers and are smoothed off; and all joints of walls and floor are bound together with a bolstering of tile, for usually when buildings develop cracks in such places they afford holes and hiding-places for underground animals. But granaries are also divided into bins to permit the storage of every kind of legume by itself.

§ 1.6.14  The walls are coated with a plastering of clay and oil lees, to which are added, in place of chaff, the dried leaves of the wild olive or, if these are wanting, of the olive. Then, when the aforesaid plastering has dried, it is again sprinkled over with oil lees: and when this has dried the grain is brought in.

§ 1.6.15  This seems to be the most advantageous method of protecting stored produce from damage by weevils and like vermin, and if it is not carefully laid away they quickly destroy it. But the type of granary just described, unless it be in a dry section of the steading, causes even the hardest grain to spoil with mustiness; and if it were not for this, it would be possible to keep grain even buried underground, as in certain districts across the sea where the earth, dug out in the manner of pits, which they call siri, takes back to itself the fruits which it has produced.

§ 1.6.16  But we, living in regions which abound in moisture, approve rather the granary that stands on supports above the ground and the attention to pavements and walls as just mentioned, because, as I have said, the floors and sides of storerooms so protected keep out the weevil. Many think that when this kind of pest appears it can be checked if the damaged grain is winnowed in the bin and cooled off, as it were.

§ 1.6.17  But this is a most mistaken notion; for the insects are not driven off by so doing, but are mixed through the whole mass. If left undisturbed, only the upper surface would be attacked, as the weevil breeds no more than a palm's breadth below; and it is far better to endanger only the part already infested than to subject the whole amount to risk. For it is easy, when occasion demands it, to remove the damaged portion and use the sound grain underneath. But these latter remarks, though brought in extraneously, I nevertheless seem to have introduced not unseasonably at this point.

§ 1.6.18  The press-rooms especially and the store-rooms for oil should be warm, because every liquid is thinned with heat and thickened by great cold; and if oil freezes, which seldom happens, it becomes rancid. But as it is natural heat that is wanted, arising from the climate and the exposure, there is no need of fire or flame, as the taste of oil is spoiled by smoke and soot. For this reason the pressing-room should be lighted from the southern side, so that we may not find it necessary to employ fires and lamps when the olives are being pressed.

§ 1.6.19  The cauldron-room, in which boiled wine is made, should be neither narrow nor dark, so that the attendant who is boiling down the must may move around without inconvenience. The smoke-room, too, in which timber not long cut may be seasoned quickly can be built in a section of the rural establishment adjoining the baths for the countryfolk; for it is important also that there be such places in which the household may bathe — but only on holidays;

§ 1.6.20  for the frequent use of baths is not conducive to physical vigour. Storerooms for wine will be situated to advantage over these places from which smoke is usually rising, for wines age more rapidly when they are brought to an early maturity by a certain kind of smoke. For this reason there should be another loft to which they may be removed, to keep them from becoming tainted, on the other hand, by too much smoking.
As for the situation of the villa and the arrangement of its several parts, enough has been said.

§ 1.6.21  It will be necessary, next, that the villa have the following near it: an oven and a gristmill, of such size as may be required by the number of hands that are to be employed; at least two ponds, one to serve for geese and cattle, the other in which we may soak lupines, elm-withes, twigs, and other things which are adapted to our needs. There should also be two manure-pits, one to receive the fresh dung and keep it for a year, and a second from which the old is hauled; but both of them should be built shelving with a gentle slope, in the manner of fish-ponds, and built up and packed hard with earth so as not to let the moisture drain away.

§ 1.6.22  For it is most important that manure shall retain its strength with no drying out of its moisture and that it be soaked constantly with liquids, so that any seeds of bramble or grass that are mixed in the straw or chaff shall decay, and not be carried out to the field to fill the crops with weeds. And it is for this reason that experienced farmers, when they carry out any refuse from folds and stables, throw over it a covering of brush and do not allow it to dry out or be burned by the beating of the sun.

§ 1.6.23  The threshing-floor is to be so placed, if possible, that it can be viewed from above by the master, or at least by the farm-manager. Such a floor is best when paved with hard stone, for the reason that the grain is threshed out quickly, since the ground does not give under the beating of hoofs and threshing-sledges, and the winnowed grain is cleaner and free from small stones and clods which a dirt floor nearly always casts up during the threshing.

§ 1.6.24  Adjoining this there should be a shed (and especially in Italy, because of the changeableness of the weather), in which the half-threshed grain may be stacked under cover if a sudden shower comes up. In certain districts across the sea, where there is no rain in summer, this is unnecessary. The orchards, too, and the gardens should be fenced all around and should lie close by, in a place to which there may flow all manure-laden sewage from barnyard and baths, and the watery lees squeezed from olives; for both vegetables and trees thrive on nutriment of this sort too.

§ 1.7.1  After all these arrangements have been acquired or contrived, especial care is demanded of the master not only in other matters, but most of all in the matter of the persons in his service; and these are either tenant-farmers or slaves, whether unfettered or in chains. He should be civil in dealing with his tenants, should show himself affable, and should be more exacting in the matter of work than of payments, as this gives less offence yet is, generally speaking, more profitable. For when land is carefully tilled it usually brings a profit, and never a loss, except when it is assailed by unusually severe weather or by robbers; and for that reason the tenant does not venture to ask for reduction of his rent.

§ 1.7.2  But the master should not be insistent on his rights in every particular to which he has bound his tenant, such as the exact day for payment, or the matter of demanding firewood and other trifling services in addition, attention to which causes country-folk more trouble than expense; in fact, we should not lay claim to all that the law allows, for the ancients regarded the extreme of the law as the extreme of oppression. On the other hand, we must not neglect our claims altogether; for, as Alfius the usurer is reported to have said, and with entire truth, “Good debts become bad ones if they are not called”.

§ 1.7.3  Furthermore, I myself remember having heard Publius Volusius, an old man who had been consul and was very wealthy, declare that estate most fortunate which had as tenants natives of the place, and held them, by reason of long association, even from the cradle, as if born on their own father's property. So I am decidedly of the opinion that repeated letting of a place is a bad thing, but that a worse thing is the farmer who lives in town and prefers to till the land through his slaves rather than by his own hand.

§ 1.7.4  Saserna used to say that from a man of this sort the return was usually a lawsuit instead of revenue, and that for this reason we should take pains to keep with us tenants who are country-bred and at the same time diligent farmers, when we are not at liberty to till the land ourselves or when it is not feasible to cultivate it with our own servants; though this does not happen except in districts which are desolated by the severity of the climate and the barrenness of the soil.

§ 1.7.5  But when the climate is moderately healthful and the soil moderately good, a man's personal supervision never fails to yield a larger return from his land than does that of a tenant — never than that of even an overseer, unless the greatest carelessness or greed on the part of the slave stands in the way. There is no doubt that both these offences are either committed or fostered through the fault of the master, inasmuch as he has the authority to prevent such a person from being placed in charge of his affairs, or to see to it that he is removed if so placed.

§ 1.7.6  On far distant estates, however, which it is not easy for the owner to visit, it is better for every kind of land to be under free farmers than under slave overseers, but this is particularly true of grain land. To such land a tenant farmer can do no great harm, as he can to plantations of vines and trees, while slaves do it tremendous damage: they let out oxen for hire, and keep them and other animals poorly fed; they do not plough the ground carefully, and they charge up the sowing of far more seed than they have actually sown; what they have committed to the earth they do not so foster that it will make the proper growth; and when they have brought it to the threshing-floor, every day during the threshing they lessen the amount either by trickery or by carelessness.

§ 1.7.7  For they themselves steal it and do not guard it against the thieving of others, and even when it is stored away they do not enter it honestly in their accounts. The result is that both manager and hands are offenders, and that the land pretty often gets a bad name. Therefore my opinion is that an estate of this sort should be leased if, as I have said, it cannot have the presence of the owner.

§ 1.8.1  The next point is with regard to slaves — over what duty it is proper to place each and to what sort of tasks to assign them. So my advice at the start is not to appoint an overseer from that sort of slaves who are physically attractive, and certainly not from that class which has busied itself with the voluptuous occupations of the city.

§ 1.8.2  The lazy and sleepy-headed class of servants, accustomed to idling, to the Campus, the Circus, and the theatres, to gambling, to cookshops, to bawdy-houses, never ceases to dream of these follies; and when they carry them over into their farming, the master suffers not so much loss in the slave himself as in his whole estate. A man should be chosen who has been hardened by farm work from his infancy, one who has been tested by experience. If, however, such a person is not available, let one be put in charge out of the number of those who have slaved patiently at hard labour;

§ 1.8.3  and he should already have passed beyond the time of young manhood but not yet have arrived at that of old age, that youth may not lessen his authority to command, seeing that older men think it beneath them to take orders from a mere stripling, and that old age may not break down under the heaviest labour. He should be, then, of middle age and of strong physique, skilled in farm operations or at least very painstaking, so that he may learn the more readily; for it is not in keeping with this business of ours for one man to give orders and another to give instructions,

§ 1.8.4  nor can a man properly exact work when he is being tutored by an underling as to what is to be done and in what way. Even an illiterate person, if only he have a retentive mind, can manage affairs well enough. Cornelius Celsus says that an overseer of this sort brings money to his master oftener than he does his book, because, not knowing his letters, he is either less able to falsify accounts or is afraid to do so through a second party because that would make another aware of the deception.

§ 1.8.5  But be the overseer what he may, he should be given a woman companion to keep him within bounds and yet in certain matters to be a help to him; and this same overseer should be warned not to become intimate with a member of the household, and much less with an outsider, yet at times he may consider it fitting, as a mark of distinction, to invite to his table on a holiday one whom he has found to be constantly busy and vigorous in the performance of his tasks. He shall offer no sacrifice except by direction of the master.

§ 1.8.6  Soothsayers and witches, two sets of people who incite ignorant minds through false superstition to spending and then to shameful practices, he must not admit to the place.b He must have no acquaintance with the city or with the weekly market, except to make purchases and sales in connection with his duties.

§ 1.8.7  For, as Cato says, an overseer should not be a gadabout; and he should not go out of bounds except to learn something new about farming, and that only if the place is so near that he can come back. He must allow no foot-paths or new crosscuts to be made in the farm; and he shall entertain no guest except a close friend or kinsman of his master.

§ 1.8.8  As he must be restrained from these practices, so must he be urged to take care of the equipment and the iron tools, and to keep in repair and stored away twice as many as the number of slaves requires, so that there will be no need of borrowing from a neighbour; for the loss in slave labour exceeds the cost of articles of this sort.

§ 1.8.9  In the care and clothing of the slave household he should have an eye to usefulness rather than appearance, taking care to keep them fortified against wind, cold, and rain, all of which are warded off with long-sleeved leather tunics, garments of patchwork, or hooded cloaks. If this be done, no weather is so unbearable but that some work may be done in the open.

§ 1.8.10  He should be not only skilled in the tasks of husbandry, but should also be endowed, as far as the servile disposition allows, with such qualities of feeling that he may exercise authority without laxness and without cruelty, and always humour some of the better hands, at the same time being forbearing even with those of lesser worth, so that they may rather fear his sternness than detest his cruelty. This he can accomplish if he will choose rather to guard his subordinates from wrongdoing than to bring upon himself, through his own negligence, the necessity of punishing offenders.

§ 1.8.11  There is, moreover, no better way of keeping watch over even the most worthless of men than the strict enforcement of labour, the requirement that the proper tasks be performed and that the overseer be present at all times; for in that case the foremen in charge of the several operations are zealous in carrying out their duties, and the others, after their fatiguing toil, will turn their attention to rest and sleep rather than to dissipation.

§ 1.8.12  Would that those well-known precepts, old but excellent in morality, which have now passed out of use, might be held today: That an overseer shall not employ the services of a fellow-slave except on the master's business; that he shall partake of no food except in sight of the household, nor of other food than is provided for the rest; for in so doing he will see to it that the bread is carefully made and that other things are wholesomely prepared. He shall permit no one to pass beyond the boundaries unless sent by himself, and he shall send no one except there is great and pressing need.

§ 1.8.13  He shall carry on no business on his own account, nor invest his master's funds in livestock and other goods for purchase and sale; for such trafficking will divert the attention of the overseer and will never allow him to balance his accounts with his master, but, when an accounting is demanded, he has goods to show instead of cash. But, generally speaking, this above all else is to be required of him — that he shall not think that he knows what he does not know, and that he shall always be eager to learn what he is ignorant of;

§ 1.8.14  for not only is it very helpful to do a thing skilfully, but even more so is it hurtful to have done it incorrectly. For there is one and only one controlling principle in agriculture, namely, to do once and for all the thing which the method of cultivation requires; since when ignorance or carelessness has to be rectified, the matter at stake has already suffered impairment and never recovers thereafter to such an extent as to regain what it has lost and to restore the profit of time that has passed.

§ 1.8.15  In the case of the other slaves, the following are, in general, the precepts to be observed, and I do not regret having held to them myself: to talk rather familiarly with the country slaves, provided only that they have not conducted themselves unbecomingly, more frequently than I would with the town slaves; and when I perceived that their unending toil was lightened by such friendliness on the part of the master, I would even jest with them at times and allow them also to jest more freely. Nowadays I make it a practice to call them into consultation on any new work, as if they were more experienced, and to discover by this means what sort of ability is possessed by each of them and how intelligent he is. Furthermore, I observe that they are more willing to set about a piece of work on which they think that their opinions have been asked and their advice followed.

§ 1.8.16  Again, it is the established custom of all men of caution to inspect the inmates of the workhouse, to find out whether they are carefully chained, whether the places of confinement are quite safe and properly guarded, whether the overseer has put anyone in fetters or removed his shackles without the master's knowledge. For the overseer should be most observant of both points — not to release from shackles anyone whom the head of the house has subjected to that kind of punishment, except by his leave, and not to free one who he himself has chained on his own initiative until the master knows the circumstances;

§ 1.8.17  and the investigation of the householder should be the more painstaking in the interest of slaves of this sort, that they may not be treated unjustly in the matter of clothing or other allowances, inasmuch as, being liable to a greater number of people, such as overseers, taskmasters, and jailers, they are the more liable to unjust punishment, and again, when smarting under cruelty and greed, they are more to be feared.

§ 1.8.18  Accordingly, a careful master inquires not only of them, but also of those who are not in bonds, as being more worthy of belief, whether they are receiving what is due to them under his instructions; he also tests the quality of their food and drink by tasting it himself, and examines their clothing, their mittens, and their foot-covering. In addition he should give them frequent opportunities for making complaint against those persons who treat them cruelly or dishonestly. In fact, I now and then avenge those who have just cause for grievance, as well as punish those who incite the slaves to revolt, or who slander their taskmasters; and, on the other hand, I reward those who conduct themselves with energy and diligence.

§ 1.8.19  To women, too, who are unusually prolific, and who ought to be rewarded for the bearing of a certain number of offspring, I have granted exemption from work and sometimes even freedom after they had reared many children. For to a mother of three sons exemption from work was granted; to a mother of more her freedom as well.
Such justice and consideration on the part of the master contributes easily to the increase of his estate.

§ 1.8.20  But he should also bear in mind, first to pay his respects to the household gods as soon as he returns from town; then at once, if time permits, if not, on the next day, to inspect his lands and revisit every part of them and judge whether his absence has resulted in any relaxation of discipline and watchfulness, whether any vine, any tree, or any produce is missing; at the same time, too, he should make a new count of stock, slaves, farm-equipment, and furniture. If he has made it a practice to do all this for many years, he will maintain a well-ordered discipline when old age comes; and whatever his age, he will never be so wasted with years as to be despised by his slaves.

§ 1.9.1  Something should be said, too, as to what tasks we think each kind of body or mind should be assigned. As keepers of the flocks it is proper to place in charge men who are diligent and very thrifty. These two qualities are more important for this task than stature and strength of body, since this is a responsibility requiring unremitting watchfulness and skill.

§ 1.9.2  In the case of the ploughman, intelligence, though necessary, is still not sufficient unless bigness of voice and in bearing makes him formidable to the cattle. Yet he should temper his strength with gentleness, since he should be more terrifying than cruel, so that the oxen may obey his commands and at the same time last longer because they are not worn out with the hardship of the work combined with the torment of the lash. But what the duties of shepherds and herdsmen, I shall treat again in their proper places;

§ 1.9.3  for the present it is sufficient to have called to mind that strength and height are of no importance in the one, but of the greatest importance in the other. For, as I have said, we shall make all the taller ones ploughmen, both for the reason I have just given and because in the work of the farm there is no task less tiring to a tall man; for in ploughing he stands almost erect and rests his weight on the plough-handle. The common labourer may be of any height at all, if only he is capable of enduring hard work.

§ 1.9.4  Vineyards require not so much tall men as those who are broad-shouldered and brawny, for this type is better suited to digging and pruning other forms of viticulture. In this department husbandry is less exacting in the matter of honesty than in the others, for the reason that the vine-dresser should do his work in company with others and under supervision, and because the unruly are for the most part possessed of quicker understanding, which is what the nature of the work requires. For it demands of the helper that he be not merely strong but also quick-witted; and on this account vineyards are commonly tended by slaves in fetters.

§ 1.9.5  Still there is nothing that an honest man of equal quickness will not do better than a rogue.
I have inserted this that no one may think me obsessed of such a notion as to wish to till my land with criminals rather than with honest men. But this too I believe: that the duties of the slaves should not be confused to the point where all take a hand in every task.

§ 1.9.6  For this is by no means to the advantage of the husbandman, either because no one regards any particular task as his own or because, when he does make an effort, he is performing a service that is not his own but common to all, and therefore shirks his work to a great extent; and yet the fault cannot be fastened upon any one man because many have a hand in it. For this reason ploughmen must be distinguished from vine-dressers, and vine-dressers from ploughmen, and both of these from men of all work.

§ 1.9.7  Furthermore, squads should be formed, not to exceed ten men each, which the ancients called decuriae and approved of highly, because that limited number was most conveniently guarded while at work, and the size was not disconcerting to the person in charge as he led the way.

§ 1.9.8  Therefore, if the field is of considerable extent, such squads should be distributed over sections of it and the work should be so apportioned that men will not be by ones or twos, because they are not easily watched when scattered; and yet they should number no more than ten, lest, on the other hand, when the band is too large, each individual may think that the work does not concern him. This arrangement not only stimulates rivalry, but also it discloses the slothful; for, when a task is enlivened by competition, punishment inflicted on the laggards appears just and free from censure.

§ 1.9.9  But surely, in pointing out to the farmer-to-be those matters for which especial provision must be made — healthfulness, roads, neighbourhood, water, situation of the homestead, size of the farm, classes of tenants and slaves, and assignment of duties and tasks — we have now come properly, through these steps, to the actual tilling of the soil; of this we shall presently treat at greater length in the book that follows.

§ 2.1.1  Book II
You ask me, Publius Silvinus, and I have no hesitation in informing you at once, why in the preceding book I immediately at the start rejected the long-standing opinion of almost all who have discoursed on the subject of agriculture, and repudiated as mistaken the views of those who hold that the soil, wearied and exhausted by age-long wasting away and by cultivation now extending over a long period of time, has become barren.

§ 2.1.2  And I am not unaware that you hold in reverence, not only the authority of other renowned writers, but particularly that of Tremelius, who, in handing down to posterity a very great number of agricultural precepts set forth with refinement as well as learning, being obviously misled through too great deference to the ancients who treat of a like subject, held the mistaken belief that the earth, the mother of all things, like womankind now worn out with old age, is incapable of bearing offspring. This fact I too should admit if no fruits whatever were being produced;

§ 2.1.3  for the old age of a human being also is pronounced barren, not when a woman no longer gives birth to triplets and twins, but only when she is able to conceive and bring forth no offspring at all. Thus, after the period of youth is past, even though a long life still remains, still parturition is denied to years and is not restored. But on the contrary, when the soil, whether abandoned deliberately or by chance, is cultivated anew, it repays the farmer with heavy interest for its periods of idleness.

§ 2.1.4  The antiquity of the earth, therefore, is not the reason for the scantiness of her fruits — if, I mean, when once old age sets in, it takes no backward step and has no power to grow vigorous and young again — but not even the weariness of the soil lessens its fruits for the farmer. For it is not like a man of intelligence to be persuaded that, as in the case of human beings exhaustion follows immoderate physical exertion or the bearing of some heavy burden, just so does it follow cultivation and activity on the part of the land.

§ 2.1.5  What then, you say, does Tremelius mean by his assertion that virginal and wooded areas, when they are first cultivated, yield abundantly, but soon thereafter are not so responsive to the toil of those who work them? He observes, undoubtedly, what occurs, but does not understand thoroughly why it happens. For ground that is new and but recently taken out of its wooded state and brought under cultivation should not be regarded as more fruitful on this account, because it has lain fallow longer and is younger; but because, in the leaves and herbage of many years, which it has kept producing naturally, fattened, so to speak, with more plentiful nourishment, it more readily satisfies the requirements for bringing forth crops and supporting them.

§ 2.1.6  But when the roots of the plants, broken by mattocks and ploughs, and when the trees, cut down by the axe, cease to nourish their mother with their foliage; when the leaves which fell from bushes and trees in the autumn season and which were spread over her are presently turned under by the ploughshare and mixed with the subsoil, which is usually thinner, and are used up, the result is that the soil, being deprived of its old-time nourishment, grows lean.

§ 2.1.7  It is not, therefore, because of weariness, as very many have believed, nor because of old age, but manifestly because of our own lack of energy that our cultivated lands yield us a less generous return. For we may reap greater harvests if the earth is quickened again by frequent, timely, and moderate manuring. As I promised in the preceding book to speak of its cultivation, I shall now begin the discussion.

§ 2.2.1  Those who are most experienced in agricultural affairs have said, Silvinus, that there are three kinds of terrain — champaign, hilly, and mountainous. Of champaign land they favoured especially that lying, not in a perfectly even and level plain, but in a somewhat sloping one; of hilly land, that with a gentle and gradual rise; of mountainous land, the high and rugged, but wooded and grassy.

§ 2.2.2  Furthermore, under each of these classes there fall six species of soil — fat or lean, loose or compact, moist or dry; and these qualities, in combination and in alternation with one another, produce a very great variety of soils. To enumerate them is not the mark of a skilled farmer; for it is not the business of any art to roam about over the species, which are countless, but to proceed through the classes, for these can readily be connected in the imagination and brought within the compass of words.

§ 2.2.3  We must have recourse, then, to certain unions, as we may call them, between qualities which are at variance with each other — what the Greeks call συζυγίαι ἐναντιοτήτων, and which we may fairly render “the couplings of opposites.” Furthermore, it must be pointed out that, of all things which the earth brings forth, more thrive better on a plain than on a hill, and more in fat land than in lean.

§ 2.2.4  As to dry ground and wet ground, we have not ascertained which of these excels in number, since there are, in each case, almost limitless things which thrive in dry places, and the same in wet areas; but of this number there is nothing that does not grow better in loose soil than in dense. This, too, our own Vergil said when, after recounting the other good points of a fruitful field, he added:
and one of crumbling soil; for this is what we rival when we plough.
For cultivation is nothing else than the loosening and breaking up of the ground;

§ 2.2.5  and on this account a field which is both rich and mellow yields the greatest returns, because in producing most it demands least, and what it does require is supplied with trifling labour and expense. Such a soil may therefore with justice be called the very best. Next in order to this is the combination of rich and dense, a soil which rewards the expense and toil of the husbandman with rich increase.

§ 2.2.6  Third in rank is a well-watered place, because it can produce fruits without expense. Cato, who rated the yield of meadow lands far ahead of other returns, used to say that this kind of land was first; but we are now speaking of land under cultivation, not of that left untilled.

§ 2.2.7  No kind is considered worse than that which is at the same time dry, stiff, and lean; for not only is it worked with difficulty, but even when worked it makes no recompense, and when left idle it is not altogether adequate for meadows or for grazing land. Therefore this type, whether in tillage or fallow, is a source of grief to the husbandman and should be shunned as if it were plague-ridden ground; for the one type brings death, and this brings starvation, that most frightful attendant of death, if we may trust the Grecian Muses, who cry:
To die of hunger is the bitterest of fates.

§ 2.2.8  But now we shall turn our attention rather to the more fertile soil, and our treatment of this is to be set forth under two heads — land in tillage, and woodland. We shall first speak of reducing a wooded area to an arable state, for the reason that the preparation of a field comes before its cultivation. As to an untilled piece of ground, then, let us consider whether it is dry or damp, shaded with trees or rough and stony; whether it is covered with rushes and grass or encumbered with fern-brakes or other bushy growth.

§ 2.2.9  If it is damp, the superfluous moisture must first be drained off with ditches. Of these we are familiar with two kinds — blind and open. In tracts of hard-packed and chalky soil they are left open; but where the ground is of looser texture some are made open and some of them, too, are covered over, though in such a way as to connect with the mouths of the open ditches. But it will be best to make open drains wider at the top, and sloping and narrowing together at the bottom, like inverted roof-tiles; for those whose sides are perpendicular are quickly eroded by water and are filled in by the slipping of the earth above.

§ 2.2.10  The covered ones, on the other hand, are to be blinded by sinking trenches to a depth of three feet, and then, after they have received a filling half way up of small stones or clean gravel, levelling them off by throwing over them the dirt that was dug out. Or, if stones and gravel are not available, a sort of cable of entwined brushwood will be fashioned of such a thickness as the bottom of the narrow trench may receive when it is fitted, so to speak, and pressed down close.

§ 2.2.11  This will then be stretched along the bottom, to be covered over with earth after cypress or pine foliage — or, failing this, other boughs — has been trampled down over it; there being, both at the beginning and at the outlet of the ditch, two stones set up, merely by way of supports, with one stone laid on top of them in the fashion of little bridges, that this sort of structure may hold the banks in place and prevent the stoppage of water at inlet and outlet.
There are two methods of handling a wooded and bushy stretch of land: either by tearing out the trees by the roots and removing them or, if they are few, by simply cutting them down, burning them, and ploughing them under.

§ 2.2.12  It is easy to clear stony ground by gathering up the stones; and if there is a great quantity of them, parts of the field must be used for building them into piles of some sort, so that the other parts may be cleared off, or the stones will have to be buried in a deep-dug trench. This should be done, however, only if the cheapness of labour makes it advisable.

§ 2.2.13  The bane of rushes and grass is repeated grubbing, of the fern it is constant uprooting, which may be done also with the plough; for it dies out within two years' time if torn up repeatedly, and even sooner if at the same time you apply manure and sow with lupines or beans so as to have some return while remedying the defects of the field. For it is agreed that the fern is more easily destroyed by sowing and manuring; but even if you cut it down with the sickle (which is work even a child could do) as it sprouts out from time to time, within the aforesaid period its vigour is spent.

§ 2.2.14  But now, after a consideration of the clearing of unbroken ground, comes the management of land newly brought under cultivation; and I shall set forth presently my own views on this, after I have given to those who are concerned with land in tillage some precepts on matters which must be learned first.
I recall that very many of the ancients who have written on agricultural topics have laid down as acknowledged and unquestioned evidence of fat and fertile grain-land the natural sweetness of the soil, its growth of herbage and trees, and its black or ashy colour.

§ 2.2.15  As to the other points I have no doubt; but in the matter of colour I cannot marvel enough, not only that other writers but especially that Cornelius Celsus, a man of discernment not merely in husbandry but also in nature as a whole, went so far astray, both in his thinking and in his observation, that the many marshes and the many stretches of salt meadows, in which the above-mentioned colours are usually present, did not attract his notice.

§ 2.2.16  For our casual observations reveal no place, provided it contains stagnant water, which is not of a black or ashy colour; unless perhaps I am myself mistaken in thinking that luxuriant grain crops cannot be produced in the soil of slimy swamp and brackish marshland or in a region of salt deposits along the seacoast. But this mistake of the ancients is too apparent to require refutation by further argument. It is not the colour, then, that is, so to speak, the infallible voucher and witness of goodness of ploughland;

§ 2.2.17  and for that reason grain-land, that is rich land, is to be judged rather by other qualities. For, as the sturdiest of farm animals have been allotted different and almost countless colours, just so the strongest soils have them in very great number and variety. Accordingly, we must take care that the soil which we intend to cultivate is rich.

§ 2.2.18  Still this of itself is not sufficient if it lacks sweetness; and we may come to know both qualities by a very easy method. For a clod is sprinkled with a little water and kneaded in the hand, and if it is viscous and cohesive when firmed with the slightest touch and,
in the manner of pitch is shaped to the fingers in handling,
as Vergil says, and does not crumble when dashed to the ground, this test informs us that there is in such earth a natural moistness and fatness.

§ 2.2.19  But when you try to put back and tread down in trenches the earth that has been removed, if there is an excess as by some sort of leavening, it will be a sure sign that the soil is fat; if it is insufficient, that it is poor; if it makes an even fill, that it is ordinary. And yet the statements which I have just now made may seem not so trustworthy in the case of blackish earth (pulla), which is better tested by its yield of crops.

§ 2.2.20  We shall also make distinctions of taste as follows: from that part of the field which displeases us most, clods should be dug and soaked in an earthen vessel, then thoroughly mixed with fresh water and, after careful straining in the manner of dreggy wine, examined by tasting; for, whatever is the taste transmitted from the clods to the water, such we shall take to be the taste of that soil. But, apart from this experiment, there are many signs which show that ground is sweet and suitable for grain — for example, the rush, the reed, grass, trefoil, the dwarf-elder, bramble bushes, wild plums, and many other things which are well known also to searchers for springs, and which are not nourished except by veins of sweet water in the ground.

§ 2.2.21  And we should not be content with the first appearance of surface soil, but should take pains to investigate the character of what lies beneath — whether it is earthy or not. It will be satisfactory for grain, however, if the soil below is equally good to a depth of two feet; for trees, a depth of four feet is sufficient. When we have investigated these points as stated, we shall put our field in readiness for planting; and it yields no trifling increase if it is worked with care and understanding. For this reason it is a matter of first importance to put a plan of this kind of work in writing, that husbandmen may adhere to it as a pattern and a law in the breaking up of their fields.

§ 2.2.22  To proceed then, it is proper to have oxen closely yoked while at work, so that they will move with a more stately gait, with lofty bearing and heads held high; also that their necks may be galled less, and that the yoke may sit more closely on their shoulders. This method of yoking is most approved; for the method in use in some provinces — fastening the yoke to the horns — has been condemned by almost all who have written precepts for husbandmen, and not without reason.

§ 2.2.23  For cattle can put forth more effort with neck and shoulders than with the horns, and in this way they exert themselves with the entire bulk of the body and its whole weight; but in the other way, with their heads pulled back and faces turned upward, they are tortured, and barely scratch the surface of the ground with a very light ploughshare. And it is for this reason that they work with smaller ploughs, because they are unable to tear up the surface of new ground and dig it deep; but when this is done, all growing things are greatly benefited, for when ploughlands are deeply furrowed the fruits of crops and trees swell with greater increase.

§ 2.2.24  On this point, therefore, I disagree with Celsus, who, shrinking from the expense which is undoubtedly greater in the case of larger cattle, advises the breaking up of land with small shares and share-beams, so that it may be accomplished with oxen of smaller size; disregarding the fact that revenue in fruitfulness of crops outweighs the expense of buying heavier draught animals, and especially in Italy, where the land, being planted with vineyards and olives, wants to be broken and worked rather deep, so that the uppermost roots of vines and olives, which are detrimental to the yield if they are left, may be cut off by the ploughshares, and that the deeper roots may receive the nourishment of moisture more readily when the ground is deeply worked.

§ 2.2.25  Still Celsus' method may be suited to Numidia and Egypt, where, as a rule, the land is destitute of trees and is sown with grain; and soil of that sort, crumbling with fat sands, and like loose ashes, is stirred sufficiently with the lightest plough-point (dens). The ploughman, moreover, must walk upon the broken ground and in every other furrow must hold his plough upright and at its full depth, but in such a way as not to leave anywhere any solid and unbroken ground, which farmers call scamnum.

§ 2.2.26  When the oxen come to a tree, he must keep them firmly in hand and check their pace, for fear that the driving of the ploughshare with too great force against a root may jolt their necks, and so that an ox may not strike a horn violently against the bole of the tree, or graze the trunk or break off a branch with the end of the yoke. He should keep them in dread of his voice rather than of his lash, blows being his last resort when they balk at a task. He should never urge a bullock with a goad, for this makes him irritable and inclined to kick; yet he may urge him on now and then with a whip.

§ 2.2.27  He should not stop in the middle of the furrow, but should allow a rest at the end of it, so that the ox will exert himself more energetically the whole way in the hope of stopping. But to run a furrow more than one hundred and twenty feet in length is injurious to a beast, for he is wearied more than is right when he goes beyond this limit.

§ 2.2.28  When the turning-point is reached, the ploughman should push the yoke forward and hold the oxen back, to allow their necks to cool off; for these quickly become inflamed if they are constantly bound, and as a result their arises a swelling and then running sores. And the ploughman should use the mattock no less than the ploughshare, and should dig up and hunt out all the broken stumps and surface roots with which a field is infested when it is planted with trees for supporting vines.

§ 2.3.1  When the ploughman has unyoked his oxen after work, he should rub the lower parts that were bound, knead the upper part with his hands, and pull up the skin and not allow it to cling to the body; for this, too, is a kind of ailment very injurious to cattle.

§ 2.3.2  He should rub down their necks and pour unmixed wine down their throats if they are heated; and it is enough to give a pint of wine to each. But it is not proper for oxen to be tied to their cribs before they have stopped sweating and panting. Then, when they are in the proper condition for feeding, it is best not to give them much feed, and not the whole amount at once, but to portion it out, a little at a time. When they have consumed this, they should be led to water and enticed by whistling to drink more freely, and then at length taken back to eat their fill of a more generous allowance of fodder.
It is enough to have discussed the duties of the ploughman up to this point. Our next step is to give directions also as to the seasons for breaking up ploughland.

§ 2.4.1  Rich plains which hold water for a considerable length of time are to be broken at a time of year when it is growing warm, after they have put forth all their vegetation and while the seeds of this vegetation have not yet ripened; but they should be ploughed with furrows so numerous and close together that it can hardly be told in what direction the ploughshare has been driven, for in this way all the roots of the growth are broken off and killed.

§ 2.4.2  But fallow land should be so pulverized by much re-ploughing that it will require no harrowing, or very little, after we have put in the seed. For the ancient Romans said that a field was poorly prepared when it had to be harrowed after the crop was in the ground.

§ 2.4.3  Furthermore, a farmer should examine it frequently to see whether it is properly ploughed — and not merely by sight, which is sometimes mistaken when earth is scattered over unploughed skips that lie hidden, but also by touch, which is deceived the less when a strong and stiff pole is put to use and pushed into the furrows crosswise. If it goes in to a uniform depth and without striking anything, it is clear that all the ground has been stirred in turn; but if some harder spot obstructs its entrance, it shows that there is unbroken fallow. When ploughmen observe that this is done rather frequently, they are not guilty of leaving skips. Wet champaign lands, then, should be broken after the Ides of April.

§ 2.4.4  When they are ploughed at this time, they should be gone over a second time after the passing of the twenty days around the solstice — which falls on the ninth or eighth day before the Calends of July — and then a third time in the neighbourhood of the Calends of September; for it is agreed among experts in husbandry that no ploughing should be done from the summer solstice up to this time, unless, as sometimes happens, the earth is soaked with heavy and sudden showers as if by winter rains.

§ 2.4.5  In this case there is no objection to breaking fallow land in the month of July. But whenever the ploughing is done, we must be careful not to let a field be worked when it is muddy or half soaked from light rains — a condition of soil which farmers call varia and cariosa; that is, when, after a long drought, a light rain wets the upper surface of the clods but does not reach the lower part. For ploughlands which are turned over when they are muddy cannot be worked for a whole year, and they are not fit for sowing or harrowing or planting; but, on the other hand, those which are ploughed when they are varia are visited with barrenness for three successive years.

§ 2.4.6  Let us, then, above all, follow a middle course in ploughing our lands, that they may neither be entirely wanting in dampness nor immoderately wet; for too much moisture, as I have said, makes them sticky and muddy, while those that are parched with drought cannot be properly loosened. For either the point of the plough is rejected by the hardness of the ground or, if it does enter at some spot, it does not break the soil into fine particles, but tears up huge clods; and when these lie in the way, the plough-land is under a handicap and cannot be properly worked at the second ploughing, because the ploughshare is thrown out of the furrow by the weight of the clods as though by some deep-seated obstructions, with the result that hard skips are left even in the re-ploughing and that the oxen are severely injured by the unevenness of the strain.

§ 2.4.7  Added to this is that all ground, though it be never so rich, still has poorer soil underneath, and when the larger clods are turned up they bring this with them; the result being that the less productive soil, mixed with the richer, grows a less bountiful crop, and in addition the accounting of the farmer is made more difficult by the poor progress of his work; for the proper tasks cannot be completed when the ground is hard.

§ 2.4.8  For this reason my advice is, in dry weather, to replough ground already broken, and to wait for rain which, by its soaking of the earth, makes cultivation easy for us. But a iugerum of such land is prepared with four days' labour; for it is broken easily in two days, gone over a second time in one, a third time in three-fourths of a day, and is formed into ridges and sown in one-fourth of a day. These ridges, moreover, country folk call porcae when the ground is ploughed in such a way that the earth heaped between two widely separated furrows affords a dry bed for the grain.

§ 2.4.9  Hillsides where the soil is rich should be broken after the sowing of the three-months crops is completed, in the month of March; or, if the warmth of the climate and the dryness of the region make it advisable, even in February. Then between the middle of April and the solstice they should be gone over a second time, and a third time in September around the equinox; and a iugerum of such ground is prepared with the same number of days labour as wet champaign land.

§ 2.4.10  But especial care must be taken in the ploughing always to run the furrow crosswise to the slope; for by this method the difficulty of the ascent is mitigated, and the toil of man and beast is thereby lessened most handily. Still, whenever it is reworked, the furrows should be run somewhat obliquely, now uphill, now downhill, so that we may tear up the ground in both directions and not work it in the same track.

§ 2.4.11  Lean land which lies level and is well watered should be ploughed for the first time during the latter part of the month of August, then gone over again a second time in September, and put in readiness for sowing about the time of the equinox. In ground of this sort, moreover, the work is easier, and for this reason fewer days of labour are expended; for three days are sufficient for one iugerum. Lean and sloping ground, likewise, is not to be ploughed in summer, but around the calends of September; for if it is broken before this time, the earth, being exhausted and destitute of moisture, is burned by the summer sun and has no reserves of strength. Therefore it is best to plough it between the Calends and the Ides of September, and then to work it again immediately, so that it may be sown during the first rains of the equinox; and such land is to be sown, not in the ridges, but in the furrows.

§ 2.5.1  Still, before we give lean land its second ploughing, it will be best to manure it; for on such food, so to speak, it grows fat. On level ground piles of manure, about five modii to the pile, should be placed farther apart, and on hilly land closer together: on the level it will suffice to leave an interval of eight feet each way, on a slope two feet less. My own preference is that this be done when the moon is waning, for this frees the crops from weeds. Furthermore, one iugerum, if manured heavily, requires twenty-four loads; if lightly, eighteen.

§ 2.5.2  Then the manure once it is spread, should be ploughed in immediately and covered over, that it may not lose its strength from the heat of the sun and that the soil, being mixed with it, may grow fat on the aforesaid nourishment. And so, when piles of manure are distributed in a field, the number of those so scattered should not exceed what the ploughmen can dig in on the same day.

§ 2.6.1  Inasmuch as we have given directions for the preparation of the ground for sowing, let us now treat of the kinds of seed. The seeds of first importance and most useful to mankind are grains of wheat and emmer. We know of several varieties of wheat; but of this number that called robus or “ruddy” is most suitable for sowing, because it is superior in both weight and brightness.

§ 2.6.2  Second place must be given to siligo or winter wheat, which is of excellent appearance in bread but lacking in weight. The third shall be the three-months wheat, the use of which is most gratifying to farmers; for when, because of rains or some other reason, an early sowing has not been made, recourse is had to this. This, again, is a variety of siligo. The other kinds of wheat, except for those who find pleasure in a great variety of crops and in idle vainglory, are superfluous.

§ 2.6.3  Of emmer, however, we commonly see four varieties in use: the far which is called Clusian, of a white and shiny appearance; that called vennuculum, one kind reddish and the other white, but both of greater weight than the Clusian; the three-months far, called halicastrum, which is excellent both in weight and in goodness.

§ 2.6.4  But these kinds of wheat and emmer should be kept by farmers for this reason, that seldom is any land so situated that we can content ourselves with one kind of seed, as some strip which is either swampy or dry cuts through it. Further, wheat grows better in a dry spot, while emmer is less harmed by moisture.

§ 2.7.1  Though there are very many kinds of pulse or legumes, those observed to be most pleasing and useful to man are the bean, the lentil, the pea, the cow-pea, the chick-pea, hemp, millet, panic grass, sesame, lupine, also flax and barley, because from the last named is made tisana or barley-grits. Likewise of the fodder crops the best are Medic clover and fenugreek, and vetch no less so;

§ 2.7.2  and next in order are chickling-vetch, bitter vetch, and mixed fodder made from barley. But of this number we shall first discuss those which are sown for our own sake, keeping in mind that very ancient rule in which we are warned to reap in cold places last, in warm places sooner, and in hot places earliest of all. For the present, however, we shall give rules applicable to a temperate region.

§ 2.8.1  Our poet holds that emmer and even wheat should not be sown before the setting of the Vergiliae, a rule which he puts in verse as follows:
But if for wheat or emmer you plough, intent on grain alone,
Let Atlas' daughters at dawn be hid before the planting's done.

§ 2.8.2  Now they are “hidden” on the thirty-second day after the autumnal equinox, which usually falls on the ninth day before the Calends of October; by which it should be understood that the seed-time of wheat lasts for forty-six days — from the setting of the Vergiliae, which occurs on the ninth day before the November Calends, up to the time of the winter solstice. For wise husbandmen observe this rule to such an extent that, for fifteen days before the occurrence of the solstice and a like number afterwards, they do no ploughing and no pruning of vine or tree. We, too, do not deny that the sowing should be governed by this rule in land that is temperate and not at all moist;

§ 2.8.3  but in sections that are wet and lean, or cold, or even shaded, it is usually proper to sow before the Calends of October,
while the dry earth permits, while clouds are in suspense,
so that the roots of the grain may gain strength before they are attacked by winter rains or cold or frost. But even though the sowing be finished in good season, still we must be careful to make wide ridges and frequent water-furrows, which some call elices, and to turn off all water into drains and hence outside the grain-fields.

§ 2.8.4  And I am not unaware that some ancient authorities have left directions that fields should not be sown except after the ground is well soaked with rain; and that this is to the greater advantage of the farmer, if it comes in due season, I have no doubt. But if the rains are late, as sometimes happens, the seed is safely intrusted to ground however thirsty; and that is actually the practice in certain provinces where such weather conditions exist. For seed that is put into dry ground and harrowed in, is no more injured than if it were stored away in a granary; and when the rain does come, the sowing of many days' standing sprouts up in one.

§ 2.8.5  Tremelius, in fact, makes the statement that seed sown before the rains begin is not injured by birds or ants when the soil is parched during the fair weather of summer, and I have even tried it rather frequently and have thus far found it to be true. However, in land of this sort it is more suitable to sow emmer than wheat, as it has a husk enclosing it which is tough and resistant to moisture for a longer period.

§ 2.9.1  A iugerum of rich land usually requires four modii of wheat; land of medium quality, five; it calls for nine modii of emmer if the soil is fertile, and ten if it is ordinary. For although there is little agreement among authorities as to the quantity, yet my own experience has shown that this amount seems best suited; and anyone who does not care to comply with this may follow the directions of those who instruct us to sow a rich field with eight modii of wheat a iugerum, and the same for emmer, and who hold that seed should be supplied to medium land in this proportion.

§ 2.9.2  My opinion is that not even the amount which I have mentioned above is always to be held to, for the reason that conditions of place or season or weather cause it to vary: of place, according as the grain is sown on level ground or hillsides, and these, too, either fat or medium or lean; of season, according as we cast the seed in autumn or even at the onset of winter, for the earlier sowing allows a lighter seeding while the later requires it to be heavier; of weather, according as it is rainy or dry, for the former requires the same as the early sowing, and the latter the same as the late.

§ 2.9.3  Further, every sort of grain especially delights in ground that is open and sloping toward the sun, warm and loose; for though hilly ground produces a somewhat stronger grain, it yields a smaller crop of wheat. Soil that is heavy, chalky, and wet is not unsuited to the growing of winter wheat and emmer. Barley tolerates no place except one that is loose and dry.

§ 2.9.4  And the first mentioned grains require ground that lies fallow and is worked by turns in alternate years and that is as rich as possible; while the last named wants no middling ground, being sown either in very rich or very poor soil. Even though you sow the first mentioned in ground that is still muddy and wet after continuous rains, if necessity so demands, it withstands the injury; if you commit the last named to miry ground, it dies.

§ 2.9.5  However, if the field is moderately chalky or marshy, you need for a sowing of the white winter wheat or common wheat somewhat more than the five modii that I mentioned above. But if the ground is dry and loose, no matter whether it be rich or poor, only four; for, conversely, lean land requires the same amount of seed, be if it is not sown thinly it produces a small and empty head.

§ 2.9.6  But when it forms a stool of several stalks from one seed it makes a heavy stand even from a light sowing. Among other things, too, we should not overlook the fact that a field planted with trees for supporting vines requires one fifth more seed than a treeless and open field.
We have been speaking thus far of the autumn sowing, for this we regard as the most important.

§ 2.9.7  There is another sowing, however, when necessity requires it — what farmers call the “half-month sowing.” This is practised to advantage in very cold and snowy regions where the summer is damp and free from intense heat, but in other places it very seldom yields a return. And even in this sowing it will be better to finish it quickly, and certainly before the spring equinox; in fact, if conditions of ground and of weather allow it, the sooner we sow the better the result will be.

§ 2.9.8  For there is no seed that naturally requires three months, as many have believed, and in fact the same seed will do better when planted in the autumn. There are, nevertheless, certain seeds that do better than others in enduring the heat of spring, such as white wheat (siligo), Galatian barley, the three-months emmer, and the grain of the Marsian bean; for the other hardy grains should always be sown before winter in temperate localities.
Further, the earth has a way, at times, of emitting a brackish and bitter ooze which blights even full-grown crops with its poisonous seepage and in warm localities leaves patches without even a single stalk from the seed.

§ 2.9.9  It is best that such bare spots be indicated by the use of markers, so that we may take measures against faults of this kind in due season; for in a place where oozy ground or some other plague kills out the crop it is best that pigeon dung or, failing that, cypress foliage be scattered and ploughed in. But the very first thing to do is to draw off all free water by running a furrow; otherwise the aforesaid remedies will be useless. Some people wrap a three-modius sowing measure in the skin of a hyena and broadcast the seed from it after it has remained there a while, not doubting that seed sown in this way will do well.

§ 2.9.10  Certain underground pests also kill out mature crops by cutting off their roots. As a remedy against this they use the juice of a plant which country people call sedum, mixed with water; for the seeds are sown after they have been soaked in this solution for one night. Some take the juice squeezed from the wild cucumber and the crushed root of the same, dilute it with water, and after soaking the seeds in the same way they consign them to the earth. Others sprinkle the furrows with this same liquid or with unsalted lees of oil, when the crop begins to be infested, and so drive off the destructive creatures.
The next direction that I have to offer is that when the crops have been harvested and are on the threshing-floor, we should consider the sowing that is to follow.

§ 2.9.11  For, as Celsus remarks, when the harvest is just ordinary we should select all the best heads and store the seed from them by itself; when, in turn, there is a more generous yield, everything that is threshed out should be cleaned with a sieve, and the grain that settles to the bottom because of its size and weight should always be kept for seed. This is a most beneficial measure because, while grain deteriorates more rapidly in damp places, it also does so in dry places unless such pains are taken.

§ 2.9.12  For there is no doubt that from strong seed there can be produced seed that has no strength; but it is obvious that what is produced continuously from weak seed can never acquire strength. For that reason Vergil, in treating of other matters, has also expressed himself very clearly on the subject of seeds, as follows;
Some I have seen deteriorate, though chosen with great care
And long examination, if with toil of man
The largest were not hand-picked every year.
But so the will of Fate. All things are doomed
To hasten to the worse and, downward turned,
To take a backward course.

§ 2.9.13  Further, if a red grain, when cut in two, shows the same colour throughout, we have no doubt that it is sound; but one that is whitish outside and is also seen to be white inside, that should be set down as light and lacking in substance. And let us not be misled into thinking that siligo is desirable for farmers; for this is a degenerate kind of wheat, and though superior in whiteness, it is inferior in weight. It does well, however, in a humid climate, and for that reason is better suited to springy places. Still we need not go a great distance or to great pains to find it; for in wet ground every kind of wheat turns into siligo after the third sowing.

§ 2.9.14  Next to these grains in utility is that variety of barley which country people call hexastichum; some also call it cantherinum because it is a better food than wheat for all animals that belong on a farm, and is more wholesome for humans than is bad wheat; and in times of scarcity there is nothing better in guarding against want. It is sown in loose, dry ground, either very rich or poor, because it is agreed that land is weakened by crops of it; for this reason it is committed to a very fertile field, whose excessive strength cannot be impaired, or to a lean one to which nothing else is entrusted.

§ 2.9.15  The seed should be cast at the second ploughing, after the equinox, about the middle of seed-time if the soil is rich, and earlier if it is poor. One iugerum will take five modii of seed. And when this has ripened somewhat it should be harvested with more haste than any other grains, for, having brittle straw and grain that has no covering of chaff, it shatters quickly; and for the same reason it is more easily threshed than other grains. But when you have taken off a crop of it, it is best to let the ground lie fallow for a year; or if not, to saturate it with manure and drive out all the poison that still remains in the land.

§ 2.9.16  There is also a second variety of barley which some call distichum and others Galatian, of extraordinary weight and whiteness, so much so that when mixed with wheat it makes excellent food for the household. It is sown about the month of March in ground that is very rich but cold; it does better, however, if a mild winter allows it, when sown around the middle of January. One iugerum calls for six modii.

§ 2.9.17  Panic and millet also should be counted among grain crops, even though I have already listed them among the legumes, for in many countries the peasants subsist on food made from them. They require a light, loose soil, and thrive not only in gravelly ground but also in sand, if only the climate is moist or the ground well watered; for they have a great dread of dry and chalky ground.

§ 2.9.18  They cannot be sown before spring, for they are fond of warm weather above all; but they are intrusted to the earth to best advantage in the latter part of March. They do not burden the farmer's budget with a heavy expense, as about four sextarii are enough for a iugerum; and yet they demand repeated hoeing and weeding to make them free of weeds. When they have formed their heads, before the seeds crack open with the heat, they are gathered by hand, hung in the sun, and stored away after they have dried; and when stored in this fashion they keep longer than other grains.

§ 2.9.19  Bread is made of millet, and it may be eaten without distaste before it cools. Panic, when ground and freed from bran, and millet as well, makes a porridge which, especially with milk, is not to be despised even in time of plenty.

§ 2.10.1  Inasmuch as we have given sufficient instructions about grains, we shall next discuss the legumes. First consideration belongs to the lupine, as it requires the least labour, costs least, and of all crops that are sown is most beneficial to the land. For it affords an excellent fertilizer for worn-out vineyards and ploughlands; it flourishes even in exhausted soil; and it endures age when laid away in the granary. When softened by boiling it is good fodder for cattle during the winter; in the case of humans, too, it serves to ward off famine if years of crop failures come upon them.

§ 2.10.2  It is broadcast direct from the threshing-floor, and it is the only one of all the legumes which does not require a rest in the bin, whether you sow it in unbroken fallow in the month of September before the equinox or immediately after the Calends of October; and whatever way you cover it, it withstands the carelessness of the farmer. Still it needs the mild temperature of autumn to become quickly established, for if it has not taken a strong hold before winter it is greatly injured by the cold.

§ 2.10.3  It will be best to put away your left-over seed in a loft where smoke can reach it, for if dampness gets into it, it breeds worms; and when they have once eaten away the embryo of the lupine seed, the other part cannot germinate. The lupine likes lean ground, as I have said, and especially reddish soil;

§ 2.10.4  it has an intense dislike of chalky ground and does not come up at all in a miry field. One iugerum takes ten modii. Next after this it will be proper to commit to the earth the kidney bean, either in old fallow ground, or better in rich ground that is tilled every year; the sowing of one iugerum will require not more than four modii. The same may be said of the pea, which desires, however, an easy and loose soil, a warm situation, and a climate where it often rains. The same quantity may be sown to the iugerum as in the case of the kidney bean, or one modius less, at the beginning of seed-time after the autumnal equinox.

§ 2.10.5  A spot that is naturally very fertile or well manured should be set aside for the common bean, and old fallow lying in a valley and receiving moisture from the higher ground. First, however, we shall cast the seed, then furrow the ground, and after furrowing reduce it to ridges and harrow it, to provide a deeper and more abundant covering of loose earth; for it is of the greatest importance that the roots of the sprouting seed be sunk deep.

§ 2.10.6  But if we must use restored land that has just borne a crop, after cutting the straw we shall distribute twenty-four loads of manure to the iugerum and spread it; and just as before, when we have scattered the seed on the unbroken ground, we shall plough it in, form ridges, and harrow, though there are some who say that beans should not be harrowed in cold regions because the projecting clods shelter them from the frosts while they are still young and provide some warmth when they are suffering from the cold.

§ 2.10.7  There are people, too, who think that in cultivated land this same plant takes the place of manure — a belief which I take as meaning, not that the ground is enriched by the sowing of it, but that it uses up the strength of the soil less than other crops. For I am convinced that land which has borne no crop is better suited for grain than one which bore a crop of this legume the preceding year.

§ 2.10.8  A iugerum of land requires four modii of beans, as Tremelius thinks, but six, in my opinion, if the ground is rich, and somewhat more if it is just ordinary; and it does not tolerate lean ground or a foggy situation, though it often does well on heavy soil. It should be sown, part at the middle of seed-time, and part at the end — the sowing called “septimontial.” The early sowing is more common, though the late one is sometimes better.

§ 2.10.9  There is little use in sowing it after the winter solstice, and the very worst time is spring; although there is also a three-months bean which may be sown in February, using one-fifth more than for the early variety, but which yields scanty straw and not many pods. And so I hear the old-time farmers commonly remark that they would rather have the bean straw of the early sowing than the beans of the three-months variety.

§ 2.10.10  But, whatever the season of sowing, we must take care that the quantity allotted for seed be broadcast on the fifteenth day of the moon, provided only she does not on that day traverse the rays of the sun — what the Greeks call ἀπόκρουσις or “waning”; otherwise that it be sown in any case on the fourteenth day, while the light of the moon is still waxing, even though the whole amount of seed cannot be covered immediately. For no harm will come to it from nightly dews or other causes, if only it be protected from cattle and birds.

§ 2.10.11  The ancient husbandmen, moreover, and Vergil too, held that it should first be soaked in oil lees or in nitre, and then sown,
That the deceptive pods might have a larger fruit,
Their seeds soon softened by even a little heat.
We, too, have learned that seed so treated is less infested by weevils after it has reached maturity. And what we are about to say next, we offer as a precept from our own experience:

§ 2.10.12  Gather beans before in the dark of the moon, before dawn; and when they have dried on the threshing-floor, immediately, before the moon begins its waxing, beat them out, cool them, and carry them into the granary. When stored in the same way they will not be harmed by weevils. And this one, especially, of the legumes, can be very easily threshed without the use of cattle, and cleaned without the aid of wind, as follows:

§ 2.10.13  Have a moderate number of loose sheaves brought together at one end of the threshing-floor, and let three or four men push them along with their feet through the middle of the floor the longest way, and beat them with sticks or forks; then, when they reach the other end of the floor, let them throw the stalks again into a pile.

§ 2.10.14  For the seeds that have been beaten out will lie on the floor, and the other bundles will be threshed out on top of them, little by little, in the same manner. For the hardest chaff will be knocked off and separated by the beaters, but the fine chaff which has fallen from the pods along with the beans will be separated in another way: that is, when the mixture of chaff and seeds has been heaped together in one pile, let it be tossed some distance away, a little at a time, by winnowing-fans; and by this means the chaff, being lighter, will fall short, and the beans, which are thrown farther, will come clean to the spot where the winnower throws them.

§ 2.10.15  The lentil is properly sown only from the time of the half-moon up to her twelfth day, in ground that is lean and loose, or fat, but above all in a place that is dry; for when in flower it is easily damaged by rankness and moisture. To make it come out quickly and make a good growth, it should be mixed with dried manure before sowing, and then broadcast after it has remained thus for four or five days. Our practice is to make two sowings, the early one in the middle of seedtime, and the later in the month of February.

§ 2.10.16  A little more than one modius covers a iugerum of ground. To keep it from being destroyed by weevils — for they eat it even when it is in the pod — care must be taken that, as soon as it is threshed out, it be sunk in water, and that the sound grains be separated from the empty, which come at once to the surface; then that it be dried in the sun, sprinkled and rubbed with the bruised root of silphium mixed with vinegar, and again dried in the sun; and presently, after cooling, that it be stored away — in the bin if the amount is rather large, or in olive jars and salt-fish jars if there is not much of it. If these are sealed with gypsum immediately upon being filled, we shall find the lentil sound whenever we take it out for use. Still, it can be kept satisfactorily without such treatment if mixed with ashes.

§ 2.10.17  Flax-seed should not be sown unless it yields a heavy crop and brings a good price in the region where you farm; for it is particularly hurtful to land. For this reason it requires a soil which is very rich and moderately moist. It is sown from the first of October to the rising of Aquila, which falls on the seventh day before the Ides of December. A iugerum of land is sown with eight modii of it. Some hold that it should be sown in poor land, and very thickly, so that the flax may grow with a more slender stem. The same people also say that if it is sown in rich ground in February, ten modii should be broadcast to the iugerum.

§ 2.10.18  Sesame is to be sown earlier on well-watered ground, and from the autumnal equinox to the Ides of October on ground that lacks moisture. It usually requires a loamy soil, such as the Campanians call pullum; still it thrives no less well even in rich sand or in mixed ground. The same quantity of seed is sown to the iugerum as of millet and panic, sometimes even two sextarii more. But I have seen this same seed sown in the months of June and July in districts of Cilicia and Syria, and harvested during the autumn, when it was fully ripe.

§ 2.10.19  The chick-pea or the chickling-vetch, which has a resemblance to the pea, should be sown in January or February in rich soil if the weather is moist; though in some sections of Italy the sowing is made before the first of November. Three modii are sufficient for one iugerum. No legume is less hurtful to land; but it seldom does well, because, when in bloom, it cannot endure dry weather or south winds; and both these drawbacks usually attend the season when it drops its blossoms.

§ 2.10.20  The chick-pea which is called arietillum, and also one of another variety, called Punicum, may be sown during the whole month of March, if the weather is moist, in the most fertile soil; indeed, this kind is harmful to land for that reason is not approved by the more expert farmers. If it must be sown, however, it should be soaked a day ahead to hasten its germination. Three modii are enough for one iugerum.

§ 2.10.21  Hemp demands a rich, manured, well-watered soil, or one that is level, moist, and deeply worked. Six grains of this seed to the square foot are planted at the rising of Arcturus, which means toward the end of February, about the sixth or fifth day before the Calends of March; and yet no harm will be done in planting it up to the spring equinox if the weather is rainy.

§ 2.10.22  After these legumes consideration must be given to the navew and the turnip, as both of them are filling food for country people. The turnips, however, are more profitable, because they yield a greater increase and serve as food, not only for mankind, but also for cattle, especially in Gaul, where this vegetable provides winter fodder for the aforesaid animals. Both require a loamy, loose soil, and do not grow in heavy ground.

§ 2.10.23  Turnips, however, like level and moist places, while the navew prefers ground that is sloping and dry with more of a tendency to leanness; and so it grows better in gravelly and sandy lands. The nature of the situation changes the seed of both: thus, turnips sown in one soil are changed into navews in two years' time, while in the other the navew likewise takes on the appearance of the turnip. In well-watered situations both are properly sown after the summer solstice, in dry places at the end of August or the early part of September. They demand a soil that is well prepared by pointed working with the plough or mattock and generously manured;

§ 2.10.24  for this is of the greatest importance, not only because they themselves make a better showing but also because, after they are harvested, soil so treated produces luxuriant crops of grain. One iugerum of ground should be sown with not more than four sextarii of turnip seed; of the navew, one-fourth more is to be scattered, because it does not widen out into a globular shape but pushes its slender root straight down.
The above plantings are to be made, in our opinion, for the sake of man, and then come several kinds of cattle fodder, such as Medic clover, vetch, mixed fodder of barley and oats, fenugreek, and also bitter vetch and chick-pea; for we do not think it worth while to enumerate the rest, and still less to sow them, excepting only the cytisus [shrub-clover] of which we shall speak in those books which we have in writing on the various kinds of young shoots.

§ 2.10.25  But of those which find favour the Medic plant is outstanding for several reasons: one seeding affords, for all of ten years thereafter, four harvestings regularly and sometimes six; it improves the soil; lean cattle of every kind grow fat on it; it has medicinal value for an ailing beast; and one iugerum of it provides abundant fodder for three horses for an entire year.

§ 2.10.26  It is sown as we shall next direct. In the place where you are to sow Medic the following spring, break the ground about the first of October and allow it to mellow during the entire winter; then, at the beginning of February, work it again carefully, remove all stones, and break up the clods; after that, sometime in the month of March, plough it a third time and harrow it. When you have prepared the ground in this fashion, make divisions as you would in a garden, ten feet wide and fifty feet long, to allow water to be supplied by way of the foot-paths and to provide a means of access on both sides for the weeders.

§ 2.10.27  Then spread old manure over it, and at the end of April sow at the rate of one cyathus of seed to a space ten feet long and five wide. When you have done so, the seed should be covered at once with wooden rakes — a matter of great importance — for the seed is very soon burned by the sun. After the seed is sown, the place should not be touched with iron; and so, as I have said, it must be hoed with wooden implements and repeatedly freed of weeds, so that no other kind of growth may kill out the weak Medic.

§ 2.10.28  It will be best to make the first cutting rather late, after it has dropped some of its seed. Thereafter, when it has started up, you may cut it as tender as you please and feed it to stock, but somewhat sparingly at first, until they become accustomed to it, so that the novelty of the fodder may not harm them; for it causes bloating and greatly increases the blood supply. After cutting, water it rather frequently; then, a few days later, when it begins to send out new shoots, weed out all other kinds of growth. If cared for in this way, it can be cut six times a year and will last for ten years.

§ 2.10.29  Of vetch, however, there are two sowings: the first about the time of the autumnal equinox, for the purpose of forage, in which we sow seven modii to the iugerum; the second in the month of January or even later, when we scatter six modii for the production of seed. Both sowings may be made on untilled land, but with better results on broken ground; and this species especially does not like dew at the time of sowing.

§ 2.10.30  For this reason it must be broadcast after the second or third hour of the day, when all moisture has been dried up by sun or wind, and no more should be scattered than can be covered in the same day; for, if night comes on before it is covered, the least moisture spoils it. Care must be taken not to put it in the ground before the twenty-fifth day of the moon; otherwise we usually find that the slug damages the crop.

§ 2.10.31  Mixed forage should be sown in land that is worked every year, very heavily manured, and twice ploughed. It turns out best when sown with ten modii of horse-barley to the iugerum about the autumnal equinox; but when rains are threatening, so that, being watered by showers after sowing, it may come up quickly and gather strength before the severe weather of winter. For in cold weather, when other forage has failed, this provides excellent cut fodder for oxen and other animals; and if you care to graze it frequently, it holds out even up to the month of May.

§ 2.10.32  If, however, you wish also to take seed from it, cattle must be kept off after the first of March, and it must be protected from every kind of harm so as to be capable of bearing seed. The same method is applied to oats: they are sown in the autumn; some are cut for hay or for fodder while still green; and some are set apart for seed.

§ 2.10.33  Fenugreek, which country people call siliqua, has two seasons for sowing: one of them in the month of September, when it is sown for fodder, on the same days as vetch, near the time of the equinox; the other, however, at the end of January or early in February, when it is sown for seed; though we use six modii to the iugerum for the latter sowing, and seven for the former. Both sowings are made not without advantage before the ground is prepared, and care is taken that it be ploughed closely but not deeply, for if the seed is covered more than four fingers deep it does not easily come up; and for this reason some people break the ground with the smallest ploughs before sowing, and then scatter the seed and cover it with light hoes.

§ 2.10.34  Bitter vetch, on the other hand, thrives on soil that is lean but not moist, because it is usually spoiled by rankness. It may be sown in autumn and equally well after the winter solstice, in the latter part of January or all of February, if only before the first day of March. This whole month, farmers say, is not suited to this legume, because when sown at this time it is harmful to cattle, and especially to oxen, in which it causes brain-madness when they eat it. It is sown five modii to the iugerum.

§ 2.10.35  Crushed chickling-vetch instead of bitter vetch is given to oxen in Hispania Baetica: after being broken by a suspended millstone it is soaked for a time in water, until it becomes soft, and in this condition, mixed with sifted chaff, it is fed to cattle. But twelve pounds of bitter vetch are sufficient for one yoke, and sixteen of chick-pea. This same chick-pea is not unsuited to human use, and is not unpleasant; in taste, at least, it differs not at all from the chickling-vetch, being distinguished merely by its colour, for it is more dirty-looking and nearer black. It is sown at the first or second ploughing in the month of March, according as the richness of the soil requires, and the same consideration determines the amount — for modii, sometimes three, sometimes even two and a half to the iugerum.

§ 2.11.1  Since we have treated of the time at which each sowing should be made, we shall now show what method of cultivation is to be employed, and the number of days' labour required for each of the crops mentioned. After the sowing is finished, the next matter is that of hoeing, a point on which authorities are not agreed. Some say that this is of no advantage, because the roots of the grain are uncovered by the hoe and some of them are even cut off, and, if the weather is cold after the hoeing, the grain is killed by frost; but that it is better that weeding and cleaning be done at the proper season.

§ 2.11.2  Still there are many who believe in hoeing, but that it should not be done everywhere in the same way and at the same time; thus, in dry and sunny fields, as soon as the crops can stand hoeing, they should be covered with well-stirred soil to enable them to bush out; and this should be done before winter, and then repeated after winter is past; while in cold and swampy places, usually after winter is over, they should be hoed without being covered over but having the earth thoroughly stirred by level hoeing.

§ 2.11.3  Nevertheless we find that winter hoeing is suited to many regions, but only where dryness and warmth of climate permit, though we think it best not to practice even this everywhere but to conform to the ways of those who live in the neighbourhood. For countries have their own peculiar advantages, such as those of Egypt and Africa, where the farmer does not touch his crop from the sowing until the reaping, for climatic conditions and the quality of the soil are such that scarcely any plant comes up except from seed that is sown; either because of the scarcity of rain or because the character of the soil so lends itself to those who cultivate it.

§ 2.11.4  Moreover, in those regions where hoeing is desirable, the crops are not to be touched before the growth has covered the furrows, even if the condition of the weather should allow it. It will be proper to hoe wheat and emmer as soon as they have put forth four blades, barley when it has five, and beans and other legumes when they stand four fingers above ground — with the exception, however, of the lupine, as hoeing is hurtful to its seedlings; for it has a single root, and if this is cut or injured by an iron tool, the whole plant dies.

§ 2.11.5  And even if this were not the case, cultivation would still be unnecessary, for this one plant is so far from being troubled by weeds as actually to destroy them on its own account. Now other crops which may be worked when wet, are nevertheless hoed with better results when dry, because, when handled in this way, they are not attacked by rust; but barley must not be touched except when perfectly dry.

§ 2.11.6  Many people think that beans should not be hoed at all, because, being pulled by hand when ripe, they may be separated from the other growth, and the grass that grows among them may be saved for hay. This is also the opinion of Cornelius Celsus, who counts this too among the other virtues of this legume when he says that after the beans are removed a cutting of hay may be taken from the same spot. But to me it seems the mark of a very poor farmer to allow grass to grow among his crops, for it detracts greatly from the yield if weeding is neglected.

§ 2.11.7  And it is no mark of a wise husbandman to be more concerned with fodder for cattle than with food for man, especially when he may obtain the former as well by cultivation of his meadows. I am so strongly in favour of hoeing beans as to think that they should actually be hoed three times. For we find that when cultivated in this way they not only multiply their yield but also have but little pod in proportion, and that a measure of them when shelled and cleaned is almost as full as before they were shelled, as the amount is scarcely diminished by the removal of the outer coverings.

§ 2.11.8  And in general, as we have said before, winter hoeing is of very great benefit on clear and dry days after the solstice is past, in the month of January, if there are no frosts. It should be done, besides, in such a way that the roots of the plants will not be damaged, but rather covered over and hilled up, so that the offshoots of the main stem may spread out farther. It will be beneficial to do this at the first hoeing, but harmful at the second, because grain rots if it is covered after it has ceased to send out shoots.

§ 2.11.9  Therefore nothing more should be done at the second hoeing than to loosen the ground evenly; and this should be done immediately after the vernal equinox is past, within twenty days, before the plant forms a joint, for when it is hoed later it is destroyed by the dry weather and heat of the ensuing summer. To the hoeing must be added the weeding, and we must take care not to touch a grain-field when it is in bloom, but either beforehand or soon after the blossoms have fallen. p

§ 2.11.10  Now all grain and barley, in short everything that is not of double seed, sends out an ear from the third to the fourth joint; and when it has pushed out the entire spike it casts its bloom within eight days, and then continues to grow until it reaches maturity forty days after its flowering. On the other hand, those that are of double seed, such as beans, peas, and lentils, bloom in forty days and increase in growth for the same length of time.

§ 2.12.1  And now to reckon up the number of days' labour required to bring to the threshing-floor what we have committed to the earth, four or five modii of common wheat take up four days' work of the ploughmen, one of the harrower, two of the hoer for the first hoeing and one for the second, one of the weeder, and one and a half of the reaper — a total of ten and one-half days of labour. Five modii of winter wheat require the same number of days. Nine or ten modii of emmer call for as many days' work as five modii of common wheat.

§ 2.12.2  Five modii of barley require three days' labour of the ploughman, one day of harrowing, one and a half of hoeing, and one of reaping — six and a half days in all. Four or six modii of beans use up two days' work of the ploughman in old fallow ground, but one in land under cultivation; they are harrowed in a day and a half, hoed in a day and a half, hoed a second time in one day and a third time in one day, and harvested in one day — the total amounting to seven or eight days.

§ 2.12.3  Six or seven modii of vetch want two days' labour of the ploughmen in old fallow, and one in ground that is kept under cultivation; this likewise is harrowed in one day, and harvested in one day — the total amounting to [three or] four days' work. Five modii of bitter vetch are sown in the same number of days, harrowed in one day, and also hoed, weeded, and harvested in one day each — the total making up six days. Six or seven modii of fenugreek are put in the ground with the same number of days' labour, and are harvested in one day. Four modii of cow-peas are put under ground in the same number of days, are harrowed in one day, and harvested in one.

§ 2.12.4  Four modii of chickling-vetch or of the small chick-pea require three days' work of the ploughmen; they are harrowed in one day, weeded in one, and pulled in one — the total amounting to six days of work. A modius and a half of lentil is covered in the same number of days, harrowed in one, hoed in two, weeded in one, and pulled in one — the total coming to eight days' work. Ten modii of lupine are covered in one day, harrowed in one, and harvested in one. Four sextarii of millet and the same amount of panic take up four days' labour of the ploughmen, are harrowed in three days, and hoed in three; the number of days for gathering is not fixed.

§ 2.12.5  Three modii of the chick-pea are sown in the same number of days, harrowed in two days, hoed in one, weeded in one, and pulled in three — a total of eleven days' work. Eight or ten modii of flaxseed are sown with four days' ploughing, harrowed with three days' work, weeded with one, and pulled with three — the total amounting to eleven days' work. Six sextarii of sesame are cared for with three days' ploughing after the first breaking of the ground, four days of harrowing, four of hoeing and two at the second hoeing, and two days of harvesting — a total of fifteen days.

§ 2.12.6  Hemp is sown as we have directed above, but the amount of expense and attention required is not fixed. Medic, however, is put in the ground, not with the plough, but, as I have said, with small wooden rakes. One iugerum of this is harrowed by two men, hoed by one, and harvested by one.

§ 2.12.7  From this summing up of the days of labour required it is concluded that two hundred iugera of land can be worked with two yoke of oxen, the same number of ploughmen, and six common labourers, provided it be free of trees; but the same amount, when it is planted with trees, Saserna says can be satisfactorily cultivated with three additional men. This calculation shows us that one yoke of oxen can meet the requirements of one hundred and twenty-five modii of wheat and the same of legumes, so that the autumn sowing may total two hundred and fifty modii, and even after that seventy-five modii of three-months crops may still be sown.

§ 2.12.8  The proof of this is as follows: Seeds that are sown at the fourth ploughing require, for twenty-five iugera, one hundred and fifteen days' labour of the ploughmen; for such a plot of ground, however hard, is broken in fifty days, re-ploughed in twenty-five, plough a third time and then sown in forty days.

§ 2.12.9  Other legumes require sixty days, that is, two months. Forty-five days also are allowed for rainy weather and holidays, on which no ploughing is done; likewise thirty days after the sowing is finished, in which there is a period of rest. Thus the total amounts to eight months and ten days. Still there are left of the year three months and twenty-five days, which we may spend either in sowing three-months crops or in the hauling of hay, forage, manure, and of other useful things.

§ 2.13.1  But of the crops that I have mentioned, the same Saserna thinks that land is fertilized and improved by some, and, on the other hand, that it is burned out and wasted by others; that it is fertilized by lupine, beans, vetch, bitter vetch, lentils, the small chickpea, and peas. As to the lupine I have no doubt, nor yet as to vetch when it is sown for fodder, provided, however, that after being cut green it be followed up immediately by the plough, and that the ploughshare cut up and bury, before it dries out, what is left by the sickle; for this takes the place of manure.

§ 2.13.2  For if the roots are left to dry out after the fodder is cut, they will draw all the moisture out of the soil and use up the strength of the land; and it is probable that this happens also in the case of beans and other legumes by which the ground appears to be enriched; so that, unless the ground is broken up at once after a crop of them has been taken off, it will be of no benefit to the crops which are to be planted in that spot thereafter.

§ 2.13.3  Of those legumes, too, which are harvested by pulling, Tremelius says that the poisons of the chickpea and of flax are most harmful to the soil, the one because it is of a salty nature, the other because of its burning qualities; and Vergil, too, points this out when he says:
A field is burned by crops of flax, is burned by crops of oats,
Is burned by crops of poppies with Lethaean slumber steeped.
For there is no doubt that a field is impaired by seeding it with these, just as it is by millet and panic. But for all ground that is exhausted by cropping the aforesaid legumes there is one remedy at hand, namely, to come to its aid with manure, and with this sustenance, so to speak, to restore the strength that has been taken from it;

§ 2.13.4  and this not only for the sake of seed which is committed to the ploughed furrow, but also for trees and bushes, which thrive in greater measure on this kind of nourishment. Wherefore, if manuring is of the greatest advantage to the farmer, as it appears to be, I believe that it should be discussed with unusual care, inasmuch as this subject, though not overlooked by the ancient authorities, has nevertheless been given very slight attention.

§ 2.14.1  There are, then, mainly, three kinds of manure: that produced by birds, by humankind, and by cattle. Of bird dung that is considered first which is gathered from dove-cotes, and next is that which comes from hens and other fowl, excepting nevertheless marsh birds or swimming fowl, such as ducks and geese; for that is actually harmful. Still we especially commend pigeon dung, because we find that a moderate spreading of it causes the earth to ferment;

§ 2.14.2  and second to this is human excrement, if it is mixed with other refuse of the farmstead, for by itself it is naturally rather hot and for that reason it burns the ground. Better suited to young shoots, however, is human urine; and if you let it age for six months and then apply it to vines or fruit trees, there is nothing that makes them bear more abundantly; and not only will this treatment produce a larger crop but also it improves the flavour and the bouquet of the wine and the fruit.

§ 2.14.3  Also old oil lees, unsalted and mixed with this, can be used to advantage in watering fruit-bearing trees, and especially olives; for even when applied alone the lees are very beneficial. But both of them are used chiefly during the winter and even in spring, before the heat of summer, while the ground is kept open around the vines and the trees.

§ 2.14.4  The dung of cattle holds third place, and in this too there is a difference; for what the ass produces is considered best, because that animal chews very slowly and for that reason digests his food more easily, and he gives in return a manure that is well prepared and ready for the field immediately. After those that we have mentioned comes sheep dung, next is goat dung, and then that of other cattle and draught-animals. The dung of swine is considered the poorest of all.

§ 2.14.5  Moreover, the use of ashes and cinders is reasonably beneficial, while cut lupine plants provide the strength of the best manure. And I am not unaware that there is a certain kind of countryside in which neither cattle nor fowl can be kept; but even in such a place it is the mark of a slothful husbandman to be destitute of fertilizer.

§ 2.14.6  For he may store up any sort of leaves; he may gather any accumulated matter from bramble patches and from highways and byways; he may cut down his neighbour's fernbrakes without doing him harm, or even as a favour, and mix them with the cleanings from his inclosure; he may sink a trench such as, in my first book, I directed to be made for the storage of manure, and may heap together in one pile his ashes, sewer filth, straw, and other dirt that is swept out. But it is well to fasten a piece of oak wood in the middle of that same place, for this keeps the harmful serpent from hiding in the manure.

§ 2.14.7  All this of land which is bereft of cattle; for where herds of four-footed animals are kept, there are some places, such as the kitchen and the goat-sheds, which should be cleaned every day, and others, like the ox-stalls and sheepfolds, which are to be cleaned on rainy days. And if the ground is used merely for grain, it is of no importance to keep the different kinds of manure apart; but if the farm is laid out for a nursery, for grainfields, and also for meadows, the manure too must be stored separately, as that of goats and of birds. Then the rest of the refuse should be gathered into the hollowed-out place before mentioned, and it should be constantly saturated with moisture, so that the weed seeds mixed with the chaff and other matter may rot.

§ 2.14.8  Then during the summer months the whole dunghill should be thoroughly stirred with rakes, just as if you were loosening the ground, so that it may decay more readily and be fit for the land. Moreover, I consider those farmers lacking in industry who have from each of the smaller animals less than one load of manure in thirty days, and likewise ten loads from each of the larger ones; and the same amount from each person, for they can gather and heap together not only the waste matter from their own bodies, but also the dirt which the yard and the buildings produce every day.

§ 2.14.9  I have also this further direction to give, that all manure is most beneficial to crops when it has been stored in proper season and has rested for a year, for it still has its strength unimpaired and does not produce weeds; moreover, that the older it is, the less beneficial, because it has less strength. For this reason it should be spread on meadows while as fresh as possible, because it produces more grass; and this should be done in the month of February, while the moon is waxing, as this also contributes somewhat to the hay crop. As to the other use of manure, what sort is suitable for the several kinds of crops, we shall speak when we treat of them individually.

§ 2.15.1  Meanwhile, one who wishes to prepare his fields for grain should distribute manure in piles of moderate size while the moon is waning — in the month of September if he intends to sow in the autumn, at any time of winter if he is to sow in the spring — at the rate of eighteen loads to the iugerum on level ground and twenty-four on hilly land; and, as I said a little earlier, he should not spread these heaps until he is ready to sow.

§ 2.15.2  Yet if anything keeps him from applying manure at the proper time, a second method is, before hoeing, to scatter over the grainfield the pulverized droppings from the bird houses in the manner of one casting seed; and if there is none of this, to broadcast goat dung by hand then stir the ground thoroughly with hoes. This produces luxuriant crops. And I think that husbandmen should not be unacquainted with the fact that as land grows cold when it is not manured, so it is burned if manured too heavily; and that it is of greater advantage to the farmer to do this frequently rather than lavishly.

§ 2.15.3  And there is no doubt that wet land requires a greater quantity of it, and dry land less — the one because, being chilled by constant moisture, it is warmed when manure is applied, and the other because, being naturally warm, it is parched by the increased aridity when this is added; for which reason such dressing should be neither deficient nor over-sufficient.

§ 2.15.4  If, however, no kind of manure is available, it will be very helpful to follow the practice which I remember my uncle, Marcus Columella, a very learned and painstaking farmer, frequently employed: that is, to heap clay on gravelly ground, and gravel on ground that was clayey and too stiff, and in this way to grow not only luxuriant crops of grain but also very fine vineyards.

§ 2.15.5  For this same authority used to say that dung should not be applied to vines, because it spoiled the flavour of the wine; and he thought that a better dressing for making a heavy vintage was humus, either that which accumulates around bramble-thickets, or in fact any earth obtained elsewhere and brought in. But my opinion nowadays is that if the farmer is destitute of everything, at any rate there is no lack of lupine, that very ready aid; and if he will scatter this on lean ground about the middle of September, plough it in, and at the proper time cut it up with the ploughshare or the mattock, it will have the effect of the best manure.

§ 2.15.6  The lupine should be cut, moreover, in gravelly ground when it is in the second flower, and in sticky soils when it is in its third. In the former case it is turned under while it is tender, so that it may rot quickly and be mixed with the thin soil; in the latter case when it has grown stronger, so that it may hold up the more solid clods longer and keep them suspended, to be broken down when heated by the summer sun.

§ 2.16.1  These things the ploughman will be able to accomplish if he makes provision not only for the varieties of forage crops which I have mentioned, but also for a supply of hay for the better maintenance of his cattle, without which it is difficult to work the land to advantage; and on that account the tending of a meadow is also required of him. To the meadow the ancient Romans assigned the leading role in agriculture,

§ 2.16.2  and to it also they gave its name (pratum) from the fact that it was immediately “ready” (paratum) and did not require a great amount of toil. Marcus Porcius, indeed, called to mind also the following considerations: that it is not damaged by storms like the other divisions of the farm, and that, though needing very little outlay, it yields a return year after year — and that not a single return, because it pays no less in pasturage than in hay.

§ 2.16.3  We take notice, then, of two kinds of meadows, the dry and the watered. In level ground that is rich and fat there is no need of an inflowing stream, and hay which grows naturally on a moist soil is considered superior to that enticed by irrigation; though such watering is necessary if the leanness of the soil demands it. For a meadow can be laid down both in stiff and in loose soil, however poor, if the opportunity for irrigation is offered.

§ 2.16.4  And it should not be a plain that slopes inward, nor a hill with a steep pitch — the former that it may not hold too long the water which settles there, the latter that it may not immediately pour it off in a torrent. However, if the ground has a gentle slope and is either rich or moist, a meadow may be laid down.

§ 2.16.5  But the place most approved is an even surface which, having a slight slope, does not allow rain or inflowing rivulets to stand too long; but when any moisture reaches it, it gradually drains off. And so if there is in any part of it a low and boggy place where water stands, it must be drained with ditches; for an oversupply and an undersupply of water are equally destructive to grass.

§ 2.17.1  The keeping up of meadows is, moreover, a matter of care rather than of labour. In the first place, we must not allow shrubs or thorn bushes or weeds of rather vigorous growth to remain in them, but before winter and throughout autumn we must root out some of them, such as bramble-bushes, thickets, and rushes, and pull up others like endive and midsummer thorns; and we should not permit swine to feed on them, as they root them up with their snouts and tear up the sod, nor larger animals except when the ground is very dry, because their hoofs, sinking into the wet ground, bruise and cut the grass roots.

§ 2.17.2  Then also the more rugged and elevated sections should be enriched with manure in the month of February, while the moon is waxing; and all stones and any harmful objects that may lie in the way of the sickle should be gathered up and carried some distance away, and then, sooner or later, according to the nature of the place, the meadows should be let alone to grow to hay. There are also some meadows covered with the mould of long neglect, and the old-time farmers have a way of restoring them by scraping off the moss and broadcasting seed from the hayloft, or by applying manure; neither of which is so effective as the frequent application of ashes. This last treatment kills the moss completely.

§ 2.17.3  Still these remedies are rather slow, whereas the most effective measure is to plough the spot all over again. The above are measures that we should take if we have taken over meadows ready-made; but if new ones are to be established or old ones restored — for there are many, as I have said, which run down and become barren through neglect, and it is expedient to plough them up now and then for a grain crop, because such land after long idleness produces luxuriant crops —

§ 2.17.4  we shall break up in the summer such land as we have set apart for a meadow, work it continuously throughout the autumn, and seed it with turnips or navews or even beans; then the following year, with grain. In the third year we shall plough thoroughly and dig out by the roots all the stouter growth, brambles and trees, that stand in the way, unless the fruitfulness of the set trees keeps us from so doing. Next we shall sow vetch mixed with hayseed, then break the clods with hoes and level the surface by drawing a brushwood drag over it, and scatter the heaps of earth which the drags usually form at the turnings, so that the mower's scythe may not strike against anything.

§ 2.17.5  But it is not advisable to cut this vetch until it is entirely ripe and has shed some seed on the ground beneath it. Then the mowers should cut it down, and the ground should next be irrigated if there is a supply of water, but only in case the ground is rather heavy; for in loose soil it is not wise to let in too heavy a flow of water before the ground is packed and bound together by vegetation, because the force of the water washes away the soil and, by exposing the roots, does not allow the grass to gain a foothold.

§ 2.17.6  It is for this reason that one should not even turn his herds into meadows that are still soft and settling, but should cut the grass with sickles whenever it shoots up; for, as I have said before, cattle plant their hoofs in the soft ground and, cutting off the grass roots, do not allow them to spread and form a dense growth. In the second year, however, we shall allow the smaller animals to be turned in after the haymaking, if only dry weather and the condition of the ground will permit it.

§ 2.17.7  Then in the third year, when the meadow is quite solid and firm, it will be in condition to receive even the larger cattle. But, in general, care must be taken that after the rising of Favonius in February, about the middle of the month, the poorer spots and especially the higher places be given a coating of manure in which hayseed is mixed; for the more elevated slope supplies nourishment to the land that lies below when a pouring rain or a hand-conducted rivulet carries the liquid manure along with its own waters to the part below. And it is for this reason that wise farmers, even in ploughed land, manure a hillside more heavily than a valley, because, as I have stated, the rains are forever carrying all the richer matter down to the lowland.

§ 2.18.1  It is best, moreover, that hay be cut before it begins to wither, as a greater quantity of it is harvested and it affords a more agreeable food for cattle. But a middle course should be followed in the curing, that it be gathered neither when very dry nor, on the other hand, while still green — in the one case because it is no better than straw if it has lost all its sap, and in the other because, if it has kept too much of it, it rots in the loft and often, when it becomes heated, it breeds fire and starts a blaze. Sometimes, too, when we have cut our hay a rain surprises us; and if the hay is soaked through it is useless to move it while wet, but better to let the upper side of it dry out in the sun.

§ 2.18.2  Only then shall we turn it, and, when it is dry on both sides, we shall bring it together in windrows and then bind it up in bundles. And above all we shall lose no time in putting it under cover; or, if it is not convenient for the hay to be carried to the farmstead or tied into bundles, it will be well at any rate that all of it that had been dried out to the proper extent be built up into cocks and that these be topped off with very sharp peaks.

§ 2.18.3  For by this method hay is very conveniently protected from rains; and even if there is no rain, it is still not amiss to build the aforesaid cocks, so that any moisture remaining in the hay may sweat and dry out in the piles. For this reason wise husbandmen, even in the case of hay brought under cover, do not store it away until they have allowed it to heat and cool for a few days in a loose pile. But now after the haymaking comes attention to the grain harvest; and that we may properly gather it, we must first put in readiness the implements with which the crops are harvested.

§ 2.19.1  The threshing-floor, too, if it is of earth, to be satisfactorily prepared for threshing should first be scraped, then dug thoroughly, with an admixture of chaff and oil lees which have not been salted, and moistened; for such treatment protects the grain from the ravages of mice and ants. Then, after being smoothed down, it should be packed hard with rammers or with a millstone, and, again strewn with chaff, it should be tramped down and left in this condition to be dried by the sun.

§ 2.19.2  There are people, however, who set aside for the threshing a piece of meadow land which is exposed to the west wind, and smooth off a threshing-place by cutting beans and throwing them on it; for while the legumes are being trampled out by the cattle the vegetation also is worn away by their hoofs, and in this way the place becomes bare and makes a suitable threshing-floor for grain.

§ 2.20.1  But when the grain is ripe it should be quickly harvested before it can be parched by the heat of the summer sun, which is most severe at the rising of the Dog-star; for delay is costly — in the first place because it affords plunder for birds and other creatures, and, secondly, because the kernels and even the heads themselves quickly fall as the stalks and beards wither.

§ 2.20.2  And if wind-storms or cyclones strike it, the greater part of it is lost on the ground; for which reason there should be no delay, but when the crop is even golden yellow, before the grains have entirely hardened and after they have taken on a reddish colour, the harvest should be gathered, so that the grain may grow larger on the floor and in the stack rather than in the field. For it is an established fact that, if cut at the proper time, it makes some growth afterwards.

§ 2.20.3  There are, furthermore, several methods of reaping: many cut the straw in the middle with cradle-scythes, and these either bill-shaped or toothed; many gather the heads only with forks, and others with combs — an operation which is very easy in a thin crop, but very difficult in a thick one.
But if the grain, with a part of the straw, is cut with sickles, it is at once gathered into a pile or carried into the shed, and then after repeated drying in the sun, as opportunity offers, it is threshed.

§ 2.20.4  If, however, the heads only are cut off they may be carried into the granary and then, drug the winter, be beaten out with flails or trodden out by cattle. But if it is convenient to have the grain threshed on the floor, there is no doubt that this work is better done with horses than with oxen; and if you have few teams you may hitch to them a threshing-sledge and a drag, either of which very easily breaks up the straw. It is better, however, that the heads themselves be beaten with flails and winnowed with fans.

§ 2.20.5  But when the grain is mixed with the chaff it is cleaned by the wind. The west wind is considered excellent for this purpose, as it blows generally and evenly in the summer months; but to wait for it is the mark of a dilatory farmer, for often, while we are waiting, a raging storm surprises us. Therefore the threshed grain should be heaped on the threshing-floor in such a way that it can be winnowed with any gentle wind. But if the air is quiet in every quarter for many days, the grain should be cleaned with winnowing-fans, for fear that after excessive stillness of the winds a mighty storm may bring to naught the toil of an entire year.

§ 2.20.6  Then the pure grain, if it is being laid away for a term of years, should be threshed again, for the better it is scoured the less it is preyed upon by weevils; but if it is intended for immediate use, there is no need of a second cleaning and it is sufficient that it be cooled in the shade and so carried to the granary. The handling of legumes, too, differs not at all from that of other grains, for they also are either consumed at once or stored away. And this is the crowning reward of the husbandman — reaping the harvest of the seed that he has entrusted to the earth.

§ 2.21.1  But inasmuch as our ancestors saw fit to render an account of their leisure hours as well as of their times of non-leisure, I also believe that farmers should be advised of what they should do on holidays and what they should leave undone. For here are things which, as the poet says,
Divine and human laws let be performed on festive days:
No sacred law forbids to fetch the irrigating rills,
A hedge along the field to stretch, for birds a snare to lay,
And briars to burn, and bleating flocks to dip in wholesome stream.

§ 2.21.2  And yet the pontiffs assert that a grain-field should not be fenced on holidays; they also forbid the washing of sheep for the good of the fleece, except as a curative measure. Vergil is instructing us as to the lawfulness of washing the flock in a river on holidays, and for that reason he adds “to dip in wholesome stream” — that is, in a healing stream; for there are ailments because of which it is expedient to bathe the cattle.

§ 2.21.3  Furthermore, the religious observances of our forefathers permit these tasks also on holidays: the braying of spelt; the cutting of torches; the dipping of candles; the tilling of a leased vineyard; the clearing out and cleaning of fish-ponds, cisterns, and old ditches; the sickling of meadows; the spreading of manure; the storing of hay in the loft; the gathering of the fruits of a leased olive-grove; the spreading of apples, pears and figs to dry; the making of cheese; the carrying of trees for planting, either on our own shoulders or with a pack mule. But it is not permitted to haul them with a yoked animal, nor to plant them after they are transported, nor to open the ground, nor to thin a tree;

§ 2.21.4  and not to assist in the sowing either unless you have first sacrificed a puppy, nor to cut hay or bind it or haul it; and it is not permissible either by the ordinances of the priests for the vintage to be gathered on feast days, nor to shear sheep, unless you have sacrificed a puppy. It is also lawful to make boiled must and to boil wine. To gather grapes and olives for preserving is likewise lawful. It is not lawful to clothe sheep with skins. Anything that you may do in your garden for the good of your vegetables is lawful. It is not lawful to bury a dead person on public feast days.

§ 2.21.5  Marcus Porcius Cato says that there are no holidays for mules, horses, and asses; the same authority permits the yoking of oxen for the purpose of hauling wood and grain. We ourselves have read in the books of the pontiffs that only on the holidays called Denicale is it unlawful to have mules in harness, but on other holidays it is lawful.
I am well aware that at this point, after my survey of the observances of feast days, some people will miss the customs observed by the ancients in the matter of purificatory ceremonies and other offerings which are made for the good of the crops.

§ 2.21.6  And I am not declining the task of offering this instruction, but am postponing it for that book which I intend to put together after I have written precepts on the whole science of agriculture. Meanwhile I shall bring the present discussion to an end, having in mind to tell in the next book what ancient authorities have handed down on the subject of vineyards and of tree-plantations, and what I myself have since discovered.

§ 3.1.1  Book III
“Thus far of the tillage of the land,” as says that most excellent poet. For, Publius Silvinus, as we are about to speak on the same topics, there is nothing to keep us from beginning under good omens with the opening words of that most renowned poem. There follows the management of trees, which is a most important part of rural husbandry. They are diverse in kind, and of many shapes; for trees of various sorts, as the same author relates,
of their own will come forth,
By mortals not constrained;
and many, too, grow from seed planted by our own hand.

§ 3.1.2  But those that are propagated without human aid, the wild and untamed, bear fruits or seeds according to their several natures; while those on which labour is spent are fitted for a greater yield.
I must speak first, then, of that kind which supplies us with food. And of this there is a threefold division: for from a small shoot there comes forth either a tree, as the olive; or a shrub, as the palm of the plains; or a third something which we can properly call neither tree nor shrub, as is the vine. p

§ 3.1.3  This last we rightly set above all other woody plants, not only for the sweetness of its fruits, but also because of the readiness with which in nearly every country and climate, except, however, the icy cold or burning hot, it responds to human care; it thrives on plain as well as hillside, in compact soil no less than in loose, often also in thin land, in fat ground and lean, in dry ground and wet;

§ 3.1.4  and it alone has the greatest endurance of both sorts of intemperate weather — either under a cold sky or one that is hot and stormy. Nevertheless an important consideration is the variety and the habit of the vine which you propose to cultivate, in relation to the conditions of the region. For its cultivation is not the same in every climate and in every soil, nor is there only one variety of that plant; and which kind is best of all is not easy to say, since experience teaches that to every region its own variety is more or less suited.

§ 3.1.5  Still the wise farmer will have discovered by test that the kind of vine proper for level country is one which endures mists and frosts without injury; for a hillside, one which withstands drought and wind. He will assign to fat and fertile land a vine that is slender and not too productive by nature; to lean land, a prolific vine; to heavy soil, a vigorous vine that puts forth much wood and foliage; to loose and rich soil, one that has few canes. He will know that it is not proper to commit to a moist place a vine with thin-skinned fruit and unusually large grapes, but one whose fruit is tough-skinned, small, and full of seeds; and that plants of a different nature are properly entrusted to a dry site.

§ 3.1.6  But in addition to this the proprietor of the place will not be unaware that the nature of the climate — cold or warm, dry or moist, subject to hail and wind or calm, clear or foggy — is a more potent influence.

§ 3.1.7  To cold or foggy conditions he will adapt two varieties of vine, either the early ripe, whose fruits mature before cold weather, or those with firm and hard berries, whose clusters drop their blossoms during the foggy season and are presently ripened by freezing weather and frosts, as those of other grapes are ripened by warmth. To a windy and unsettled climate also he will boldly commit the same hardy vines and those of the hard-berried variety. On the other hand, he will entrust to a warm climate the more delicate and heavier-bearing sorts. For a dry climate he will select such as are rotted by rains or continual dews; for a dewy one, those that suffer in dry weather; for one subject to hailstorms, those that have tough and broad leaves for the better protection of the fruit. A calm and clear-skied region does not refuse to admit any kind of vine, though most suitably one whose clusters or berries fall quickly.

§ 3.1.8  But if your own wishes are to be considered in the selection of site and climate for your vineyards, the best soil, as Celsus very rightly believes, is neither too compact nor loose, but closer to the loose type; neither poor nor excessively rich, but nearest to the fertile kind; neither flat nor steep, but like plain-land with a rise; neither dry nor wet, but moderately moist; one which does not abound in springs, either on the surface or in the depths of the earth, but which supplies the roots with moisture close at hand —

§ 3.1.9  and that neither bitter nor brackish, lest it spoil the flavour of the wine and check the growth of the vine's greenery with a kind of scaly rust, if only we believe Vergil when he says,
Unkind to crops is salty ground, and what is bitter called;
It is not tamed by ploughman's toil, nor does it keep unstained
The good repute of Bacchus' child and other fruits' fair name.

§ 3.1.10  Furthermore, as I have said before, a vineyard does not want an icy climate nor, on the other hand, one that is burning hot, though it thrives better in warm weather than in cold. It is harmed more by rain than by clear weather, and is more kindly disposed to a dry soil than to one that is subject to too much rain. It delights in moderate and gentle breezes, but is liable to injury from squalls. And this is the character of climate and soil that is most commendable.

§ 3.2.1  Further, the grape is planted either for eating or for the pouring forth of its juice. It is not profitable to establish vineyards for food unless the plot is so close to a city that conditions warrant the selling of the raw grapes to marketers, as we do other fruit. When this is the case, the early ripe and hard-berried varieties are especially to be planted, and then the Purple and the Bumast (full-breasted), the Dactyl (date-shaped) and the Rhodian, and the Libyan and the Ceraunian; p

§ 3.2.2  and not only those that can be recommended for agreeableness of flavour, but also those whose appearance can commend them, such as the Stephanitan (coronary), the Tripedanean (three-foot kind), the Unciarian (ounce-weight), and the Cydonitan (quince-grape); likewise those vines whose grapes keep well in winter and are stored in jars, as the Venuculan, and the Numisian, which has recently been proved for this purpose.

§ 3.2.3  But when our interest is in the wine, a vine is selected which is both heavy in yield and strong in wood, because the one contributes greatly to the income of the husbandman, and the other to the durability of the stock.

§ 3.2.4  But such a vine is especially good if it does not put forth leaves too quickly, if also it casts its flowers very early in the season and does not ripen too slowly; moreover, if it easily withstands frosts and fog and blight, does not rot in rainy weather, and does not shrivel up in times of drought.

§ 3.2.5  A vine of this sort, though only moderately fruitful, should be our choice, if only we have a piece of ground where the flavour of the wine is distinguished and costly; for if it is of poor quality or low in price, it is best to plant the most prolific vines, so that our revenues may be increased by the greater quantity of the yield.

§ 3.2.6  Moreover, in nearly every type of place champaign slopes produce the larger quantity of wine, but hill lands the better flavoured; and in a temperate climate hills that slope to the north are more productive, while those with a southern exposure yield a superior quality. p

§ 3.2.7  And there is no doubt that the nature of some vines is such that in the quality of their wine they sometimes excel, sometimes are excelled, according to their situation. The Aminean varieties alone, except where the climate is exceedingly cold, and even if they decline in quality in comparison with their best, are said to provide wines of more or less true taste and to surpass all others in flavour.

§ 3.2.8  Though they bear one name, they are not of the same appearance. We know of two “sister” vines, of which the smaller is earlier and better in casting its blossoms and may be trained to tree and trellis alike. On the tree it requires rich ground; on the trellis, ordinary soil. And it far surpasses the larger variety by reason of its sturdier endurance of rain and wind.

§ 3.2.9  For the larger sort is quickly spoiled in the blossom, and more so on trellises than on trees; and on this account it is not suitable for vineyards, and hardly fit for an arbustum except in ground that is very rich and vigorous; for it does not thrive in ordinary ground, and much less so in lean ground. It is distinguished by its great amount of rank woody growth and the large size of its leaves, clusters, and berries; it is also longer from joint to joint. In quantity of fruit it is surpassed by the smaller variety; it is not outdone in flavour. And both of these, to be sure, are Aminean vines.

§ 3.2.10  But there are two other vines, called “twins,” which derive their name from their producing of double clusters; they yield a harsher wine, but keep equally well. The smaller of the two is everywhere very well known, because it covers those most famous slopes of Vesuvius and of Surrentum in Campania. It is sprightly amid the western breezes of summer, but downcast in western winds;

§ 3.2.11  and so in other sections of Italy it is suitable, not so much for vineyards, as for the arbustum, although in the regions above mentioned it bears the yoke very well. It produces wood and fruit — except for its double clusters — not unlike the smaller “sister” vine, just as the larger “twin” is like the larger “sister”; but the smaller vine is the better in that it is more fruitful even in ordinary soil, for I have already said that the other does not yield except in very rich ground.

§ 3.2.12  Some also approve very highly the “woolly” Aminean, which acquires this epithet not from the fact that it alone, of all the Aminean varieties, is hoary with down, but because it is especially so. A producer of exceedingly good wine, though mellower than those above mentioned, it also makes a rank growth; and for this reason, because of the compactness of its foliage, it often does not cast its blossoms perfectly, and it also rots quickly after the fruit has matured.

§ 3.2.13  In addition to the number that we have mentioned, there is included a “single” Aminean not unlike the larger “twin” — a vine of first rank in the appearance of leafy shoots and stock, but somewhat inferior in the flavour of its wine; though even so it ranks next to the most outstanding varieties and is even to be preferred for qualities of its own. For it is more fruitful, it is better in casting its flowers, it bears compact light-coloured clusters of plumper grapes, it does not degenerate in poor land, and consequently it is counted among the most profitable vines.

§ 3.2.14  The Nomentan vines follow close after the Amineans in excellence of wine, but in productivity they are often loaded full and keep exceedingly well what they have produced. But of these, too, the smaller is the more prolific; its leaf is not so deeply cleft, and its wood is not so red as that of the larger variety — from which colour the vines are called rubellanae. These vines are also called faeciniae from the fact that they make more dregs (faeces) than other varieties.

§ 3.2.15  Still they make up for this disadvantage in the greater number of their clusters, which they produce even on a trellis but better on a tree. They endure winds and rains valiantly, drop their flowers early, and therefore ripen sooner. They bear up under every adversity except that of heat; for, having small-berried and tough-skinned clusters, they shrivel in high temperatures. They delight most of all in rich land, which can add some fullness to clusters that are naturally scanty and small.

§ 3.2.16  The Eugenians endure a cold, dewy ground and climate very well as long as they remain on the Alban hills; for in a changed situation they hardly answer to their own name. The same is true of the Allobrogian vines: the agreeableness of their wines is affected by a change of region.

§ 3.2.17  The three Apian also are recommended for their great qualities; all of them fruitful and quite suitable for the trellis and for trees, though the one with bare leaves is superior. For the two lanate varieties, though of like appearance as to leaves and branches, differ in the quality of their juice, as one of them is slower in acquiring flatness of taste from long keeping.

§ 3.2.18  They are very prolific in rich ground, and fruitful also in average soil; their fruit ripens early, and for that reason they are very well suited for cold localities; they yield a sweet wine, but are not good for the head, sinews, and veins. If they are not gathered at the proper time they become the prey of rains, winds, and bees; and it is because of this plundering that they are surnamed from the word meaning “bees” (apes). And these are the vines most renowned for their precious flavours.

§ 3.2.19  There are, nevertheless, vines of second quality which can be commended for their growth and fruitfulness, such as the Bituric and the Basilic, the smaller of which the Spaniards call coccolobis, — both of them by far the closest to the very best; for their wine stands long keeping and attains some degree of excellence with age.

§ 3.2.20  And in fact they surpass in productiveness all that I have mentioned above, and also in hardiness; for they withstand storms and rain with the greatest fortitude, they have a good amount of juice, and do not fail in lean ground. They endure cold weather better than wetness, and wetness better than dryness, and yet they are not bothered by heat.

§ 3.2.21  Next after these are the Visula and the smaller Argitis, which thrive in ground of middling quality; for they make a rank growth in rich ground because of their excessive vigour, while in lean ground they grow spindling and are devoid of fruit. They have a greater fondness for the trellis than for trees, though the Argitis is productive even on high supports and makes a luxuriant growth of wood and grape clusters.

§ 3.2.22  The Visula, better suited to very low frames, makes little wood but tough and broad leaves, whose size affords the fruit very good protection against hail; but if this is not gathered as soon as it is ripe, it falls to the ground; and in wet weather it rots even before it falls off.

§ 3.2.23  There are also the Helvolans, which some call variae (variegated); they are neither purple nor black, and get their name, if I mistake not, from their dun (helvus) shade. The one which is more nearly black is the better as to quantity of wine, while the other is more highly prized in the matter of flavour. In neither of them does the colour of the berries appear to be uniform. Both yield white must in greater or smaller quantity every year. They make a better covering on a tree, though doing well on a trellis. They are productive also in mediocre soil, as are the smaller and larger Pretians. But the latter are commended more highly for the quality of their wine, and they put forth much wood and foliage and ripen quickly.

§ 3.2.24  The Albuelis, as Celsus says, is more profitable on a hill than on a plain; on a tree than on a trellis; and at the top of the tree than at the lower part. It produces much wood and many clusters. For those Greekling vines — such as the Mareotic, the Thasian, the Psithian, and the Sophortian — though they have an agreeable taste, still in our localities they yield little juice because of the small size of the berries. Nevertheless the black Inerticulan, which certain Greeks call amethystos, may be placed in the second tribe, so to speak, because it makes good wine and is harmless; from this fact, too, it takes its name, because it is considered inactive (iners) in its effect on the sinews, although not dull in taste.

§ 3.2.25  Celsus makes a third class of those vines which are commended for fruitfulness alone, such as the three Helvenacans, of which the two larger are considered by no means equal to the smaller in the quality and quantity of their must. One of them, which people who live in Gaul call marcus, produces ordinary wine; and the other, which they designate as the “long vine” and also the “white vine,” yields a wine of low grade and of no such quantity as the number of its clusters promises at first glance.

§ 3.2.26  The smallest and best of the three is very readily recognized by its leaf, for it bears the roundest leaf of all of them; and it is praiseworthy because it endures drought best of all, because it bears cold if only it is free from rain, because in some regions its wine is racked off for long keeping, and especially because it alone gives a good name to even the poorest of soil by reason of its own fertility.

§ 3.2.27  [Celsus includes also] such as the Spionian, rich in must but fruitful in the size rather than the number of its clusters; such as the Horconian, the Murgentine, which is the same as the Pompeian, the Numisian, the Venuculan, also called Scirpulan and Sticulan; such as the black Fragellan, the Merican, the Rhaetian, and that most prolific of all vines within our acquaintance, the greater Arcelacan, wrongly considered by many to be the Argitis.

§ 3.2.28  For as to those that have recently come to my knowledge — I mean the Pergulan, the Irtiolan, and the Fereolan — I could not easily declare with certainty in what class they are to be considered; for, though I know that they are passably fruitful, I have not been able as yet to pass judgment on the quality of the wine that they produce. We have discovered also that there is an early-ripe vine, hitherto unknown to us and called Dracontion after the Greek fashion, which may be compared in fruitfulness and agreeableness to the Arcelacan, the Basilic, and the Bituric vines, and in its high quality to the Aminean.

§ 3.2.29  There are, besides, many sorts of vines of which we can relate neither the number nor the names with assurance. And, indeed, as the poet says,
to know their number is of no concern.
One who would know of this might also wish to learn
How many grains of Libyan sand by western breeze are stirred.

§ 3.2.30  For all countries and almost all separate districts of those countries have their peculiar types of vines, which they designate according to their own fashion; some vine-stocks also have changed their names along with the places where they are grown; and some, as I said above, have so far departed from their peculiar character, through a change of place, as to be unrecognizable. And so in our own Italy, not to speak of the whole far-flung world, neighbouring peoples disagree in the names of vines, and their designations vary.

§ 3.2.31  Therefore it is a mark of the wise teacher not to retard his students with quibbling over a list of names of a sort which it is impossible to master, but in general to lay down as a precept what Celsus says, and Marcus Cato before him — that no kind of vine should be planted except that approved by common report, and that none should be kept for any length of time unless proved by test. And where the many advantages of a particular region invite us to plant a superior vine, we shall search out one of good origin, says Julius Graecinus; where there is nothing at all or not much to encourage us, we shall look rather for fruitfulness, which is not excelled in worth to the same degree that it excels in abundance of yield.

§ 3.2.32  But as for this opinion, though I myself was of the same mind not long ago, I shall soon tell in the proper place what my more private judgment is. For it is my purpose to teach the method by which vineyards may be managed so as to be at the same time fruitful and productive of a wine that will bring a good price.

§ 3.3.1  Now, before discoursing on the planting of vines, I think it not out of place to lay down, as a sort of foundation for the coming discussion, the principle that we would have carefully weighed and investigated in advance whether viticulture will enrich the proprietor; for it is well-nigh purposeless as yet to give directions for planting vines, as long as the prior question is not yet affirmatively answered — whether vines should be kept at all. And most people would be doubtful on this point, to such an extent that many would avoid and dread such an ordering of their land, and would consider it preferable to own meadows and pastures, or woodland for cutting;

§ 3.3.2  for in the matter of ground planted with trees for the support of vines there has been no little dispute even among authorities, Saserna being unfavourable to this kind of land, and Tremelius approving it most highly. But we shall make an appraisal of this opinion in its proper place. Meanwhile those devoted to the study of agriculture must be informed of one thing first of all — that the return from vineyards is a very rich one. And to pass over the old-time fertility of the land, of which Marcus Cato long ago, and Terentius Varro more recently, recorded that each iugerum of vineyard yielded six hundred urnae of wine — for Varro so declares most emphatically in the first book of his Res Rusticae — and that this was the customary yield not in one district alone but also in the country around Faventia and in the Ager Gallicus, which is now annexed to Picenum;

§ 3.3.3  in our own times, at any rate, the neighbourhood of Nomentum is illumined by a most distinguished reputation; and especially that part owned by Seneca, a man of outstanding genius and erudition, on whose estates it is learned that every iugerum of vineyard has yielded approximately eight cullei. For the things that happened in our Ceretanum seem to have been in the nature of a prodigy, in that a certain vine on your place exceeded the number of two thousand clusters, and with me, that eight hundred grafted stocks of less than two years yielded seven cullei, or that first-class vineyards produced a hundred amphorae to the iugerum, when meadows, pastures, and woodland seem to do very well by the owner if they bring in a hundred sesterces for every iugerum.

§ 3.3.4  For we can hardly recall a time when grain crops, throughout at least the greater part of Italy, returned a yield of four for one. Why, then, is viticulture in disrepute? Not, indeed, through its own fault, but because of human failings, says Graecinus; in the first place because no one takes pains in searching after cuttings, and for that reason most people plant vineyards of the worst sort; and then they do not nourish their vines, once planted, in such a way as to let them gain strength and shoot out before they wither; and if they do happen to grow, they are careless in the matter of cultivation.

§ 3.3.5  Even at the very start they think that it makes no difference what kind of ground they plant; or rather they pick out the very worst section of their lands, as though such ground alone were particularly fit for this plant because incapable of producing anything else. Either they do not understand even the method of setting them or else they fail to put it into practice even when they do understand it. Then too, they seldom have the dowry — that is, the equipment — in readiness for their vineyards; though this, if neglected, uses up many days of toil and puts a constant drain on the coffers of the proprietor.

§ 3.3.6  Most people, in fact, strive for the richest possible yield at the earliest moment; they make no provision for the time to come, but, as if living merely from day to day, they put such demands upon their vines and load them so heavily with young shoots as to show no regard for succeeding generations. After committing all these acts, or at any rate most of them, they would rather do anything at all than admit their own guilt; and they complain that their vineyards do not yield them a return — vineyards which they themselves have ruined through greed, or ignorance, or neglect.

§ 3.3.7  But any who combine painstaking care with scientific knowledge receive, not forty, or at least thirty according to my reckoning, but, as Graecinus says, though setting the lowest estimate, twenty amphorae from every iugerum, they will easily outdo in the increase of their ancestral estates all those who hold fast to their hay and pot-herbs. And he is not mistaken in this; for, like a careful accountant, he sees, when his calculations are made, that this kind of husbandry is of the greatest advantage to his estate.

§ 3.3.8  For, admitting that vineyards demand a very generous outlay, still seven iugera require the labour of near more than one vinedresser, upon whom people in general set a low value, thinking that even some malefactor may be acquired from the auction-block; but I, disagreeing with the opinion of the majority, consider a high-priced vinedresser of first importance. And supposing his purchase price to be 6000 or, better, 8000 sesterces, when I estimate the seven iugera of ground as acquired for just as many thousands of sesterces, and that the vineyards with their dowry — that is, with stakes and withes — are set out for 2000 sesterces per iugerum, still the total cost, reckoned to the last farthing, amounts to 29, sesterces.

§ 3.3.9  Added to this is interest at six per cent. per annum, amounting to 3480 sesterces for the two-year period when the vineyards, in their infancy as it were, are delayed in bearing. The sum total of principal and interest comes to 32, sesterces. And if the husbandman would enter this amount as a debt against his vineyards just as a moneylender does with a debtor, so that the owner may realize the aforementioned six per cent. interest on that total as a perpetual annuity, he should take in 1950 sesterces every year. By this reckoning the return from seven iugera, even according to the estimate of Graecinus, exceeds the interest on 32, sesterces.

§ 3.3.10  For, assuming that the vineyards are of the very worst sort, still, if taken care of, they will yield certainly one culleus of wine to the iugerum; and even though every forty urns are sold for 300 sesterces, which is the lower market price, nevertheless seven cullei make a total of 2100 sesterces — a sum far in excess of the interest at six per cent.

§ 3.3.11  And these figures, as we have given them, take account of the calculations of Graecinus. But our own opinion is that vineyards which yield less than three cullei to the iugerum should be rooted out. And, even so, we have made our calculations up to this point as if there were no quicksets to be taken from the trenched ground; though this item alone, at a favourable price, would clear the entire cost of the land, if only the land belongs, not to the provinces, but to Italy.

§ 3.3.12  And no one should be skeptical of this statement when he distinguishes between my method and that of Julius Atticus; for I am now planting between the rows 20, mallet-shoots to every iugerum of vineyard, while he sets out four thousand fewer. Assuming that his way is the better one, still no ground, even the most unfavourable, will fail to yield a return exceeding the expense incurred;

§ 3.3.13  since, even though 6000 of the plants die through the carelessness of the vinedresser, still the remaining 10, will be purchased by contract-vineyardists, cheerfully and at a profit, for 3000 sesterces. This sum exceeds by one third the 2000 sesterces which we have named above as the cost of planting one iugerum of vines, and yet our own management has now progressed to the point where husbandmen are not averse to purchasing quicksets from me at a price of six hundred sesterces a thousand.

§ 3.3.14  But anyone else will hardly go beyond the above-named figure; for no one will readily take our word for it that there is such a quantity of wine upon our small pieces of ground as you, Silvinus, know to be the case. For that reason I have quoted the average and customary price of quicksets, so that those who, through want of knowledge, avoid this branch of husbandry, may be brought over more quickly to my opinion with no dissenting vote.

§ 3.3.15  Therefore either the revenue from ground prepared for planting or the hope of vintages to come should encourage us in the planting of vines. And now that we have shown that it is consistent with good business to plant them, we shall offer directions for putting them in order.

§ 3.4.1  One who has it at heart to make plantations of vines should guard especially against the willingness to entrust them to another's care in preference to his own; and he should not buy quicksets. But he should plant at home shoots of the sort most approved, and should make a nursery of vines from which he may clothe his land with vineyards. For foreign cuttings, transplanted from a different locality, are less at home in our soil than are the native varieties, and for that reason, being strangers, so to speak, they dread a change of climate and situation;

§ 3.4.2  and also they offer no definite assurance of quality, seeing that it is uncertain whether the one who has planted them has set out shoots of a carefully tested and approved variety. Therefore a period of two years must be considered the minimum time within which the quality of the cuttings can certainly show itself; though, as I have said, it has always been of the greatest importance to set out stock of carefully selected origin.

§ 3.4.3  Next after this he should remember to make a careful choice of site for his vineyards; and when he has come to a decision on this point he should know that the greatest pains must be employed in trenching the ground. After he has finished the trenching he should use no less care in the planting of the vine, and after the planting he should attend with greatest diligence to the matter of cultivation; for this is, so to speak, the chief and crowning point of the investment, since on it rests the decision as to whether it has been better or worse for the proprietor to commit his money to the soil rather than to employ it in idleness. Therefore I shall discuss in their proper order each of those matters which I have proposed.

§ 3.5.1  A vine-nursery should be established in ground that is neither hungry nor wet, but moist and of medium quality rather than fat; though nearly all authorities have designated a very fertile soil for this purpose. This I consider as not at all to the advantage of the husbandman; for even though the cuttings quickly take root and shoot up when planted in strong soil, yet if transferred to poorer soil when they become quicksets, they wither and cannot grow to maturity.

§ 3.5.2  Moreover, it is the mark of a wise husbandman to transplant from poorer ground to better rather than from better to poorer. For this reason an intermediate quality is most approved in the choice of a site, because it stands on the border line between good and bad. For if necessity afterwards demands the setting of the young plants at the proper time in lean ground, they will be conscious of no great change when transferred from mediocre to poor soil; or if a more fertile field is to be planted, they gain strength far more quickly in the rich ground.

§ 3.5.3  On the other hand, it is not at all consistent with reason to make a nursery of vines in the very poorest ground, since the majority of the slips die, and such as do survive are slow in becoming fit for transplanting. A piece of average and moderately dry ground, then, is best suited for the nursery; and it should first be worked with the trenching-spade, which equals the depth of the trenching when the ground is turned up to two and one-half feet. Then, leaving three-foot spaces for the cultivation of the plants, 600 cuttings are to be set in each of the rows which measure 240 feet.

§ 3.5.4  This number makes a total of 24, plants to the iugerum. But the examination and choice of shoots takes precedence of this care. For, as I have often said before, the planting of the most approved kind of stock is the foundation, so to speak, of the aforesaid matter.

§ 3.6.1  But the choice must be made with two considerations in mind; for it is not enough merely that the mother vine from which the cuttings are sought should be prolific, but a more discriminating method must be employed, that they may be taken from those parts of her body which are both generative and especially fruitful.

§ 3.6.2  Moreover, the prolific vine whose offspring we wish to rear should not be valued merely because it puts forth grape clusters in great quantity, for this may be due to the large size of the stock and the great number of fruiting canes; though I should not call that a fruitful vine where only one cluster is seen to each cane. But if a larger number of clusters hang upon every young shoot; if from every eye on its many mature branches it sprouts out with fruit; if, finally, it also puts out from its firm wood a green shoot with some clusters; if, too, it is heavy with the fruit of its secondary shoots; such a vine, fruitful beyond doubt, should be marked out for the gathering of mallet-shoots.

§ 3.6.3  The mallet-shoot, moreover, is a young shoot growing out of a cane of the year before; it is named according to its resemblance, because, projecting on both sides in that part where it is cut from the old branch, it has the appearance of a mallet. Our opinion is that this should be taken from the most prolific stock every time that the vines are pruned, and carefully planted, with three or four eyes showing above ground, in soil that is moderately moist but not wet; if only it be our first consideration that the vine from which the shoot is taken be not uncertain in its flowering, that its berries have no difficulty in growing big, and that it bear fruit which is neither early nor too late in ripening. For the former is damaged by birds, and the latter by wintry storms as well.

§ 3.6.4  Moreover, such a kind of vine is not proved by one vintage; for even a vine that is naturally unfruitful may produce an abundant yield a single time, either because of the bountifulness of the year or for other reasons. But when confidence in the slips has been established by the completion of several years of campaigning, as it were, there can be no doubt as to its fruitfulness. Yet such an examination is not carried beyond a period of four years; for the quality of plants usually becomes manifest in that period of time during which the sun returns to the same division of the zodiac through the same signs by which it began its circuit — a period of fourteen hundred and sixty-one entire days, which students of celestial matters call ἀποκατάστασις.

§ 3.7.1  But I am sure, Publius Silvinus, that you have long been inquiring in your own mind to what variety that fruitful vine belongs which we are at such pains to describe — whether one of those which are commonly regarded as most prolific nowadays is meant. For very many people are high in their praise of the Bituric, many of the Spionian, some of the Basilic, and several of the Arcelacan.

§ 3.7.2  We, too, do not deprive these varieties of our approbation, for they yield a very great quantity of wine; but we have resolved to teach the planting of vines of a sort that will produce fruit in no less abundance than the above-mentioned varieties, and that have a rich flavour like that of the Aminean, or at least not far from that taste. I am aware that the belief of nearly all agriculturists is at variance with my way of thinking; a belief which, as regards Aminean vines, has become deep-rooted and has gained strength from a native and inborn unfruitfulness.

§ 3.7.3  For this reason there is greater necessity on our part of fortifying with many examples a method recalled from times past — a method which, being condemned through the slothfulness as well as the indiscretion of husbandmen and obscured, as it were, by the darkness of ignorance, has been deprived of the light of truth. The time is not unsuitable, then, for us to turn our attention first to considerations which seem able to correct this general misunderstanding.

§ 3.8.1  Therefore, Publius Silvinus, if we will look at nature through the keener eyes of the mind, so to speak, we shall find that she has established an equable law of fertility for all green things even as for human beings and other living creatures; and that she has not so bestowed special endowments on some nations or regions as to deny like gifts altogether to others. To some peoples she has granted the gift of producing numerous progeny, as to the Egyptians and Africans, with whom the birth of twins is common and almost an annual occurrence; but of Italian stock, too, she has willed that there be women of extraordinary fertility — Alban women of the Curiatian family, mothers of three children at one birth. p

§ 3.8.2  She has adorned Germany with armies of exceedingly tall men; but she has not wholly deprived other nations of men of exceptional stature. For Cicero bears witness that there was once a Roman citizen, Naevius Pollio, who was a foot taller than the tallest of other men; and recently we ourselves might have seen, among the exhibits of the procession at the games in the Circus, a man of the Jewish race who was of greater stature than the tallest German.

§ 3.8.3  I pass to cattle. Mevania is famous for its herds of tall cattle, Liguria for small; but an ox of low stature is seen now and then in Mevania, and a bull of towering proportions in Liguria. India is said to excite astonishment for the hugeness of its wild animals; yet who will deny that beasts of equally vast size are bred in this land, when we consider that elephants are brought forth within our own walls?

§ 3.8.4  But I return to various kinds of crops. They say that Mysia and Libya produce enormous quantities of grain, but that the fields of Apulia and Campania are not wanting in rich crops; that Tmolus and Corycus are considered famous for the saffron-flower, and Judaea and Arabia for their precious scents; but that our own community is not destitute of aforesaid plants, for in many sections of the city we see at one time cassia putting forth its leaves, again the frankincense plant, and gardens blooming with myrrh and saffron.

§ 3.8.5  Surely these examples remind us that Italy is most responsive to care bestowed by mankind, in that she has learned to produce the fruits of almost the entire world when her husbandmen have applied themselves to the task. Therefore our doubts should be lessened as to that fruit which is a native, as it were, belonging to and born of our soil. For there is no doubt that, of all the vines that the earth sustains, those of the Massic, Surrentine, Alban, and Caecuban lands hold first place in the excellence of their wine.

§ 3.9.1  The fruitfulness of these vines may leave something to be desired, but even this may be aided by diligence on the part of the vine-dresser. For, as I said a little before, if nature, that most bounteous parent of all things, has endowed every people and land with their own peculiar gifts, though in such a way as not to deprive others entirely of like endowments, why should we doubt that she has observed the aforesaid rule also in the case of vines? So that, although she has willed that some varieties be especially prolific, such as the Bituric and Basilic, yet she has not made the Aminean variety so barren that, of many thousands of them, there may not be found at least a very few fruitful vines, just as those Alban sisters among the humankind of Italy.

§ 3.9.2  Not only would this be highly probable, but what is more, experience has taught us the truthfulness of it; for on my place at Ardea, which I owned many years ago, and also on my estates at Carseoli and Alba, I had marked vines of the Aminean variety, very few in number, to be sure, but so fruitful that on a trellis each of them yielded three urnae, while on pergolas they produced ten amphorae to each vine.

§ 3.9.3  And this fruitfulness in Aminean vines should not seem beyond belief. For how could Terentius Varro, and Marcus Cato before him, maintain that every iugerum of vineyard yielded the old-time husbandmen six hundred urnae of wine, if fruitfulness was wanting in the Amineans — the only vines, for the most part, with which the ancients were acquainted? Unless, despite our belief up to this time that our most ancient vines are the Amineans, we are to suppose that they cultivated vineyards of the Bituric and Basilic varieties, vines which, being but recently indeed imported from far distant countries, have just come to our notice.

§ 3.9.4  Therefore if anyone would, for several vintages, search out and mark such Aminean vines as I have said were in my possession not long ago, so as to take from them the most fertile cuttings, he could produce vineyards of equal excellence and productiveness. For there is no doubt that nature herself has decreed that the offspring shall resemble the mother. Hence it is, too, that the shepherd in the Bucolics says,
So whelps like dogs; so kids, I knew,
Were like unto their dams.

§ 3.9.5  And hence those who contend in the sacred games protect with watchful care the progeny of their swiftest race-horses, and upon the multiplying of offspring of noble stock they base their hope of future victories. We too, for a reason like theirs in selecting the progeny of victorious Olympic mares, should base our hope of a bountiful vintage upon the selection of progeny of the most fruitful Amineans. And there is no reason why the tediousness of the time required should discourage anyone; for any delay that occurs is taken up in the testing of the shoot.

§ 3.9.6  But when the fruitfulness of the vine has been proved, it is very quickly raised to a very large number by ingrafting. You especially, Silvinus, can bear me out in this, since you will readily recall that I completed the planting of two iugera of vineyard within two years time by making grafts from one early-ripe vine belonging to you on your place at Caere.

§ 3.9.7  What number of vines, then, do you think could be grafted within the same length of time with shoots taken from two iugera, when these two iugera are themselves the offspring of one vine? Therefore, as I have said, if we will exercise industry and care we shall easily, by the aforesaid method, establish vineyards of Aminean vines as fruitful as those of the Bituric or Basilic varieties: only it will be of importance, in transplanting the sets, to give heed to like conditions of climate and situation and to the habit of the vine itself; since a cutting is usually impaired in quality if the situation of the ground or climatic conditions are distasteful to it, or even if it is transferred from tree to trellis.

§ 3.9.8  Accordingly, we shall transplant from cold places to cold, from warm to the like, and from open vineyards to open vineyards. Yet Aminean stock can better endure the change from a cold to a warm situation than from a warm to a cold; because every kind of vine, and especially that just mentioned, has a natural fondness for warmth rather than cold.

§ 3.9.9  But the quality of the soil, too, is of very great assistance, so that the transfer should be made from lean or ordinary ground to a better sort; for a vine which has been accustomed to rich soil can in no way endure lean ground unless you manure it rather frequently. And these precepts we have given, in general, as to care in the choice of cuttings; next it is proper to advise in particular that slips be selected, not only from the most prolific vine, but also from the most fruitful part of the vine.

§ 3.10.1  Now, the most fruitful cuttings are not, as ancient authorities proposed, the extreme part of the vine — what they call its head, that is, the outermost and most extended shoot; for in this also husbandmen are mistaken. But the reason for this misapprehension lies in the prime appearance of the shoot and in the number of clusters very often seen on the longest branch. But we should not be deceived in this matter; for it comes about, not through the natural fertility of that branch, but through favourableness of location; because all the moisture and nourishment that is supplied by the soil courses through the other portions of the stem until it arrives at the tip.

§ 3.10.2  For by natural respiration all the nourishment of a green plant is drawn, as a sort of vital breath, into the highest point, passing through the pith of the stem as though through a siphon, which mechanics call diabetes; and when it arrives at that point, it halts there and is consumed. Hence it is that the most vigorous growth is found either in the head of the vine or in the main stem close to the roots.

§ 3.10.3  More than that, the latter shoots, those that spring from the hard wood, are sterile, and yet they have a two-fold reason for their vigour, in that they do not bear fruit, and because they derive their nourishment from the full and undiminished flow of sap next to the ground; and the former are fruitful and strong because they sprout from young wood, and because, as I stated above, any nourishment that comes to them is not shared with others. The intermediate shoots are the leanest because the sap hastens past them, being partially cut off below and drawn to itself above.

§ 3.10.4  Therefore the leading shoot should not be regarded as fruitful even though it may bear much fruit, since it is forced into bearing by the fertility of its situation; but that branch should be considered fruitful which, situated in the middle of the vine, does not fail in even that unfavourable place but displays its bounteousness through numerous offspring. Such a shoot, when transplanted, seldom degenerates, since it passes from a worse to a better lot; for whether set out in trenched ground, or grafted on a stock, it is fed fat with nourishment in greater abundance than before, when it was on scant rations.

§ 3.10.5  Accordingly, we shall take pains to select propagating shoots from the places just mentioned, which country people call umeri, but such canes as we shall have previously observed to have borne fruit. For if they are destitute of fruit, our opinion is that this part of the vine, much as it is to be commended, contributes nothing to the fruitfulness of the cutting. It is, therefore, a very mistaken notion that is held by those farmers who believe that it makes very little difference how many clusters a branch may have borne, if only it is taken from a fruitful vine and is not one that sprouted from the hard wood of the stock, — what they call pampinarium.

§ 3.10.6  This notion, however, arising from ignorance in the matter of selecting cuttings, causes vineyards to have, first, too little fruitfulness, and then too much barrenness. For who, indeed, over what is now a long span of years, has laid down for the farmer, as he was selecting his cuttings, these precepts which we have just now set forth? As a result of this practice the men who are most lacking in intelligence enter into an occupation that is especially indispensable, and also those most lacking in strength; for, as I have said, it is the least useful fellow, one who can do no other work, who is put to this task.

§ 3.10.7  Such a person, moreover, even if he has some knowledge of the selection of shoots, conceals that knowledge and lays it aside because of his lack of strength; and that he may have the full number which the overseer has ordered, he does nothing carefully, nothing conscientiously. The one thing that he keeps before him is to get done with the task that is set; when, even though he may both know and carry out what he knows, he receives from his masters one precept alone — not to break off the stock-branch but to add everything else to the supply of cuttings.

§ 3.10.8  But we, having at first taken reason as a guide, and now a long period of experimentation as well, choose no shoot, and consider none to be fruitful, except one that has borne fruit in the generative part of the vine. For one that has come forth in a barren place, luxuriant and strong but destitute of offspring, offers a deceptive appearance of fruitfulness but possesses no generative power.

§ 3.10.9  Common sense teaches us that this is undoubtedly true, if only, as in our own bodies every member has its peculiar functions, so too the parts of fruit-bearing stocks have their proper duties. We know that human beings have a soul breathed into them as a charioteer and guide of their members, and that sense were implanted in them for the perception of those impressions which are discovered by touch, by smell, by hearing, and by seeing; that feet were devised for walking and arms for embracing. And that my discourse may not wander without restraint over all the relations of sensory functions, the ears can effect nothing that belongs to the eyes, and the eyes nothing that belongs to the ears; nor, indeed, is the power of procreation bestowed upon the hands or the feet.

§ 3.10.10  But the father of the universe concealed in the belly that which he willed should be unknown to mankind, in order that the eternal creatress of things, endowed with divine understanding, might mingle in certain hidden parts of the body, as it were, in mystery and concealment, those sacred elements of the soul with terrestrial principles, and fashion this sort of living machine.

§ 3.10.11  By this law she produced cattle and trees; by this she fashioned the various kinds of vines, for which this same mother and parent first laid, as it were, certain foundations of roots upon which they might stand, as upon feet. Then upon these she placed the trunk, corresponding in a way to the upright carriage and appearance of a body; in the next place she caused it to spread out with branches as if with arms; and then she drew forth stems and shoots corresponding to hands, of which she endowed some with fruit and clothed others with leaves alone for the protection and safe-keeping of their progeny.

§ 3.10.12  If, then, from these vines, as I have said above, we select, not those parts which capable of conception and heavy with young, but their coverings and sun-shades, so to speak, which are destitute of fruit, our toil will certainly have been spent for shade and not for a harvest of grapes.

§ 3.10.13  What, then, is my point? Why, if a shoot is destitute of offspring, even though it be sprung, not from hard wood, but from young, do we condemn it as sure to be barren also in time to come? Just now, indeed, our reasoning inferred that every part of the body has assigned to it a peculiar function which is manifestly appropriate to that part; so that a vine shoot, too, if sprung from a favourable place, may have in it the power of fruitfulness even though it be remiss in bearing for a time.

§ 3.10.14  I would not deny that I have taken it upon myself to prove this point; but I declare most emphatically that a rod, even though sprung from a fruit-bearing part of the vine, does not even possess the power of productiveness if it has not itself borne fruit. And this statement is not at variance with the former opinion. For it is evident that some men are incapable of procreation even though they have the full number of members; so that it should not be beyond belief that a cane sprung from a generative place, if devoid of fruit at present, will be devoid of progeny in the future also.

§ 3.10.15  And so, to return to the usage of the farmers, they give the name spadones or eunuchs to that sort of shoots which have produced nothing; which they would not do if they did not suppose them to be incapable of bearing. It is this very appellation that suggested to me a reason for not choosing mallet-shoots, even though they were sprung from an approved part of the vine, if they had not borne fruit; although I understand that even these are not entirely affected with barrenness. For I admit that stock-shoots too, though they have come out of the hard wood, acquire fruitfulness the following season; and for that reason they are reduced to a single spur, so that it may have strength for bearing fruit.

§ 3.10.16  But we find that offspring of this sort owes not so much to the spur itself as to the munificence of the mother vine. For because it clings to its own stock, which is naturally fruitful, still mingling with the elements of its parent, born of prolific seed and reared, so to speak, at the breasts of a nurse, it learns little by little to produce fruit. But when a slip is torn from the stock prematurely and unseasonably, without regard to a certain maturity required by nature, and is either planted in the ground or even grafted on a shortened stock, just as the age of childhood is capable not even of coition and much less of conception, so it either suffers complete loss of its generative power or at any rate has less of it.

§ 3.10.17  Therefore I think that we should take especial care in the choice of cuttings, to select from a fruitful part of the vine those shoots which, by having already produced fruit, give promise of future productiveness; and yet we should not be satisfied with single clusters, but should especially approve those shoots which are conspicuous for the greatest number of offspring. Or shall we not commend the shepherd who multiplies the progeny of a dam that has borne twins, and the goatherd who breeds the young of those animals which are noted for bearing three at one birth? For he hopes, of course, that the offspring will match the productiveness of their parents.

§ 3.10.18  In the matter of vines we also shall follow this very method, and the more so because we have found out that seeds, even though carefully tested, sometimes degenerate through some natural malignity; and this the poet would impress upon us, as if we were deaf to the truth, in saying,
Some seeds I've seen, though chosen with time and care,
Degenerate still, unless with human hand
The largest were selected every year.
But so it is; it is the will of fate
That all things backward turn, all things deteriorate.
It is to be understood that this was said, not merely of the seeds of legumes, but of the whole matter of agriculture.

§ 3.10.19  If only we have discovered by a long period of observation, as we certainly have discovered, that a shoot which has borne four clusters, when it is cut off and put into the ground, degenerates so far from the fruitfulness of the parent stock as to produce sometimes one, occasionally even two clusters fewer than before,

§ 3.10.20  to what extent do we think that they will fall short which have produced two clusters or usually one on the parent stock, when even the most fruitful shoots often dread transplanting? And so I gladly profess myself a demonstrator of this method, rather than its inventor, lest anyone should think that our ancestors are unjustly deprived of the praise that is their due. For there is no doubt that they knew of it, even though it has been handed down in no writing except those lines of Vergil which we have quoted, and yet in such a way as to give directions for the seeds of legumes.

§ 3.10.21  For why did they reject the rod sprung from the hard wood, or even the “arrow” cut from the fruitful mallet-shoot which they had approved, if they considered that it made no difference from what place the cuttings were gathered? Was it because they had no doubt that the power of fruitfulness was present in certain members, so to speak, that they very wisely condemned the stock shoot and the arrow as useless for planting? If this is the case, there is no doubt that they disapproved far more of that cane which, though sprung from a bearing part, had borne no fruit.

§ 3.10.22  For if they thought that the arrow — that is, the uppermost part of a mallet-cutting — was deserving of censure even though it was a part of a bearing shoot, how much more does mere common sense show that they would have disapproved of a slip, if it is sterile, even though it be sprung from the best part of the vine? Unless — and this is absurd — they believed that one which had been worthless on the mother vine would be fruitful when transplanted and cut off from its stock and deprived of its maternal sustenance. It may be that this has been told at greater length than a statement of the truth required; but even so, in fewer words than were demanded by the badly distorted and deep-rooted notion of country people.

§ 3.11.1  I now return to what remains of the topics proposed for systematic discussion. The business of preparing the ground comes next, after this attention owing to the choice of cuttings, provided, however, that agreement has been reached beforehand as to the quality of the soil. For there is no doubt that this, too, contributes in very great measure to the goodness and abundance of the fruit. And before considering the soil itself, we think it a matter of very first importance that land hitherto untilled, if we have such, should be chosen in preference to that upon which there has been a crop of grain or a plantation of trees and vines.

§ 3.11.2  As to vineyards which have become worthless through long neglect, it is agreed by all authorities that they are worst of all if we wish to replant them, because the lower soil is imprisoned in a tangle of many roots, as if caught in a net, and has not yet lost that infection and rottenness of old age by which the earth is deadened and numbed as if by some poison or other.

§ 3.11.3  For this reason a piece of wild land is an especially good choice, and even if occupied with bushes or trees it is easily cleared, because all things that spring up naturally do not push their roots far nor to a great depth, but spread and extend them through the surface soil; and when they are cut off with the axe and are rooted out, the little that remains in the lower soil may be dug up with mattocks and brought together and heaped up for fermentation. But if you should have no unbroken ground, the next choice is ploughed land that is free of trees. Failing this, there is allotted to vineyards a plantation of trees and vines standing very far apart, or an olive grove — but preferably old olive trees which have not been wedded to vines.

§ 3.11.4  Last of all, as I have said, is the renewing of a worn-out vineyard. Now if circumstances make this necessary, all remaining parts of the vines should first be rooted out; then all the ground should be fertilized with dry dung or, if this is not available, with the freshest manure of another sort; and so it should be turned over, and all the unearthed roots must be very carefully brought to the surface and burned; and then again the dug ground should be covered generously either with old manure, because that does not produce weeds, or with earth brought from the bramble thickets.

§ 3.11.5  But where there is clean fallow, free from trees, we must consider before working it whether or not the land is suitable for young vine-shoots; and this is most easily discovered through the sprouts that come up of their own accord. For there is no soil so destitute of shrubs as not to produce some shoots, such as wild pears and plums or at least brambles; for even though these are varieties of thorns, still it is their common habit to grow up strong and thrifty and heavy with fruit.

§ 3.11.6  Therefore, if we observe that they are not shrivelled and scaly, but smooth and bright, tall and prolific, then we shall know that the ground is suitable for young shoots.
But in the matter of what is especially suited to vines, this point in general deserves special consideration, as I have stated before, if the soil is easily worked and moderately loose in texture — what we have said is called pulla; not because such soil alone is proper for vineyards, but because it is especially so.

§ 3.11.7  For who, though he be but an ordinary farmer, does not know that even the hardest tufa or toph-stone, once it is broken up in pieces and thrown up on the surface, is softened and loosened by storms and cold no less than by summer's heat; and that during hot weather it is very effective in cooling the roots of the vines and in holding moisture — conditions most suitable for the nourishing of the young shoot? And that for a like reason free gravel, pebbly ground, and loose stones are approved? on condition, however, that they are mixed with fat soil, for they meet with the greatest disapproval in lean ground.

§ 3.11.8  Moreover, the flint-stone also, in my opinion, is friendly to vineyards when it is moderately well covered with earth, because, being cold and retentive of moisture, it does not allow the roots to thirst during the rising of the Dog-star. Hyginus indeed, following Tremelius, asserts that the bases of mountains, which have received the soil that washes down from their summits, or even valley lands that have been formed by the soil deposits of rivers and floods, are especially suited for vineyards; and I do not disagree.

§ 3.11.9  Clayey soil is considered serviceable for the vine: but, by itself, the clay which potters use, and which some call argilla, is most unfriendly; and no less so is hungry gravel and, as Julius Atticus says, everything that makes a shrivelled shoot — that being soil which is either wet or salty, or sour too, or thirsty and extremely dry. Still the ancients approved black and reddish sand when mixed with vigorous earth; for they said that ground containing red toph-stone, unless aided with manure, produced puny vines.

§ 3.11.10  Ruddle, as the same Atticus says, is heavy and does not offer roots an easy hold. But the same soil is nourishing to the vine when once it has obtained a hold, though it is more difficult to work, since you cannot dig it when wet because it is very sticky, nor when too dry because it is hard beyond measure.

§ 3.12.1  But that we may not now wander through the endless varieties of soil, it will be not out of place to call to mind a standard rule, as it were, of Julius Graecinus which has been laid down for the appraisal of land suitable for vineyards. For that same Graecinus speaks as follows: That some land is hot or cold, damp or dry, loose or compact, light or heavy, fat or lean; but that soil which is excessively hot cannot support the vine, because it burns it, nor can the very cold soil, because it allows no action of the roots when they are benumbed and chilled, as it were, by excessive cold, — for they extend themselves only when they are drawn out by moderate warmth:

§ 3.12.2  that soil of more than the proper moisture causes rotting of the plants that are set, while, on the other hand, excessive dryness deprives the plants of their natural sustenance and either kills them entirely or makes them scaly and shrivelled: that very compact ground does not absorb the rains, does not readily allow the circulation of air, is very easily broken through, and affords cracks through which the sun penetrates to the roots of the plants; and the same binds and chokes the plants, which are, so to speak, imprisoned and confined:

§ 3.12.3  that soil which is immoderately loose allows rains to pass through it as through a funnel, and is then completely dried out and parched by sun and wind: that heavy ground can hardly be subdued by any cultivation, while light ground can hardly be kept up by any: that the fattest and most fertile soil suffers from rankness of growth, the lean and poor soil from barrenness. There is need, he says, of much intermixture among these so different extremes, as is requisite also in our own bodies, whose well-being depends on a fixed and, so to speak, balanced proportion of the hot and the cold, the moist and the dry, the compact and the loose.

§ 3.12.4  And yet, in the case of land which is designed for vineyards, he says that this proportion should not be placed in equipoise but should incline more in one direction or the other, so that the land may be rather warm than cold, rather dry than wet, rather loose than compact, and so on in any like matters to which one who plants vineyards should direct a careful gaze.

§ 3.12.5  All of this, in my opinion, is of greater advantage when climatic conditions also are favourable: and in this matter there is long-standing disagreement as to what quarter of the heavens the vineyards should face, Saserna facing the east especially, and next to that the south, and then the west; Tremelius Scrofa thinking a southern exposure superior to all others, Vergil explicitly rejecting the west in the words,
Nor slope your vineyards toward the setting sun;
and Democritus and Mago commending the northern quarter of the heavens, because they think that vineyards exposed to it become the most productive, even though they may be surpassed in the quality of their wine.

§ 3.12.6  To us it has seemed best to direct in general that vineyards have, in cold regions, a southern exposure, and that in warm ones they face the east; on condition, however, that they are not harassed by the south and south-east winds, as are the maritime coasts of Baetica. If, however, your tracts are subject to the aforementioned winds, it will be better to entrust them to the north or the west wind; but in hot provinces, such as Egypt and Numidia, they will be exposed more properly to the north alone. And now that all these matters have been carefully examined, we shall take up at last the trenching of the ground.

§ 3.13.1  Now the method of doing this must be handed down, not only to future husbandmen of the Italian race, but also to those from the provinces; for in countries that are far distant and quite remote this particular way of turning and subduing a field is very little practised, but the vines are set for the most part either in planting-holes or in furrows.

§ 3.13.2  Those, moreover, whose habit it is to set the vine in planting-holes, after excavating the earth for about three feet in length and two in depth — to as great a width as that of the iron spade permits, lay the shoots on both sides along the walls of the ditches and bend them to stand erect at the opposite sides of the holes; and then, allowing two eyes to project above the ground, they replace the earth about it and level off the rest. This they do in the same time, leaving undug skips of the same number of feet, until they come to the end of the row.

§ 3.13.3  Then leaving a space, according to each man's habit of cultivating with either plough or two-pronged mattock, they set the next row. And if the earth is merely turned by a spade-man, the minimum distance between rows is five feet, and seven is the maximum; but if with oxen and plough, the minimum is seven feet, while ten is large enough.

§ 3.13.4  Yet some set all their vines at ten-foot intervals, in the form of a quincunx, so that the ground may be broken up by diagonal and cross ploughing in the manner of fallow land. This sort of vineyard is not to the advantage of the farmer except where, in very fertile soil, the vine is of large growth. But those who dread the expense of trenching the ground, and yet wish to imitate that trenching in some measure, run straight furrows to a width of six feet, leaving alternate strips of equal width; then they dig the furrows and deepen them to three feet, and place the vines or shoots along the sides of the hollows.

§ 3.13.5  Some, with greater saving of expense, make a furrow two and three-fourths feet deep and five feet wide; then, leaving three times as much unbroken ground, they cut the next furrow. When they have done this throughout the whole plot set aside for vines, they set upright in the sides of the furrows either quicksets or young vine-branches as freshly cut as possible, putting in among the plants set in the regular rows a great number of cuttings which, after they have gained strength, they may propagate in cross-trenches in the ground which was left unbroken, and so arrange their vineyards in rows at equal distances. But these methods of planting vineyards, as we have given them, are ours to employ or reject according to the nature and favourableness of each region.

§ 3.13.6  It is now my intention to hand down the method of trenching a piece of ground. And first of all, when we have marked out a site for vineyards, whether it be a plantation of trees or natural woodland, every bush and tree should be rooted out and removed, so as not to be a hindrance to the digger thereafter, and that the ground already trenched may not be pressed down by heavy masses lying upon it and trodden down by the coming and going of those who carry off the branches and tree trunks.

§ 3.13.7  For it is of no little importance that trenched ground be in a very loose state and, if possible, not violated even by a footprint; so that the earth, being evenly stirred, may give way generally to the roots of the young plant in whatever direction they creep out, not repelling their growth by its harshness, but taking them into its tender nourishing bosom, as it were, admitting the rains of heaven and dispensing them for the sustenance of the plants, and acting with all its members in harmony for the rearing of its new offspring.

§ 3.13.8  A level field should be dug two and one-half feet deep, a sloping region three feet; but a steeper hill should be turned to a depth of four feet, because when earth is carried down from a higher to a lower place, the amount thrown back is barely sufficient for trenching unless you make the bank much higher than on level ground. On the other hand, in sunken valleys it is not proper to set the vine less than two feet deep. For it is better not to plant it at all than to leave it suspended on the surface of the earth; except, however, when marshy ground stands in the way, as in the district about Ravenna, and prevents digging deeper than a foot and a half.

§ 3.13.9  It is, moreover, a first principle of the aforesaid operation not to deepen the furrow little by little, as is the practice of most farmers of our time, and so by a second or third gradation to arrive at the intended depth of trenching; but, running a line evenly forward, to extend a continuous trench with perpendicular sides and to pile the earth together behind you as it is removed, and to sink the trench down until it has reached the prescribed measure of depth.

§ 3.13.10  Then the line must be moved evenly over the whole extent of the gradation; and you must see to it that the width is made the same that bottom as it was started at the top. There is need, too, of an experienced and watchful observer to give orders that the bank be made plumb and the furrow cleared, and that all the ground not yet thrown up be added to the earth already moved; just as I directed in the preceding book, when I was handing down the methods of ploughing, in my warning that no ridges or skips should be left anywhere and that there should be no hard part covered over with surface clods.

§ 3.13.11  But our ancestors, devising a certain kind of instrument for the measuring of this work, have fashioned a straight bar and on the side of it a small rod which, when reaching down to the depth to which the furrow should be sunk, touches the uppermost part of the bank. This sort of measuring device farmers call ciconia or stork. But this too is open to fraud, because it makes a very great difference whether you place it slantwise or in an upright position. For this reason we have added certain parts to this contrivance, to do away with quarrels and disputes of contending parties.

§ 3.13.12  For we have fastened two pieces crosswise in the form of the Greek letter X and of a spread equal to the width to which the trencher intends to make his ditch, and to the middle point, where the pieces are joined, we have fastened that old-fashioned ciconia in such a way as to stand at a right angle to it as upon a sub-base; then upon the transverse rod, which is on the side, we have fastened a workman's plumb-line. When the instrument so constructed is let down into the trench, it settles all dispute between master and contractor without injustice to either.

§ 3.13.13  For the star, which we have said has the appearance of the Greek letter, measures the ground at the bottom of the trench and at the same time tests its exact level, because, if there is any slope downward or upward, it is detected by the position of the instrument; for the plumb-line that is placed on the aforementioned rod shows the one or the other and does not allow the overseer of the work to be deceived. The work so measured and levelled off progresses always towards a likeness to tilled fallow; and as the line is moved ahead, as much space is taken up as is occupied by the length and breadth of the trench that has been dug. And this method of preparing ground is most approved.

§ 3.14.1  There follows the task of planting the vine; it is properly set out either in spring or in autumn; preferably in the spring if the weather is rainy or cold, or if the land is either fat or flat and wet plain; in autumn, on the other hand, if the atmosphere is dry or warm, if it is a poor and dry plain or a lean and steep hill. There are about forty days of the spring planting, from the Ides of February up to the equinox; and of the autumn planting, from the Ides of October to the Calends of December.

§ 3.14.2  Moreover, there are two kinds of planting, with cuttings or with quicksets, both of which are in use by farmers; and in the provinces more use is made of the cutting, for they do not concern themselves with nurseries and have no experience in the making of quicksets. This kind of planting has been disapproved with good reason by most vinedressers of Italy, because the quickset is superior in very many particulars:

§ 3.14.3  for it is less likely to die, since, because of its strength, it has a readier endurance of heat and cold and other kinds of weather; and, in the next place, it reaches maturity earlier. The result is that it also comes more quickly in condition to bear fruit; and besides, there is no doubt that it is more generally transplanted. Still, a cutting may be set immediately in loose and light ground, in place of a quickset; but ground that is compact and heavy certainly requires a rooted vine.

§ 3.15.1  The planting, then, is made preferably in prepared ground that is well cleaned and harrowed and levelled off, leaving five feet between the rows in lean ground, and six feet in medium soil. But in fat soil intervals of seven feet must be allowed, so as to leave greater space of open ground over which the numerous and far-reaching branches of firm wood may spread themselves. This laying-out of vineyards in quincunx arrangement is accomplished by a very quick method: for a line is stitched with purple or some other striking colour at intervals of the same number of feet as you have determined upon for the distance between rows; and when so marked it is stretched along the dug ground, and a reed is thrust in beside each bit of purple.

§ 3.15.2  In this way the rows are equally spaced. When this has been done, the digger follows and, leaving spaces by turns along the rows, he digs a trench from one reed to the next, not less than two and one-half feet deep on the level, two and three-quarters feet on sloping land, and even three feet in steep places. After the trenches are put down to this depth, the quicksets are set in such a way that they are laid flat, each by itself and in opposite directions from the middle of the trench, and raised upright alongside the reeds at opposite ends of the ditches.

§ 3.15.3  But the planter's duty is, first, to transfer the plant from the nursery in as fresh condition as possible, and, if this can be done, at the very moment that he wishes to plant it — removing it carefully and without mutilation; then to prune it all over like an old vine, reducing it on one very strong cane of firm wood and smoothing off the knots and scars; also, if any roots have been injured — and especial care must be taken that this does not happen in removing the vine — to cut them off; and then to set out the plant, bending it in such a way that the roots of two vines may not be intertwined. For this is easy to avoid by placing along the bottom, close to the opposite sides of the trenches, a few stones whose weight should not exceed five pounds each.

§ 3.15.4  These seem, as Mago records, to ward off the winter's wetness and the summer's heat from the vine roots. Vergil, agreeing with Mago, teaches the safeguarding and strengthening of young plants in these words:
With them you bury scaly shells or moisture-drinking stone.
and, a little later,
And some are found who cover them with rock or heavy tile,
Thus offering shelter 'gainst the driving rains, and shelter, too,
When sultry Dog-star splits the fields that lie agape with thirst.

§ 3.15.5  The same Carthaginian author approves an application of grape-husks mixed with dung when the plants are set in the trench, on the ground that they encourage and draw out the rootlets; saying that this gives a suitable warmth to the trenches during the cold and wet weather of winter, and supplies the growing plants with nourishment and moisture in summer. But if the ground to which the vine is committed seems to be lean, his advice is that rich soil be brought from some distance and put into the trenches. Whether this is profitable the annual yield of the region and an estimate of the labour involved will teach us.

§ 3.16.1  Trenched ground is suitable for planting when it is slightly moist; and yet it is better to commit the plant to it even when dry than when it is muddy. And when the plant extends several joints above the upper edge of the trench, that part of the top which projects above is cut off, leaving only two eyes above ground, and the trench is filled by throwing the earth into it. Then, after the trenched ground is levelled off, the mallet-cutting is to be planted between the rows of vines. It will be sufficient to set this in a single line in the centre of the space that lies vacant between the vines;

§ 3.16.2  for in this way the cutting itself will regain its strength the better, and the ground will be left moderately free for the cultivation of the plants in the rows. Then, in the same line in which the quickset is arrayed, five mallet-shoots are to be set for each foot of space, as reserves from whose number it may be possible to set a slip in place of a vine that has died; and this foot is taken from the middle space between the rows in such a way as to be equally distant from the vines on either side.

§ 3.16.3  Julius Atticus considers 16, cuttings enough for this kind of planting. But we plant 4000 more, because a large number of them are lost through the carelessness of the vinedressers, while the rest, that do thrive, are thinned out by the deaths of the young plants.

§ 3.17.1  On the matter of setting the shoot there has been no little dispute among authorities. Some have held that the whole rod, just as it was pulled from the parent vine, is proper for planting; and dividing this into sections with five or even six eyes each, they committed the several slips to the earth. This I by no means approve, agreeing rather with those authorities who have said that the upper part of the branch is not suitable for bearing fruit, and who gave their approval rather to that part which is joined to the old branch. But they wholly rejected the “arrow.”

§ 3.17.2  Farmers give the name “arrow” to the extreme portion of a shoot, either because it has withdrawn farther from its mother and has, so to speak, shot out and darted away from her, or because, being drawn out into a point, it bears a resemblance to the aforesaid missile.

§ 3.17.3  Our wisest husbandmen have said, then, that the arrow should not be planted, and yet they have failed to give us the reason for their opinion; obviously because to those men of much experience in agricultural affairs that reason was obvious and almost laid bare before the eyes. For every fruiting cane bears in abundance within the limits of the fifth or sixth bud; while in the remaining portion, however great its length, it is entirely lacking in fruit or displays very small clusters. For this reason the barrenness of the tip was justly censured by the ancients. Moreover, the mallet-shoot was so planted by these same ancients that some part of the old branch remained fixed to the new.

§ 3.17.4  But experience has condemned this kind of planting. For all that was left of the old wood quickly rotted with the moisture after it was set and covered with earth, and by the damage to itself it killed the tender roots lying next to it and scarcely creeping out as yet; and when this happened, the upper part of the plant would wither. Afterwards Julius Atticus and Cornelius Celsus, the most distinguished authorities of our time, following the example of the Sasernas, father and son, smoothed off every remaining bit of the old branch at the very joint where the new wood begins, and so they set the slip, tip and all.

§ 3.18.1  But Julius Atticus pressed the aforesaid plant into the ground with its head twisted and bent so that it might not slip away from the trench-fork. The name pastinum or trench-fork, by the way, is given by farmers to that two-pronged implement of iron with which the plants are set. Hence even old vineyards which were turned by the spade for a second time were said to be “repastinated,” this term belonging properly to a vineyard that was restored; but modern custom, ignorant of ancient usage, applies the term “repastinated” to any ground that is stirred and prepared for vineyards. But let us return to the subject before us.

§ 3.18.2  Quite wrong, in my opinion, is the method of planting employed by Julius Atticus, which allows mallet-cuttings with bent and twisted heads; and there is more than one reason for avoiding this practice: in the first place, because no stem which is damaged and broken before it is put into the ground thrives better than one that is planted whole without suffering any injury; and in the second place, anything that is curved back and tending upward at the time of planting resists the efforts of the digger, in the manner of a hook, when the time comes for taking it up, and like a barb fixed in the ground it is broken off before it can be pulled out. For the wood is brittle in that section where it received injury when twisted and bent at the time of planting, and for this reason it loses the majority of its roots, which are broken off.

§ 3.18.3  But, even though I pass over these disadvantages, surely I cannot conceal a point that is most hurtful; for a short time ago, while speaking of the uppermost part of the shoot, which I said was called the arrow, I observed that fruit is generally put forth within the limits of the fifth or sixth eye nearest to the old branch.

§ 3.18.4  Therefore one who bends the shoot destroys this productive part; because that part which is doubled over contains three or four eyes, and the remaining two or three fruit-bearing eyes are pressed deep into the earth, and when so buried they produce, not wood, but roots. Thus it comes about that, what we have avoided in not planting the arrow, we comply with in the case of a mallet-cutting of this sort, which we must make longer if we wish to plant it twisted. Nor is there any doubt that the buds next to the tip, which are unfruitful, are left on it; from which sprout young shoots, either barren or at least less fruitful, which farmers call racemarii.

§ 3.18.5  And furthermore, it is of the greatest importance that a cutting which is set in the ground should heal over and quickly form a callus at the point where it is cut from the mother vine. For, if this does not happen, excessive moisture is drawn up through the open pith of the vine, as though through a tube, and makes the stock hollow; and the result is that hiding-places are provided for ants and other creatures that cause the lower part of the vine-stalk to rot. And this also happens when plants are bent back; for when their lower sections are broken in taking them up, they are planted with the pith exposed; and when water and the aforementioned animals creep into them, they soon waste away.

§ 3.18.6  Therefore the best method is to plant a straight cutting, whose butt end, when caught in the two prongs of the trenching-fork, is easily held in the narrow jaws of the implement and so thrust into the ground; and a cutting that is set in this way heals over sooner. For it puts out roots from the butt, where it was cut off, and these cover the callus as they grow; and, besides, the wound itself, looking downwards, does not admit as much moisture as the one which, being bent back and facing upwards, conveys through its pith, as though through a funnel, all the rains that fall upon it.

§ 3.19.1  The length that a cutting should have is not absolutely fixed, since it should be made shorter if its eyes are close together, or longer if they are far apart. Still, it should be not more than a foot nor less than nine inches in length: lest in the latter case, being at the surface of the earth, it dry out in hot weather; while in the former case, if set too deep, it may make removal difficult after it has made some growth. But the above applies to planting in level ground. For on hillsides, where the land falls off rapidly, it may be set to a depth of a foot and a palm.

§ 3.19.2  A situation in a valley or a wet plain allows even a cutting of three buds, which is a little less than nine inches but in any case more than half a foot in length. And this cutting is called “three-budded,” not from the fact that it consists of three eyes in all — since it is usually full of sprouts about the wound where it was cut from its mother — but because, apart from those buds with which it is crowded at the butt, it has three joints in succession and the same number of buds. In addition, I offer this advice also to one who is planting either the cutting or the rooted vine — to avoid excessive wind and sun, lest the plants dry out; and both of these are warded off without inconvenience by throwing a garment or any sort of thick covering around the plants.

§ 3.19.3  However, it is better to choose for the planting a day when the air is still or at least stirring but lightly. For the sun is easily kept off by canopies.
But, before putting an end to this discussion, we must speak of a matter which we have not yet touched upon — whether vines of one or several kinds are to be kept, and whether these are to be separated and kept apart, sort by sort, or jumbled together and intermingled, one with another. We shall deal first with the question first proposed.

§ 3.20.1  It is, then, the part of a wise farmer to plant that vine which he especially approves, with no shoot of any other sort standing between, and always to increase the number of that vine as far as possible. But it is also the part of a man of foresight to set out different kinds as well. For there is never a year so mild and temperate as not to inflict some injury upon some variety of the vine: if it is dry, that kind which thrives on moisture is damaged; if rainy, that which delights in dry weather; if cold and frosty, that which cannot endure blighting cold; or if hot, that which cannot bear heat.

§ 3.20.2  And, not to run through, at this time, a thousand rigours of the weather, there is always something to work harm to vineyards. Therefore, if we plant but one kind, when that thing happens which is hurtful to that kind, we shall be deprived of the whole vintage; for he who is without plants of different sorts will have no reserve supply.

§ 3.20.3  But if we make plantings of various kinds of vines, some of them will escape injury to produce a yield. And yet this reason should not force us to many varieties of vines: but what we have judged to be an extraordinary variety, that we should produce in as great numbers as possible; then that which is next to the first choice, and after that the kind which is of third or even fourth rank. So far let us be content with a sort of quartet, so to speak, of champion vines; for it is quite enough to await the luck of the vintage with four varieties, or five at the most.

§ 3.20.4  As for the other point, which I had next proposed, I have no doubt that vines should be separated according to their species and set in their proper plots, and marked off by foot-paths and boundary lines; not that I myself have been able to obtain this of my household, or that any one of those before me accomplished it, however much he may have approved. For this is the most difficult of the farmer's tasks, because it requires the utmost care in the selection of plants, and in separating them there is need, for the most part, of the greatest good fortune combined with wisdom. But sometimes, as the divine author Plato says, the beauty of a thing attracts us to the pursuit even of those ends to which, because of the frailty of human nature, we cannot attain.

§ 3.20.5  And yet if our years suffice, and if our knowledge and means are in accord with our desires, we shall accomplish the task without great difficulty; though we must persist for more than a brief portion of our lives, so that a large number may be classified over a period of several years. For not every period of time permits a decision in this matter, seeing that vines which cannot be distinguished because of their likeness in colour or stock or shoots or berry make themselves known by the ripening of their fruit and by their foliage. Nevertheless, I would not say that this care can be employed by anyone except the head of the family;

§ 3.20.6  for it is folly to intrust it to an overseer or vinedresser, since — what would be easier by far — it has been the lot of very few farmers as yet to be free from stock that produces black wine, though the colour of the grape may be detected even by the most inexperienced person.

§ 3.21.1  Nevertheless, one method suggests itself to me of accomplishing very quickly what we have proposed: that, if we have old vineyards, we should ingraft individual plots with slips of every sort, each kind by itself. Thus I have no doubt that within a few years we shall obtain many thousands of cuttings from the grafted vines, and that we shall set in separate blocks the plants so distinguished from one another.

§ 3.21.2  Moreover, the advantage of doing this may urge us on for many reasons: in the first place, to begin with the less important, because in respect to every concern of life, not only in farming but in every branch of study, the wise man delights more in those things which are separated into their proper kinds than in those which are thrown helter-skelter, so to speak, and jumbled together into a common heap:

§ 3.21.3  and in the second place, because even the man who is quite unversed in country life, if he should enter a field at the proper time, would marvel most pleasurably at the benevolence of nature, when on the one side the Bituric vines with their rich fruits correspond to the Helvolans, with like fruit, on the other side; when the Arcelacans turn his course to the one side and the Spionians or Basilicans to the other side, whereby the fostering earth each year, as if delighting in never-ending parturition, extends to mortals her breasts distended with new wine. Meanwhile, as father Bacchus is propitious to the pregnant vine-branches, either of the white or yellow variety, and of the ruddy kind or that which gleams with purple sheen, on every hand Autumnus glows, laden with his fruits of changing hue.

§ 3.21.4  But though all these give the greatest delight, still profit prevails over pleasure. For the head of the household comes down the more willingly to feast his eyes upon his wealth in proportion to its splendour; and, as the poet says of the sacred deity,
Wheresoever the god has turned his goodly head,
truly, whatever the person and eyes of the master are frequent visitors, there the fruit abounds in richer measure. But, dismissing this statement, which is applicable also to vines not grouped according to their kinds, I shall proceed with those matters which are most deserving of notice.

§ 3.21.5  Vine-plants of different kinds do not cast their blossoms at the same time, nor do they reach the time of ripening together. For this reason, the man who does not have his vineyards divided according to their kinds must suffer one or the other of these disadvantages: either he must gather the late fruit along with the early ripe, which soon causes sourness; or, if he awaits the ripening of the late fruit, he may lose the early vintage, which, being assailed by the plunderings of birds and by rains or winds, usually comes to ruin.

§ 3.21.6  But if he should wish to gather the fruit of each kind at intervals of time, he must first take the risk of carelessness on the part of the vintagers; for it would be impossible to assign the same number of overseers, one to each man, to watch over them and give orders that the sour grapes shall not be gathered.
Moreover, when vines of different kinds ripen at the same time, the taste of the better kind is spoiled by the worse, and the flavour of many, when blended into one, becomes intolerant of age. And so necessity forces the farmer to market his wine when it is new, though it would bring a better price if the selling could be put off for a year, or at least until summer.

§ 3.21.7  Now the separating of varieties, in that the vinedresser can more readily give each its proper pruning when he knows the particular sort in that plot when he is pruning; and this is a different practice to observe in vineyards that are planted with many sorts of vines, because the greater part of the pruning is done during the time when the vine is not even bearing distinctive foliage. And it makes a great difference, according to the nature of each stock, whether the vinedresser allows the growth of more or fewer canes, whether he is encouraging the growth of the vine by leaving long shoots or retarding it by close pruning.

§ 3.21.8  Moreover, it is of very great importance what quarter of the heavens every kind of vineyard faces. For not every kind thrives in a hot situation nor, on the other hand, in a cold one; but it is a peculiarity inherent in young vines that some thrive exposed to the south because they are better adapted to warmth, while others want a northern exposure because they are damaged by heat; and certain kinds delight in the moderate temperature of an eastern or western exposure.

§ 3.21.9  One who separates the various sorts by sections has regard to these differences as to situation and setting. He also gains no small advantage in that he is put to less labour and expense for the vintage; for the grapes are gathered at the proper time, as each variety begins to grow ripe, and those that have not yet reached maturity are left until a later time without loss;

§ 3.21.10  nor does the simultaneous ageing and ripening of fruit precipitate the vintage and force the hiring of more workmen, however great the cost. Now this also is a great advantage, to be able to preserve the flavour of every variety — not blended but true and genuine — and to put it away by itself whether it be Biturican or Basilican or Spionian. These varieties, when racked off in this fashion, attain the rank of nobility, because nothing of a different sort enters in to counteract their keeping qualities; for even after fifteen years or a little longer no trace of inferiority can be detected in their flavour, because almost every wine has the property of acquiring excellence with age.

§ 3.21.11  Therefore, as we proposed to show, the orderly distribution of varieties is of the greatest advantage; and yet, if you cannot effect such an arrangement, the next best method is to plant no vines of different sorts except those which have a similar flavour and produce fruit that reaches maturity at the same time. Furthermore, if you are interested in fruit trees, you may set the tops of fig or pear or apple trees at the very ends of the rows on that side of the vineyard which lies to the north, so that they may not shade it when they grow up; and after two years' time you may graft them or, if they are of superior quality, you may transplant them as mature trees. So much for the planting of vineyards.
There still remains that part of most importance — that we give directions also for their cultivation, and of this we shall treat at length in the book that follows.

§ 4.1.1  You say, Publius Silvinus, that when you had read over to several students of agriculture the book which I have written on the planting of vineyards, some persons were found who, indeed, had praise for the rest of our teachings, though they criticized one or two: in that I advised the making of excessively steep trenches for vine plants by adding three-fourths of a foot to the two-foot depth which Celsus and Atticus had recorded; and that I had shown little wisdom in assigning each quickset to its individual support when those same authors allowed them, at less expense, to clothe two successive props in the same row with the branches of one vine separated into two parts.
But these objections are based upon false reasoning rather than true judgment.

§ 4.1.2  For, to refute first what I first proposed, if we are to be content with a two-foot trench, why are we of such a mind as to work the ground deeper when we intend to set the vines at so shallow a depth? Some one will say, “So that there may be a lower layer of soft ground underneath which will not, by its hardness, check the young creeping rootlets or thrust them back.”

§ 4.1.3  It is possible, indeed, to accomplish that end also if the ground is stirred with the trenching-spade and the trench sunk in the upturned earth, which is swollen to more than two feet and a half; for always, in level ground, earth that is thrown out and then back again swells higher than the level of the unbroken ground. And surely the setting of plants does not require that a very deep bed be spread beneath them;

§ 4.1.4  but it is sufficient that half a foot of loose earth lie beneath the planted vines, that it may, so to speak, receive the increase of the growing plants into its hospitable — I might even say maternal — bosom. Let us take an instance of this in the arbustum where, after digging planting-holes, we throw a very small bit of dust under the quickset.

§ 4.1.5  There is, then, a truer reason for trenching the ground deeper, in that “yoked” vineyards grow up better when planted in deeper holes. For two-foot holes could hardly be approved even by farmers in the provinces, with whom a vine is usually of low stature and kept close to the ground; while one that is intended for the yoke (trellis) must be steadied by a deeper foundation, since if it merely climbs higher, it demands more nourishment and more earth.

§ 4.1.6  And on this account, in wedding vines to trees, no one prepares a planting-hole less than three feet deep for the vines. But it is with little insight that there are peculiar advantages in shallow planting, in that plants grow up quickly when they are not wearied and pressed down by a great weight of soil, and that plants which are lightly supported become more productive. For both these arguments of Julius Atticus are overthrown by the case of planting beside trees, which obviously makes the vine much stronger and more fruitful; which would not be the case if the plants were suffering from being sunk too deep.

§ 4.1.7  What answer is there to this — that the soil of a trenched plot, while it is newly broken up and loosened, swells up as though by some process of leavening? and then, when it has taken on no great length of age, it is packed, and settles, and leaves the roots of the vines swimming, so to speak, on the surface of the ground? But this does not happen to my way of planting, in which the vine is put down to a greater depth. Now, as to the argument that deep-set plants are said to suffer from cold, this too we do not deny.

§ 4.1.8  But a depth of two and three-fourths feet is not such that it can produce that effect; especially since, as we said a little before, the vine, though planted deeper beside a tree, still escapes the aforesaid discomfort.

§ 4.2.1  The other point, their belief that two stakes are wedded with the shoots of one plant at less expense, is most falsely taken. For if the actual root dies, two props are bereft, and presently there must be a substitution of the same number of quicksets, which, by their number, burden the accounts of the vinedresser; or, if it takes hold and, as often happens, is of a black sort or not sufficiently productive, the fruit falls short, not on one prop alone, but on more than one. And men of more than ordinary insight into agricultural affairs think that even a vine of noble stock, when it is so divided upon two stakes, will be less fruitful because it is sure to form a mat of intertwined roots.

§ 4.2.2  For this reason the very same Atticus directs us to propagate old vineyards by layers rather than by spreading the whole vines flat, because layers soon and easily strike root so that each vine rests upon its own roots as though upon proper foundations. But a vine that has its whole body laid flat, by making a sort of lattice-work and entanglement of roots in the soil beneath, forms a mat and is choked by the intertwining of over-many roots, and it fails just as if it were burdened with many branches.

§ 4.2.3  Therefore I should prefer, on every account, to risk the setting of two plants rather than one, and not to pursue as gain a course which, considered from either side, may bring far greater loss. But now the argument of the previous book demands of us the beginning of the next as promised.

§ 4.3.1  In every sort of costly enterprise, just as Graecinus says, most men enter upon new works with more vigour than they maintain them when finished. Some, he remarks, erect houses from the very foundation, and then fail to bestow care upon the finished buildings. Some are active in the building of ships, but do not fit them out accordingly with gear and crews when they are completed. Some have a fondness for the buying of cattle, and some for acquiring slaves; but they are moved by no concern over the keeping of them.

§ 4.3.2  Many also, by their inconstancy, undo the kindnesses that they have done to their friends. And that we may not wonder at these statements, Silvinus, some men are niggardly in the nurture of their children — objects of their marriage ties and solemn prayers — and do not look to their improvement through the training of the mind or through the general furnishings of the body. What is the inference from all this? Obviously that errors of like nature are commonly made by husbandmen also, who for various reasons abandon their most beautifully planted vineyards before they reach the age of bearing,

§ 4.3.3  some shrinking from the yearly expense and thinking it the first and surest income to have no outgo at all; as if they were under an absolute necessity of making vineyards, only to quit them presently because of their greed. Some consider it a fine thing to have extensive rather than well-tended vineyards. I have known a very great number also who were convinced that their land must be cultivated, whether by good methods or bad.

§ 4.3.4  But my judgment would be, not only that every kind of land cannot be profitable unless it is worked skilfully and with painstaking care, but that this is especially true of vineyards. For the vine is a tender thing, weak, and exceedingly intolerant of ill treatment, and it commonly suffers from over-productiveness; for, unless you place a limit upon it, it is exhausted by its own fertility. And yet when it has strengthened itself somewhat and has, as it were, taken on the vigour of youth, it endures neglect.

§ 4.3.5  But a newly planted vine, unless it receives every proper care while it is growing up, is reduced to extreme emaciation, and it pines away to such a degree that it can never be restored by any expenditure thereafter. Therefore the foundations, so to speak, must be laid with the greatest care, and from the very first day of its planting it must be moulded into shape, just as the bodies of young children must be shaped; and if we have failed to do this, the whole outlay comes to naught, and once neglected the proper time for each operation cannot be recalled.
Believe it from my experience, Silvinus, that a vineyard well planted, of good kind, and under the care of a good vine-dresser, has never failed to make recompense with big interest.

§ 4.3.6  And the same Graecinus makes this clear to us, not only by argument but also by example, in that book which he wrote on the subject of vineyards. He relates that he often used to hear his father say that a certain Paridius Veterensis, his neighbour, had two daughters, and also a farm planted with vineyards; that he presented one-third of this farm to the older daughter as a dower when she married, and that, none the less, he used to take equally large yields from the remaining two-thirds of the farm; that he next married off the younger daughter with a half portion of the land that was left, and, even so, took away nothing from its old-time revenue. What does this prove? Why, obviously, that that one third of the farm was better tended afterward than the whole farm had been before.

§ 4.4.1  And so, Publius, let us plant our vineyards with great resolve, and tend them with greater zeal. And the most convenient method of planting them is that one alone which we proposed in the preceding book: that, after making a planting-hole in prepared ground, the vine be laid flat from about the middle point of the trench, and that its firm wood be raised straight up from the very bottom along the end of the trench and fastened to a reed. For especial care must be taken that the planting-hole be not trough-shaped, but that its ends be drawn up straight, as though to a plumb-line, with clear-cut angles.

§ 4.4.2  For a vine that lies slantwise and is set in a trough in a leaning posture, so to speak, is subject to damage thereafter when the ground is loosened around it; for the digger, in his eagerness to deepen the circle of loosened ground, usually wounds a vine that is aslant, and sometimes he cuts it off. We shall remember, then, to fasten the sprig straight up to its prop from the very bottom of the hole, and so bring it to the surface. Then in other matters, to do as we directed in the preceding book; and next, leaving two eyes standing above the ground, to level off the surface. Then, after planting the mallet-cutting between the rows, to loosen the trenched ground anew by frequent digging and reduce it to powder.

§ 4.4.3  For it is in this way that quicksets and other plants that we have set out will best gain strength, when once the softened earth supplies moisture to the roots without allowing weeds to creep in, and when the hardness of the soil does not choke the still tender plants as though with close-fitting bonds.

§ 4.5.1  Moreover, to confess the truth, no limit should be set to the number of times that the ground is to be turned by the hoes, since it is agreed that the more frequent it is, the more beneficial is the digging. But, since consideration for expenses demands some limit, it has seemed sufficient to most people to dig newly planted vineyards every thirtieth day from the Calends of March up to October, and to root out all weeds and especially grasses; for these, unless pulled out by hand and thrown on the surface, return to life when any least part of them is covered with earth, and so scald the vine-plants as to make them scaly and shrivelled.

§ 4.6.1  Furthermore, whether we have planted cuttings or quicksets, it is best to train the vines from the beginning in such a way as to remove superfluous growth by frequent leaf-pruning, not allowing them to bestow their strength and all their nourishment upon more than one branch of firm wood. Yet two shoots are allowed to grow at first, that one may be a reserve if the other should happen to die.

§ 4.6.2  Later, when the green branches have hardened somewhat, one of each pair is removed. And that those which are left may not be beaten off by squalls of wind, it will be best to follow them up, as they grow, with a soft and loose band, until they catch hold of their props with their tendrils as though with hands.

§ 4.6.3  If shortage of workmen prevents the carrying out of this kind of labour in the case of the cutting — and we advise the pruning of this also — at any rate it must be brought about without fail in the case of vines planted in rows that they are not sapped of their strength by too many shoots, unless we are looking forward to future propagation by layers; but that they devote themselves each to one cane, whose growth we should encourage by applying a prop of greater length, along which they may creep up to such a height as to rise above the frame of the following year and to be bent over for bearing.

§ 4.6.4  When they have grown up to this height, their tops should be broken off, so that they may rather grow in thickness and strength than make a slender growth of useless length. However, we will leaf-prune this same stem, which we let grow into firm wood, up to three and one-half feet from the bottom, and will frequently pull off all the stock-shoots that sprout from it within this space.

§ 4.6.5  Anything that sprouts forth then above that point shall be left untouched. For it will be better that the upper part be cut away with the pruning-knife the following autumn than that superfluous shoots be removed in summer time, since from that spot from which you have taken the secondary shoot it immediately puts forth a second; and when this has sprouted, there remains in the firm wood no eye to sprout and produce fruit the following year.

§ 4.7.1  But the proper time for removing all superfluous growth is while the shoots are so tender that they may be struck off by a light touch of the finger. For if they have hardened to a greater degree, they must either be pulled off with a greater effort or cut away with the pruning-knife, both of which are to be avoided: the one, because it tears the parent vine if you try to pull them off; the other, because it wounds the vine, which is a harmful thing to do in a stem that is green and not yet mature.

§ 4.7.2  For the injury does not stop at the exact spot where the edge of the knife made its mark; but in the heat of summer a wound deeply imprinted by the knife dries up to a greater breadth, with the result that it kills more than a small part of the very body of the mother. And for this reason, if it is necessary that the knife be applied to stems that have already hardened, the cut must be made at a little distance from the mother vine, and spur-like ends must be left to take upon themselves the injury of the heat up to the place where the shoots sprout from her side; for the heat's energy creeps no farther.

§ 4.7.3  In the case of the cutting there is a similar method of pruning and of encouraging length of wood, if we wish to use a cutting of one year, which I have often done. But if it is your fixed intention to cut it off, so as to use it rather when it is two years old, when you have now reduced it to one shoot and that shoot has exceeded one foot in length, it will be proper to lop off its head, that it may be strengthened rather up to the neck and have more vigour. And this is the first step in the cultivation of plants after they are set.

§ 4.8.1  The period next following, as Celsus has recorded, and Atticus — men whom our age has especially and rightfully approved — demands greater care. For after the Ides of October, before the coming of cold weather, the vine must be ablaqueated. This operation lays bare the summer rootlets, and the wise husbandman cuts these off with a knife. For if he allows them to grow strong, the lower roots waste away; and the result is that the vine puts out its roots at the very surface of the earth, to be injured by the cold and burned to a greater degree by the heat, and to force a violent thirst upon the mother vine at the rising of the Dog Star.

§ 4.8.2  For this reason, when you ablaqueate the vine, anything that has sprouted out of it within a foot and a half must be cut off. But the method of this root-pruning is not the same as that proposed for the upper part of the vine. For the wound is not to be smoothed off, and by no means is the knife to be applied to the mother herself; because, if you cut away a root close to the stock, either more roots will spring from the scar, or the rains of winter which stand in hollows in the loosened soil will gall the fresh wounds by freezing in midwinter and will penetrate to the very pith. That this may not happen, it will be proper to keep a distance of about one finger's breadth from the stock itself, and so to trim off the small roots; when they are removed in this manner, they sprout out no more and protect the stem from further injury.

§ 4.8.3  When this work is finished, the vine should be left exposed if the winter is mild in that region; but if a more severe winter prevents our doing this, the above-mentioned hollows must be levelled off before the Ides of December. In fact, if there is a suspicion of extremely cold weather for that region, you will spread some stable-dung or, if more convenient, some pigeon dung over the roots before you bury the vine; or you will pour over them six sextarii of stale urine previously made ready for such use.

§ 4.8.4  But it will be necessary to ablaqueate the vine every autumn for the first five years, until it grows strong. However, when the main stem has come to maturity, this task may be omitted for about three-year intervals; for the lower parts of the vine receive less injury from the iron, and small roots do not shoot out so rapidly, now that the stock has become old.

§ 4.9.1  Ablaqueation is then followed by pruning, in such a manner that the vine is reduced to one small rod, according to the directions of ancient authorities, leaving two eyes close to the ground. This pruning should not be done next to the joint, lest the eye be checked in its growth; but an oblique cut is made with the knife about midway between the joints, lest, if it be crosswise, the scar may hold the rain that falls upon it.

§ 4.9.2  But the slope is made, not toward the side where the bud is, but to the opposite side, so that it may shed its tears upon the ground rather than upon the bud. For the sap that flows down from it blinds the eye and does not allow it to grow.

§ 4.10.1  There are two seasons for pruning; but the better time, as Mago says, is in the spring, before the shoot puts forth its buds, because, being full of sap, it allows an easy, smooth, and even cut, and does not resist the knife. Celsus and Atticus, moreover, have followed this method. To us it seems that plants should not be held back by close pruning unless they are very weak, and that at least they should not be cut in the spring.

§ 4.10.2  But, to be sure, in the first year that they are set out they should be aided, every month while they are in leaf, by frequent digging and by leaf-pruning, so that they may gain strength and support not more than one branch of firm wood. And when they have reared this they should be trimmed clean, in our opinion, in the autumn, or in the spring if it is more convenient, and freed from secondary shoots which the leaf-pruner had left on the upper part; and so they should be placed upon the frame. For it is the smooth and straight vine, without a scar, that overtops the frame with a rod of the first year. This happens, however, with few farmers, and seldom; and for that reason the aforementioned authors thought it best to cut off the first shoots of the vine.

§ 4.10.3  But in any case, spring pruning is not preferable in all regions: for where the climate is cold, that time of pruning is doubtless to be chosen; but in regions that are sunny, where winters are mild, the best and most natural pruning is that of autumn, at which season, by some divine and eternal law, plants drop both fruit and foliage.

§ 4.11.1  This, I believe, is the thing to do, whether you have planted a quickset or a cutting. For experience has condemned that long-standing belief that year-old cuttings should not be touched with the knife because they have a dread of it. This was a matter on which Vergil and Saserna and the Stolos and the Catos had groundless fears; and they were mistaken, not merely on this point, in that they allowed the first year's foliage of plants to go untouched, but also after two years, when the quickset was to be cut back, they lopped off all the upper part right down to the ground, close to the very joint, so that it might make new growth from the hard wood.

§ 4.11.2  But experience, the master of arts, has taught us to regulate the growth of first-year cuttings and not to allow a vine to run wild with a rank growth of useless leafage; and, on the other hand, not to hold it back to the extent that the ancients directed, to the point of lopping off all the upper part.

§ 4.11.3  In fact, this method is most harmful; in the first place because, when you cut to the ground, most plants die, being visited, as it were, by an unbearable wound; while some of them also, which have a more stubborn hold on life, produce less fruitful wood — seeing that, by the admission of everyone, shoots which sprout from the hard wood are very often destitute of fruit.

§ 4.11.4  Therefore a middle course is to be followed; namely, that we neither cut back a cutting to the ground nor, on the other hand, draw it out into a woody branch of excessive length; but, trimming off the sprouts from the spur of the year before, we shall leave, close to the crotch where the old branches were joined, one or two buds from which it may send out shoots.

§ 4.12.1  Attention to the propping of the vine follows the pruning. But the present, or first, year does not yet require a strong prop or stake; for it has been my observation that, for the most part, a young vine is better satisfied with a support of moderate size than with a stout prop. And so we shall attach each young vine either to two old reeds, lest new ones strike root; or, if local conditions allow it, to brier canes, to which single cross-bars may be tied along one side of the row —

§ 4.12.2  a kind of frame which farmers call a canterius or “horse.” It is of the greatest importance that this be such that the young vine-shoot, as it creeps forth, shall immediately grasp it a little below the point of its bending and spread out on the cross-bars rather than on the uprights, and so, resting upon the “horse,” may more easily bear up against the winds. And it is proper that this frame should be raised up to less than four feet, until the vine becomes strong.

§ 4.13.1  Then, after the propping, comes the binder, whose task it is to train the vine upright to the frame. And if the vine is set close to the stake, as has pleased some authorities, the man who ties it will have to guard against the notion that, in fastening the firm wood, he must follow the curve in the stake if it happens to be bent, for that makes a crooked vine; or, if space is left between the vines and the stake, as has seemed best to Atticus and some other husbandmen and is not displeasing to me, a straight reed must be joined to the stock, and so by numerous bindings the vine is to be guided up to the frame. What sort of bands they are with which the plants are tied, is of the greatest importance.

§ 4.13.2  For while the vine is young, it must be tied with the very softest kind; because, if you bind with withes of willow or elm, the growing vine cuts itself. The best, then, is broom, or the rush that is cut in marshy places, or sedge; and yet the leaves of reeds also, when dried in the shade, do not serve badly for this purpose.

§ 4.14.1  But like attention should be given to cuttings, that after being cut back to one or two eyes in the autumn or in spring, before the time of budding, they shall be fastened to the frame. For these, as I have said, the “horse” must be placed closer to the ground than for mature vines in rows; for it should be not more than one foot in height, so as to be of such a sort that the still tender shoots may grasp it with their tendrils and not be rooted out by the winds. Then follows the digger, to break up the surface soil evenly and finely with many strokes of the two-pronged hoe. This level digging we especially favour.

§ 4.14.2  For what they call the “winter digging” in Spain — when earth is removed from the vines and brought into the space between the rows — seems to us unnecessary, because it has been already preceded by the autumn ablaqueation, which has exposed the upper rootlets and carried the winter rains to the roots below. Again, the number of diggings should be the same as of the first year, or less by one; for the ground is in special need of frequent working until the vines shade it with their growth and do not allow weeds to grow beneath them.

§ 4.14.3  The same method of leaf-pruning should hold for this year as for the year before. For the childhood of the plants, so to speak, must still be held in check and the plant allowed to grow to not more than one shoot; the more so, in fact, because its tender age does not endure the burden of both offspring and woody branches.

§ 4.15.1  But when the vineyard, at the age of one year and six months, is brought to the vintage, it must be recruited to full strength immediately after the fruit has been removed, and reserve cuttings which were planted for this purpose must be set in the gaps; or, if these also are wanting, a layer must lead from a vine in the row to another stake. For it is of the utmost importance up to this time that every prop be clothed with a new planting, and that the vineyard shall not be in a state of replanting later, when it is time to be taking its fruits.

§ 4.15.2  There is one kind of layer where the vine is bent above ground close to its support, and so, being carried underground by a deep trench, is brought out beside a vacant stake; then from the “bow” it puts forth a vigorous shoot of firm wood, which is immediately attached to its prop and brought up to the cross-bar.

§ 4.15.3  Then in the following year a cut is made in the upper part of the bed, as far as the pith, that the rod under propagation may not draw into itself all the strength of the mother vine, and that it may learn little by little to take its nourishment from its own roots. Next, when two years old, it is chopped off close to the branch which has been caused to spring up from the bow. And what is cut away and separated from the mother vine, immediately has the ground dug deep about it; then a small hole is made, and it is cut off at the very lowest point and covered with earth, so that it may drive its roots downwards and not sprout out near the top of the ground by being carelessly cut at the surface.

§ 4.15.4  Moreover, there is no time better suited for the amputation of this layer than from the Ides of October to the Ides of November, so that it may strengthen its roots during the winter months. For, if we do this in the spring, when the branches are beginning to bud, it droops as a result of being suddenly robbed of its mother's nourishment.

§ 4.16.1  The same method holds in transplanting the cutting. For in the second autumn, if conditions of weather and situation permit, it is taken up and planted to best advantage after the Ides of October; but if some harmful quality of soil or of air opposes this, the time of its planting is postponed to the next spring. And it should be left no longer in the vineyards, lest it use up the strength of the soil and impair the plants in the rows; the sooner they are relieved of the partnership of quicksets, the more readily do they gain strength. But in a nursery one may keep a vine for three or even four years, if it is cut back or closely pruned, because no thought is taken of a vintage.

§ 4.16.2  When the planted vineyard has passed its thirtieth month, that is in the third autumn, it must be propped at once with stronger supports; and this is not to be done just as you please or in haphazard fashion. For if the stake is set near the vine stock, still it must be left one foot away so that it will not press upon or injure the foot, yet so that the digger may work around the plants on every side.

§ 4.16.3  And this stake must be so placed as to receive the fury of the colds and of the north winds and so protect the vine; or if it is placed midway between the rows, it must be either pushed well down or driven to a greater depth by first making a hole in the ground with a small stake, so that it may more easily support both the trellis and the fruit. For the closer a prop is set to the stock, even when lightly fixed in the ground, the steadier it is; since, by standing close to the vine, it both supports and is supported in turn.

§ 4.16.4  Then stronger cross-bars are to be bound to the standards; and these are made either of willow rods or of several reeds tied in some sort of bundles to give them stiffness, so that they may not be bent by the weight of the fruit. For now two firm wood branches must be allowed to grow on each plant; unless, however, the slenderness of some vine requires a closer pruning, in which case only one branch is to be left and that containing few eyes.

§ 4.17.1  A frame of rods is stronger and requires less work. Reeds are put together with greater labour, because they are tied in several places. And these must be bound with their tops turned, one opposite to another, so that the whole frame may be of equal thickness; for if the tops come together, the weakness of that part, when burdened with weight, throws the fruit to the ground just as it ripens and exposes it dogs and wild animals.

§ 4.17.2  But when a frame is duly constructed of several tied in bundles, with their tops in alternating order, it gives about five years of service.
Nor, indeed, is the method of pruning or other culture different from that of the first two years. For ablaqueation must be carefully done in the autumn, and new layers must be applied to the vacant props none the less; for this work must never be discontinued but should be renewed every year. p

§ 4.17.3  Surely those things that are planted by our hands cannot be immortal; and yet we take such thought for their permanence that we set other plants in place of those that have died, and do not allow the whole genus to be brought to destruction through many years of neglect. Moreover, frequent diggings must be given, although one may be subtracted from the number of the first year's cultivation. Leaf-pruning also must be practised often; for it does not suffice to remove excess leafage from the vine only once or twice in a whole summer.

§ 4.17.4  And especially must everything be broken off which has sprouted below the head of the main stem. Likewise if any single eyes just below the frame should put out two shoots, even though they give evidence of an abundance of fruit, one branch must be pulled off from each, so that the remaining branch of strong wood may make more vigorous growth and better nourish the fruit that is left.
After the forty-second month, when the vintage has been gathered, the pruning must be so managed, by allowing the growth of more shoots, that the vine may be spread out in the form of a star.

§ 4.17.5  But it is the duty of the pruner to check the vine at a distance of about one foot short of the cross-bar, so that any tender growth that is sent out from the head may be drawn out in the form of arms and that, after being bent over the frame, it may be dropped down to a length which cannot reach the ground. But a limit must be observed in proportion to the strength of the stock, that no more branches may be allowed to grow than the vine is able to support. And in general, when the soil is fertile and the stock thrifty, the aforesaid age requires three firm wood branches, rarely four, which should be separated by the binder into as many different parts.

§ 4.17.6  For it is of no use that the frame is given cross-pieces and made in the shape of a star unless fruit-bearing branches are joined to it. This arrangement, however, has not met the approval of all husbandmen; for many have been satisfied with a plain straight line. But that vine is more stable, both for supporting the burden of young branches and for bearing its fruit, which, being bound to the frame on both sides, is spread out in even balance as with a kind of anchors. Then too a vine that is supported on every side spreads its woody branches over more arms and extends them more easily than one which is crowded with many fruiting canes on a simple “horse.”

§ 4.17.7  However, if a vine is not of wide spread or not very fruitful, and if it is in a climate that is not turbulent or stormy, it may be satisfied with a single frame. For where there is great violence and onslaught of rains and storms, where the vine is loosened by frequent downpours, where it hangs, as it were, on steep hillsides and requires a great many reinforcements, there it must be supported on every side, so to speak, by troops in square formation.

§ 4.17.8  But in warm and drier places the frame must be extended in every direction, so that the shoots, as they creep forth on every side, may be joined and, being matted together in the fashion of an arched roof, may shade the thirsty earth. On the contrary, in rainy and cold and frosty districts plain straight rows are to be put up; for in that way the ground is more readily warmed by the sun, and the fruit is thoroughly ripened and has a more wholesome ventilation; also the diggers ply their hoes with greater freedom and precision, and the fruit is better examined by the overseer and more easily gathered by the vintager.

§ 4.18.1  But in whatever way it pleases you to arrange your vineyards, let them be set off by footpaths into individual plots of one hundred vines each; or, as pleases some, have the whole extent of the vineyard broken up into divisions of half a iugerum. This separation, apart from the advantage that it affords more sun and wind for the vines, also allows easier access for the eyes and feet of the proprietor — things most beneficial to the vines — and it provides a definite gauge in the exaction of labour; for we cannot be deceived when the iugera are divided at equal intervals.

§ 4.18.2  Furthermore, the marking out of small plots in itself lessens the fatigue, as it were, in proportion to the smallness of the sections into which it is cut, and it goads on those who are performing the work and encourages them to hasten the task; for as a rule the immensity of impending work weakens their spirit. Also it is of some advantage to know the strength and the yield of each part of the vineyards, so that we may judge what part is in need of more or less cultivation. These footpaths also provide for the vintagers and for those who repair the frames and props convenient room for the carrying of fruit or supports.

§ 4.19.1  As for the placing of the frame, how far it should be raised above the ground, it is sufficient to say that the lowest is four feet and the highest seven. This last, however, is to be avoided in the case of young plants; for this regulation should not apply to vineyards at the start, but the vine must be carried to this height after a long succession of years.

§ 4.19.2  But the moister the soil and climate, and the gentler the winds, the higher must the frames be raised. For the luxuriance of the vines allows them to spread themselves at a greater height, and the fruit is less inclined to rot when well removed from the earth; and by this method alone there is thorough ventilation by the winds, which quickly dry up the fog and pestilential dew, and contribute much to the casting of the flowers and the goodness of the wine.

§ 4.19.3  On the other hand, land that is poor and sloping and parched with heat, or that is subject to violent storms, calls for a lower frame. But if all circumstances answer to your desire, the proper height for a vine is five feet; and yet there is no doubt that the vine yields wine of better flavour in proportion to the height of the frames to which it raises itself.

§ 4.20.1  After the vineyard is staked and yoked, there follows the work of the binder, whose first concern should be, as I remarked above, to keep the vine-stock straight and not to let it follow the curve of the prop, lest the crookedness of the support form a vine after its own likeness. This is of the greatest importance, not only to its appearance, but also to its strength, productiveness, and durability.

§ 4.20.2  For a straight stem bears pith like itself, through which, as by a sort of road without a turn or obstruction, the nourishment of mother earth more easily makes its way and arrives at the very top; but vines that are bent and misshapen do not offer equally smooth paths, because knots obstruct, and the bend itself, like rough places in a road, checks the passage of moisture from the earth.

§ 4.20.3  Therefore when the vine is drawn straight up to the top of the stake, it is fastened with a band so that, when weighed down with its offspring, it may not sag and become bent. Then from that point where that which is nearest to the frame is tied, its arms are arranged in different directions, and the branches which are placed upon the frame are bent downward in a curve, and what hangs from the frame is filled with fruit; on the other hand, the bend puts forth firm wood next to the band.

§ 4.20.4  Some spread out upon the frame that part which we bend down, and hold it fast by tying it with withes closely set; but I consider these not at all worthy of approval. For rains and frosts and hail do not harm hanging branches as much as those which are bound and, so to speak, exposed to stormy weather. Still, those same branches should be tied before the fruit mellows, while the grapes are still of different colours and sour, so that they may be less likely to rot with the dews or to be pillaged by winds or wild beasts.

§ 4.20.5  Along the main path and the bypaths the branches should be bent inward, that they may not be injured by brushing against those who pass by. And by this method certainly the vine is brought to the frame at the proper time. For a vine that is weak or short must be cut back to two eyes, so that it may put forth more vigorous wood which may immediately shoot up to the frame.

§ 4.21.1  There is no other pruning for a vine five years old than that it shall be shaped as I have undertaken to describe above, and that it shall not spread too far; but that the head of the stock shall be about one foot below the frame and that, with its four arms, which some call duramenta, or “hardened branches,” it shall be spread out into a corresponding number of spaces. It will suffice for a time that these arms be reduced to one fruiting branch each, until the vines are of proper strength. Then, some years later, when they have entered the juvenile stage, so to speak, it is uncertain how many branches should be left.

§ 4.21.2  For richness of situation requires more, and leanness fewer; since, indeed, a vine of rank growth, unless it is checked by bearing, casts its blossoms badly and runs to wood and foliage; while a weak vine, on the contrary, is impaired when burdened with fruit. And so in rich ground it will be permissible to impose two rods upon each arm, but not to burden them with a number beyond the point where one vine supports eight rods, unless its very excessive fruitfulness shall demand more; for the vine which is extended with firm wood beyond this limit has the appearance of an arbour rather than of a vine.

§ 4.21.3  And we should not allow the arms to be larger than the stock; but when presently the growth of lateral shoots from them is permitted, the upper hard canes must be constantly cut away so that they may not go beyond the frame; but the vine should always be renewed with young branches. These laterals, if they have made sufficient growth, should be placed upon the frame; but if one of them is broken or not of sufficient length, and if it occupies a suitable place from which the vine should be renewed the following year, let it be cut down to a thumb (pollex), which some call custos or “keeper,” others resex or “cut-back,” and several praesidiarium or “reserve” — that is, a stub of two or three eyes, from which all of the old arm above is cut off after the fruit-bearing wood has come forth; and so the vine sprouts out again from the young branch. And this management of well-established vineyards must be constantly observed.

§ 4.22.1  If, however, we have taken vineyards trained by another system, and if many years of neglect have now covered the frames, we shall have to consider the length of the old hardened branches that exceed the aforesaid measure. For if they are two feet long or a trifle more, the entire vine may still be put under the frame, provided that the supporting stake is close to the trunk;

§ 4.22.2  for it is moved away from the vine and set exactly in the centre of the space between the two rows, and then the vine is carried across to the prop and so brought under the frame. But if its hardened branches have grown to a greater length, so that they have crept out to the fourth or even to the fifth prop, it is restored at greater expense; for when propagated by layers — a method which pleases us most — it comes forward very quickly.

§ 4.22.3  This, however, if the surface of the trunk is old and decayed; but if it is strong and sound, it requires less labour; for, having the soil loosened about its roots in the winter time, it is satiated with dung and closely pruned, and between the third and fourth foot from the ground it is wounded with the sharp point of an iron implement in the greenest part of the bark. Then the earth is thoroughly mixed by frequent digging, that the vine may be stimulated and that it may have the strength to put out a shoot especially from that place where it was wounded.

§ 4.22.4  Generally, moreover, a bud grows from the scar, and if it shoots out to considerable length it is allowed to grow for a cane; if rather short, for a thumb; and if very small, for a knurl. This last may be formed from any fibrous growth, even the smallest. For when a twig of one or two leaves has come out of the hard wood, provided only it comes to maturity, it puts forth a vigorous branch of firm wood the following spring, if it is not trimmed away or rubbed off; and when this has grown strong and has formed a sort of arm, you may then cut back that part of the old branch that has spread too far, and so bring under the frame that part which is left.

§ 4.22.5  Many, aiming at the saving of time, chop off such vines above the fourth foot, having no fear of cutting them back in this way; since, as a rule, the nature of most stocks is so adapted that they sprout out with new leaves close to the scar. But this method is not at all pleasing to us, because a larger wound, unless it has vigorous wood above which may close in, is parched by the heat of the sun; and then presently it rots with the dews and the rains.

§ 4.22.6  Nevertheless, when a vine must in any case be cut down, it is best first to loosen the dirt about it and then to make the amputation a little below ground, so that the soil above may ward off the violence of the sun and give passage to the young stems that spring from the roots, that they may be able either to wed their own props or to bedeck with their offspring any mateless props that are near by.

§ 4.22.7  However, this should be done in this way on condition that the vines are rather deeply planted and do not have roots gliding along on the surface, and if they are of good stock. For otherwise the labour is spent to no purpose, because low-grade vines, even when renewed, will retain their former character; while those that barely cling to the surface of the earth will fail before they can recover strength.

§ 4.22.8  The one vine, then, will have to be grafted rather with fruitful shoots, and the other completely rooted out and replanted, provided the goodness of the soil makes it advisable. When a vineyard has wasted away because of the bad quality of the soil, we believe that it is in no way worthy of being restored. Furthermore, the bad qualities of a place which usually bring vineyards to destruction are meanness and barrenness of soil, salty or sour marshland, a steep and rugged situation, a valley that is too dark and not exposed to the sun, also sandy tufa, or gravel that is unduly hungry, and also gravel that is bare and destitute of earthy matter, and anything of like nature which does not nourish the vine.

§ 4.22.9  But if it is free from these disadvantages and their like, a vineyard may be restored by the method which we advised in the preceding book. On the other hand, those vineyards of bad stock which, even though of vigorous growth, are destitute of fruit because of barrenness, are improved, as we have stated, by grafting; and we shall treat of this in its proper place when we have come to that subject of discussion.

§ 4.23.1  Now, since we seem not to have said enough about the pruning of vineyards, we shall set forth with greater care that most necessary part of the work proposed. It is proper, if a gentle and temperate mildness of climate permits it in that region which we are cultivating, to begin the pruning after the Ides of October, when the vintage is finished: on condition, however, that the equinoctial rains have come before and that the branches have arrived at their proper maturity;

§ 4.23.2  for dry weather makes the pruning later. If, however, the cold and frosty state of the weather gives notice of a severe winter, we shall postpone this matter to the Ides of February. And it will be permissible to do this if the measure of our holding is small. For where a vast extent of land denies us the choice of time, it will be proper that the strongest part of the vineyard be pruned in cold weather, and the weakest part in spring or autumn; indeed vines with a southern exposure may be pruned even during the winter solstice, and those exposed to the north during spring and autumn.

§ 4.23.3  And there is no doubt that the nature of these plants is such that the earlier they are trimmed, the more wood they produce, and the later, the more fruit.

§ 4.24.1  Therefore, at whatever time the vine-dresser shall enter upon this work, he should especially observe three things: first, to make fruit his chief consideration; next, to choose from the very start the most fruitful wood for the following year; and then, also, to make the vine-stock survive through as many years as possible. For any one of these that is neglected brings great loss to the owner.

§ 4.24.2  Moreover, when the vine is trained out into four parts, it faces the same number of quarters of the heavens. And since these different directions possess qualities that are contrary to one another, they also require a different arrangement in the parts of the vine according to the circumstances of their situation. Therefore those arms which are exposed to the north should receive the fewest wounds, and the more so if they are pruned at the onset of cold weather, by which the scars are blasted.

§ 4.24.3  And so only one firm wood branch next to the frame is to be allowed to grow, and one reserve branch below it to renew the vine presently for a year. But, conversely, more rods should be set apart for growth toward the south, to shade their mother as she suffers from the summer heat and not allow the fruit to wither before it comes to maturity. In the pruning of the east and west sides there is no very great difference, because the vines receive the sun for an equal number of hours in each quarter.

§ 4.24.4  The limit, therefore, of firm wood branches will be that which the fertility of the ground and of the stem itself shall prescribe.
The above must be observed in general, and the following in particular. For, to begin at the lowest part of the vine, as at the foundation, so to speak, the earth around the shank should always be laid open with a small mattock. And if any offspring which country people call a suffrago or “sucker,” clings to the roots, it must be carefully pulled up and cut off smoothly with the knife, so that it may repel the rains of winter; for it is better to tear off a shoot that sprouts forth afterward from the wound than to leave a cut that is knotty and rough. For by the one method it quickly forms a callus, and by the other it becomes hollow and rots.

§ 4.24.5  Then, after care has been taken of the feet, so to speak, the legs themselves and the trunks must be examined to see that no sprouting leafy shoot or wart-like knob is left; unless the vine, being cut off above the frame, shall require renewal from the lower part. But if the old part of the trunk is dried out by the sun's blast, or if the vine is hollowed out by rains and by harmful animals which creep in through the pith, it will be proper to clear away with the mattock any part of it that is dead; and then that it be pared down to the quick with the pruning-knife, so that it may form a callus from the green bark.

§ 4.24.6  And it is not a difficult matter, soon after the wounds are smoothed off, to daub them with earth which you have first moistened with oil lees. For a daubing of this sort keeps out the wood-borer and the ant, and also keeps off the sun and the rains; and because of this the wound grows together more quickly and keeps the fruit green. Also the dry and shaggy bark hanging along the upper parts of the trunk must be peeled off down to the body; because a vine, when rid of its rags, so to speak, thrives better and imparts less of dregs to the wine. Moreover, the moss which binds and compresses the legs of the vines in the manner of shackles, and softens them with its mouldiness and old dirt, must be stripped off and scraped away with the iron.

§ 4.24.7  This, then, for the lower part of the vine. And likewise those directions must next be given which are to be observed with reference to the head.
The wounds which a vine receives in its hard wood should be made slantwise and rounded, for they grow together more quickly and, as long as they have not formed a scar, they shed water to better advantage; while crosswise cuts receive and hold more moisture. Let the vine-dresser especially avoid this fault. Let him cut off branches that are far extended, old, badly formed, crooked, and turning downward; and let him permit the growth of those that are young and fruitful and straight. Let him preserve the young and tender arms, and remove the old and withered with the pruning-hook. Let him trim off the tips of the reserve stubs when they are one year old.

§ 4.24.8  When the vine has been raised to about four feet above the ground, let him arrange it in the same number of arms, each facing in the direction of one cross-piece of the frame. Then let him allow the growth of one rod to each arm if the vine is rather slender, or two if it is more stocky; and, having placed them upon the frame, let him cause them to hang down.

§ 4.24.9  But we must bear it in mind not to allow two or more branches of firm wood to be in the same line and on one side of the arm. For it is especially injurious to the vine when every part of the arm does not exert itself equally, and when it does not dispense its juice to its offspring in equal portions, but is drained on one side only; whereby it comes about that that vein whose moisture is entirely taken away withers as though struck by lightning.

§ 4.24.10  There is also a shoot, called the “throat-shoot” (focaneus), which usually comes out at the centre of the fork; and farmers call it by the aforesaid name because, sprouting out between the two arms where the vine divides itself, it obstructs the fauces or throat, so to speak, and forestalls both of the hardened branches by drawing off their nourishment. Therefore these same farmers are careful to cut off and trim away this rival, as it were, before it gains strength. If, however, it has already become so strong as to have impaired one arm or the other, the weaker arm is removed and the throat-shoot is allowed to grow.

§ 4.24.11  For when the arm is cut off, the mother vine bestows her strength equally upon both parts. Therefore let the pruner establish the head of the vine one foot below the frame, from which, as I have said, there may extend the four arms by which the vine is renewed yearly by cutting away the old branches and allowing the growth of new ones, the choice of which must be made with skill. For where there is a great abundance of woody branches, the pruner should guard against leaving either those that are next to the hard wood (that is, from the stock and head of the vine), or on the other hand, those at the ends. For the former contribute very little to the vintage, since they yield scanty fruit, being, in fact, like leaf-branches; while the latter exhaust the vine, because they burden it with too much fruit and extend themselves as far as the second or third stake, which we have declared to be wrong.

§ 4.24.12  Therefore branches will be let grow to best advantage on the middle of the arm, that they may neither disappoint the hope of a vintage nor cause the wasting of their own stem. Some men are more greedy in enticing the fruit by allowing the growth of terminal and medial shoots, and also by cutting the sprig next to the hard wood into a reserve stub; a thing which I believe should not be done in any circumstances unless strength of soil and stock permit it. For they cover themselves with grapes to such an extent that they cannot reach maturity if friendliness of the land and a thrifty condition of the stock itself are not present.

§ 4.24.13  The subsidiary branch, which is the same as the reserve stub, should not be cut back into a spur when the rods from which the next fruits are expected are situated in a suitable place; for when you have bound them and bent them to look downward towards the earth, you will force the growth of hard wood below the binding.

§ 4.24.14  But if the vine has sprung out from the head to a greater length than the practice of husbandmen allows, and has crept out with its arms to the roof-like trellises that belong to other vines, we shall leave close to the main stem a strong reserve rod, and the largest possible, of two or three joints, from which, as from a spur, firm wood may be quickly fashioned into an arm the following year; so that the vine, cut back and restored in this way, may be kept within the frame.

§ 4.24.15  But in setting aside a reserve stub for growth the following points must be especially observed. First, that the wound shall not face upward toward the heavens, but rather that it slope downward toward the earth; for in this way it is both protected from the frosts and shaded from the sun. Secondly, that the cut shall not be made like an arrow-point but hoof-shaped rather; for the former dies more quickly and over a wider area, while the latter is checked more slowly and within narrower limits. There is also a practice which I observe to be employed, and very wrongly, which should be especially avoided; for in their attention to graceful appearance, so that the reserve stub may be shorter and like a thumb, they cut the branch close to the joint.

§ 4.24.16  But this is very detrimental, because the bud, being placed next to the wound, suffers from frost and cold, and afterwards from heat also. The best plan, then, is to clip the subsidiary branch about midway between the joints and to make a sloping cut behind the bud, so that, as I have already said, its tears may not drop upon the budding eye and blind it.

§ 4.24.17  If there is no opportunity for a cut branch, we must look about for a knob which, even though cut very close in the manner of a wart, may put forth a firm wood branch the following spring, which we may leave either for an arm or for fruit. If such a knob is not to be found, the vine must be wounded with the knife and caused to form a “sore” in that place where we wish to draw out a shoot.
Now I strongly believe that those branches which we are making ready for bearing should be freed of tendrils and secondary shoots.

§ 4.24.18  But one method is employed in cutting these away, and another in removing those that come out of the main stem. For anything that sprouts from mature wood is cut away and trimmed close by a more vigorous application of the pruning-hook, so that it may form a scar more quickly; while, on the contrary, anything that comes from young wood, such as the secondary shoot, is cut away with greater caution because it usually has a bud close beside it, and care must be taken that this is not grazed with the knife. For if, in applying the knife, you trim too closely, the bud is either taken away altogether or wounded severely; and because of this the branch when it presently puts forth in sprouting will be feeble and less fruitful and also more liable to injury by the winds, obviously because it will be weak when it comes forth from the scar.

§ 4.24.19  Furthermore, it is difficult to set a limit to the length of the woody branch which we allow to grow; yet most people draw it out to a length such that, when bent and falling down over the frame, it cannot touch the ground. We believe that the following points should be investigated more closely: first, the condition of the vine, for if it is strong it sustains a greater number of woody branches; and next, the richness of the soil, for if this quality is not present we shall quickly kill even the strongest vine if it is wasted away by rods that are too long.

§ 4.24.20  But long branches are valued, not for their length, but for the number of their eyes. For where there are rather considerable spaces between the joints, it is permissible to extend the wood to the point where it almost touches the ground, for nevertheless it will put forth but few leaves and shoots; but where the segments are short and eyes are found at close intervals, the branch, though short, is green with many sprouts and luxuriant with numerous offspring. Therefore it is necessary that a limit be set to such a sort especially, that it may not be burdened by fruiting branches of excessive length, and that the vine-dresser may take into account whether or not the vintage of the previous year was abundant.

§ 4.24.21  For after a large yield the vines must be spared, and for that reason they should be closely pruned; but after a scanty yield they must be urged. In addition to the other directions we are of this opinion also, that we should carry out the entire operation with the thinnest and sharpest of hard iron tools. For a knife that is blunt and dull and soft delays the pruner, and for that reason he accomplishes less work and causes more labour for the vine-dresser; for if the edge is curled over, which happens to soft iron, or if it penetrates too slowly, as is the case with a blunted and thick too, greater effort is needed. Then, too, ragged and uneven wounds tear the vines; for the matter is not finished with a single stroke but by strokes often repeated.

§ 4.24.22  And so the usual result is that what should be cut off is broken off, and that in this way the vine, being mangled and jagged, is rotted with moisture and its wounds do not heal. Therefore the pruner should be expressly reminded to draw out the edge of his implement and to make it as razor-like as possible. And he should not be ignorant as to what part of the pruning-hook should be used in each operation; for I have learned that a great many men make havoc of vineyards through lack of knowledge on this point.

§ 4.25.1  Now the shape of the vine-dresser's knife is so designed that the part next to the haft, which has a straight edge, is called the culter or “knife” because of the similarity. The part that is curved is called the sinus or “bend”; that which runs on from the curve is the scalprum or “paring-edge”; the hook which comes next is called the rostrum or “beak,” and the figure of the half-moon above it is called the securis or “hatchet”; and the spike-like part which projects straight forward from it is called the mucro or “point.” Each of these parts performs its own peculiar tasks, if only the vine-dresser is skilful in using them.

§ 4.25.2  For when he is to cut something with a thrust of the hand away from him, he uses the culter; when he is to draw it toward him, he uses the sinus; when he wishes to smoothe something, he uses the scalprum, or, to hollow it out, the rostrum; when he is to cut something with a blow, he uses the securis; and when he wants to clear away something in a narrow space, he makes use of the mucro. But the greater part of the work in a vineyard must be done by drawing the knife toward you rather than by hacking; for the wound which is made in this way is smoothed with one impression, since the pruner first puts his knife in place and so cuts off what he has intend to cut.

§ 4.25.3  One who attacks the vine by chopping, if he misses his aim, as often happens, wounds the stock with many blows. Therefore that pruning is safer and more advantageous which, as I have said, is accomplished by the drawing of the knife and not by striking.

§ 4.26.1  When this is finished there follows, as I have said before, the matter of propping and trellising the vineyard. And for giving firmness to this the stake is better than the pole, and that not any stake you please; for chief of all is the olive tree split with wedges, the oak and the cork tree, and any other wood of like strength. The round prop holds third place; and that is most approved which is made of juniper, and also of laurel and cypress. Also forest pines do well for this purpose, and elders too are acceptable in the capacity of supports. These props and their like must be gone over again after the pruning, and the decayed parts must be hewn away and sharpened;

§ 4.26.2  and some, if they are sound, are to be reversed, while others, which are either rotten or shorter than is proper, must be removed and replaced with suitable props; those that are lying flat must be set up, and those that lean are to be straightened. As for the frame, if there is no need of a new one, have fresh bindings worked into the mending of it. If it seems to need rebuilding, let it be tied together with poles or reeds before the vine is attached to its prop, and then, as I have directed in the case of a newly planted vine, we should bind the vine to the stake, close to head and below the arms; and this tying should not be done every year in the same place, lest the band cut into the stock and choke it.

§ 4.26.3  Then we will arrange the arms in four directions, below the star, and bind the tender fruiting branches upon the frame, not forcing them contrary to their nature; but according as each branch will submit, it will be bent slightly, so as not to be broken in the bending and that the buds already swelling may not be rubbed off. And when two mature branches are extended along one part of the frame, let a bar come between them; and let the separated vine-shoots run out over the quadrangular openings of the frames, and, as if plunging downward, let them look upon the ground with their tips.

§ 4.26.4  That this may be done skilfully, the binder must remember not to twist the young branch but merely to bend it down and tie it; and he must bear in mind that every mature branch which cannot yet be bent down to earth is to be placed upon the frame, so that it may rather rest upon a bar than hang from its binding. For I have often observed that farmers, through want of foresight, place a fruiting branch under the frame and tie it in such a way as to let it hang merely by a withe; and when this vine receives the weight of its shoots and grapes, it is broken down.

§ 4.27.1  When our vineyards are so put in order, we shall next hasten to clean them and to rid them of the pruned twigs and deadwood. However, these must be gathered when the ground is dry, lest the earth, being trampled when muddy, make the task harder for the digger, who is to be brought in immediately while the vines are still dormant. For if you send the digger in when the fruiting branches are swelling and putting forth buds, he will knock off a large part of the vintage. Therefore vineyards are to be dug as deep as possible during the time when spring begins and winter ends, before the buds come, that they may sprout out more luxuriantly and joyfully; and when they have bedecked themselves with leaves, a limit must be set to the young shoots before they are full grown.

§ 4.27.2  And let the same vine-dresser who made use of the knife before, now prune with his hand, and let him hold the shade in check and pull off superfluous foliage; and it is of the utmost importance not to do this unskilfully, since the removal of excess leafage is even more beneficial to vines than is pruning. For though the one is of great advantage, still it wounds and checks the vines; while the other heals them more generally, without a wound, and makes the next year's pruning easier.

§ 4.27.3  Then too it produces a vine that is freer from scars, because that from which a green and tender thing is plucked soon heals over. In addition, the mature branches which have fruit make a better recovery, and the grapes, being more completely exposed to the sun, are thoroughly ripened.

§ 4.27.4  Therefore it is the part of an intelligent vine-dresser, and one especially expert, to take stock and consider in what places he should allow the growth of firm wood for the year, and to remove not only the branches that are destitute of buds, but fruitful branches as well, if their number has gone beyond proper bounds; since it happens that some eyes put forth three shoots, of which you must remove two, that the eyes may better rear one nursling apiece.

§ 4.27.5  For it is the business of a wise husbandman to consider whether the vine has bedecked itself with a greater quantity of fruit than it can carry to maturity. Accordingly he will wish, not only to pick off superfluous foliage, which should always be done, but sometimes to shake off a part of the fruit so as to lighten a vine that is overburdened by its own productiveness. And a diligent vine-trimmer will do this for various reasons, even if there is no more fruit than is able to ripen;

§ 4.27.6  or if it is right that a vine, fettered by heavy bearing in previous years without interruption, should now restore and recover itself, if provision is to be made for the mature wood of the future. For to break off the tips of the rods for the purpose of checking rank growth, or to remove twigs that are situated on the hard part of the stock, unless it is necessary to preserve one or two for renewing the vine; as also to pull off every green shoot that comes out of the head and between the arms, and to strip away those sterile shoots which all along the mature wood shade the mother vine to no purpose, is a proper task for anyone at all, even for a child.

§ 4.28.1  But the time for vine-trimming must be chosen, preferably, before the vine shows its flower, though it is permissible to repeat the operation afterwards. Therefore the intervening period of days, when the berries are being formed, refuses us entrance to the vineyard, because it is not expedient to disturb the fruit when it is in the blossom. But when the fruit is passing from childhood and is in the adolescent stage, so to speak, it is proper to bind it and strip it of all leaves, and also to make it plump by frequent diggings; for fruit is made more plentiful by pulverizing the soil.

§ 4.28.2  And I do not deny that most teachers of husbandry before me were content with three diggings; among whom is Graecinus, who speaks as follows: “It may seem sufficient to dig an established vineyard three times.” Celsus, too, and Atticus agree that there are three natural impulses in a vine, or rather in every branch: one which makes it sprout, another which makes it bloom, and the third which makes it ripen. These impulses, then, they think are stimulated by diggings: for nature does not sufficiently accomplish her purpose unless you diligently give her the benefit of your efforts. And this attention to the cultivating of vineyards comes to an end with the vintage.

§ 4.29.1  I return now to that part of my discussion in which I promised directions for the grafting of vines and protecting the grafts. Julius Atticus has said that the time for grafting is from the Calends of November to the Calends of June, up to which time he asserts that a scion can be kept without sprouting. And by that we should understand that no part of the year is excepted if we have a supply of dormant twigs. Furthermore, I would freely grant that this can be done in other kinds of stock that have stronger and sappier bark.

§ 4.29.2  In the case of vines, one thing it is not in keeping with my honesty to conceal — that it is exceedingly rash to allow husbandmen to graft during so many months; not that I am unaware that a vine grafted in the dead of winter sometimes takes hold. But we should instruct learners, not what may come about by chance in one or two experiments, but what commonly occurs under a definite system. For if the risk is to be taken with a small number, in whose case greater care makes amends for rashness, I can wink at it to a certain extent;

§ 4.29.3  but when the extensiveness of the operation divides the attention of even the most careful husbandman, we ought to remove every uncertainty. There is, indeed, a contradiction in what Atticus directs. For he says that it is not right to prune a vineyard during the middle of winter; and although this does less injury to the vine, still it is forbidden to be done, with good reason, because in cold weather every branch is numb with the cold, and because in its frozen condition it produces no impulse in the bark to heal the scar.

§ 4.29.4  And yet this same Atticus does not forbid grafting at the very same time, and he directs that it should then be done by cutting off the head of the whole vine and making a cleft at the point of this cutting. Therefore the more proper way of grafting is at the end of winter, when the days are now growing warm, when both bud and bark are stirred by nature, and when there is no attack of cold weather that may sear either the grafted scion or the wound made by the cleft.

§ 4.29.5  Nevertheless I would allow those who are in haste, to graft the vine in the autumn, because the temperature of the air at that season is not unlike that of spring. But at whatever time one intends to graft, let him know that attention to the choosing of scions is not different from that which was prescribed in the preceding book when we gave directions for the selection of cuttings. When he has pulled from the vine scions which are of good stock, fruitful, and as well ripened as possible, let him also choose a day that is warm and free from winds.

§ 4.29.6  Then let him look for a scion that is round and of firm body, not of spongy pith, and also with numerous eyes and short joints. For it is of the greatest importance that the twig which is ingrafted be not long; and also that there be many eyes on it, from which it may put forth shoots. And so, if the joints are long, it will be necessary to shorten the scion to one or at most two eyes, lest we make it so long that it cannot endure the storms and winds and rains without being disturbed.

§ 4.29.7  Now when a vine is grafted it is either cut off or left whole and bored through with an auger; but the former is the more usual graft and is known to almost all farmers, while the latter is less common and is employed by few. Therefore I shall discuss first the method which is more in use.

§ 4.29.8  The vine is generally cut above ground, though sometimes below, in the place where it is most solid and free from knots. When it is grafted close to the ground, the graft is covered with earth to its very top; but when the graft is higher above ground, the cleft is carefully daubed with kneaded clay and bound with an overlaying of moss to ward off heat and rains. The scion is so shaped as to be not unlike a reed pen. The piece that is pared off you should hold against the cleft; and under this cleft there is need of a node in the vine, to bind it together, as it were, and not allow the crack to advance beyond that point.

§ 4.29.9  Even if this node is four finger-breadths distant from the point of cutting, still it will be proper that it be bound before the vine is split, lest the wound spread wider than it should when a way is made for the graft with the knife. Moreover, the pen-shaped scion should be tapered not more than three fingers, and so that it may be smooth on the side where it is shaved. And this shaving is carried so far as to reach the pith on one side, and on the other side to be pared down a little farther than the bark; and to be fashioned in the form of a wedge, so that the scion may be sharp at its lowest point, thinner on one side and thicker on the other, and that, when inserted by the thinner side, it may be pressed close on that side which is thicker and may touch the cleft on both sides. For, unless bark is fitted to bark in such a way that the light shows through at no point, it cannot grow together.

§ 4.29.10  There is more than one kind of band for ingrafting. Some bind the cleft with willow withes; some wrap it with inner bark; very many tie it with rush, which is most suitable. For the willow withe, when it has dried, penetrates and cuts into the bark. For this reason we give higher approval to softer bindings which, after being wrapped around the stock, are drawn tight by forcing in small wedges of reed. But it is of very first importance that the ground be loosened around the vine beforehand, and that the surface roots and suckers be cut away; and afterwards that the stock be covered with earth. And when the stock has taken hold of the graft, it again requires care of a different sort:

§ 4.29.11  for, when it buds, it must be stripped oftener of superfluous growth, and the suckers which sprout from the sides and roots must be pulled off more frequently. Furthermore, anything that it puts forth from the place of ingrafting must be tied up, lest the scion should be loosened when moved by the wind, or the tender shoot be pulled out. And when this shoot has increased in size it must be deprived of its secondary shoots, unless because of the poverty or baldness of the place they are reserved for layers. Then autumn applies the pruning-knife to the matured branches. But the following method of pruning is observed in grafted vines — that, where there is no desire for a layer, one shoot is brought up to the frame; and a second is cut back to such an extent that the wound is flush with the stock, though in such a way that nothing is pared from the hard wood.

§ 4.29.12  Excess foliage must be removed just as in the case of the young quickset; but the pruning is to be done in such a way that demands are put upon it very sparingly up to the fourth year, until the wound of the trunk forms a scar. This, then, is the method of procedure in cleft-grafting.

§ 4.29.13  The procedure by terebration or boring is as follows: first, to take note of the most fruitful vine in the vicinity, from which you may draw over a traverse branch, so to speak, still clinging to its parent vine, and pass it through the hole. For this is a safer and surer way of grafting because, even though it does not take hold the next spring, at any rate it is forced to be united in the spring following, when it has grown larger; and presently it is cut loose from its mother, and the upper part of the grafted vine is lopped off close to the place where the scion was admitted.

§ 4.29.14  If there is no opportunity for such a traverse branch, then a twig is selected — one taken as fresh as possible from the vine — and, being lightly pared all around in such a way that the bark alone is removed, it is fitted to the hole; and then the vine is cut back and daubed over with clay, that the whole stock may devote itself to a vine of different origin. However, this is not done in the case of a traverse shoot, which is nourished at its mother's breast until it grows into the other vine.

§ 4.29.15  But there is one type of iron tool with which our ancestors used to bore through the vine, and a different sort which I myself have now found by experience to be more suitable. For the ancient gimlet — the only kind that old-time farmers knew — would make sawdust and would burn the place which it perforated. Moreover, it was seldom that the burned part would revive or unite with the former and that the grafted scion would take hold. Then, too, the sawdust was never so completely removed that some did not remain in the hole; and this, by its intervention, kept the body of the scion from being closely joined to the body of the vine.

§ 4.29.16  We, having devised what we call the “Gallic auger” for this kind of grafting, have found it far more suitable and practical. For it hollows out the stock in such a way as not to burn the hole, because it does not make dust but shavings; and when these are removed a smooth wound is left, which can more easily touch the seated scion on every side, since there is no interference of that woolly matter which the ancient gimlet produced.

§ 4.29.17  Therefore see to it that the grafting of your vines is finished immediately after the vernal equinox; and graft the black vine in places that are parched and dry, the white vine in wet places. And there is no need of propagating this if only the stock is of so moderate a thickness that the growth of a grafted scion can cover the wound on all sides; unless, however, the place left vacant in a vine whose head is dead demands a replacement. When this is the case, one of the two shoots is turned down for a layer, and the other is carried up to the frame and set apart for fruit. And it is not without advantage to rear shoots from the vine which you have layered, as they sprout from the arched part of the layer, which, if it so happens, you may either use for further layers or leave for fruit.

§ 4.30.1  Inasmuch as we have discussed those matters which it seemed could be taught to advantage for the establishing and cultivating of vineyards, a method must be set down for the provision of props, frames, and withes. For these are prepared beforehand, as dowries, so to speak, for the vineyards. And if the farmer is destitute of these, he has no reason for making vineyards, since everything that is needed will have to be sought outside the farm; and, just as Atticus says, not only does the cost of purchase put a burden upon the accounts of the overseer, but also the procuring of them is a very great annoyance.

§ 4.30.2  For they must be brought together at a most inconvenient season — in winter. Therefore osier-willows and reed thickets must be provided beforehand, and also ordinary woods or woods purposely planted with chestnut trees. Atticus thinks that one iugerum of osier-willows may suffice for binding twenty-five iugera of vineyard, and one iugerum of reed thicket for framing twenty; and that a iugerum planted with chestnut trees is enough to provide as many props as a iugerum of reeds can furnish with cross-rails.

§ 4.30.3  Ground that is either well watered or abounding in marshland is best for nourishing the willow, and yet level and rich ground is not unsuitable. And this ground should be turned with the double spade; for the ancients direct us to trench ground intended for a willow-bed to a depth of two and one-half feet. And it makes no difference what kind of osier you plant, if only it is very pliant.

§ 4.30.4  Still they think that there are chiefly three kinds of willows: the Greek, the Gallic, and the Sabine, which most people call the Amerine.a The Greek is of a yellow colour; the Gallic of a dingy purple, and with very slender switches; and the Amerine has a slim and reddish rod. And either top-shoots or truncheons of these are planted. Top rods of moderate stoutness, which, however, should not exceed the thickness of a circular two-pound weight, are best planted if they are put down as far as solid ground.

§ 4.30.5  Truncheons of one and one-half feet are stuck into the earth and covered over with a little of it. A well-watered spot requires wider spaces, and spaces of six feet in the quincunx arrangement do very well; a place that is normally dry needs closer planting, but in such a way as to give easy access to those who cultivate it. In this case it is satisfactory that the distance between rows be five feet, yet so that the plants may stand at two-foot intervals in the line of planting, alternating with empty spaces between.

§ 4.30.6  The time for planting them is before they bud, while the slips are dormant, and it is best that they be taken from the trees when they are dry. For if you cut them off when they are wet with dew, they do not grow properly; and for this reason rainy days are avoided in lopping off the willows. Willow copses are to be dug more frequently during the first three years, as are new vineyards. Later, when they have gained strength, they are satisfied with three diggings; under any other cultivation they quickly run out.

§ 4.30.7  For, even though care is taken, very many willows die. In their place layers should be propagated from a near-by plant, by bending down and burying its leaders, so that anything that has died may be replaced with these. Then when the layer is a year old, let it be cut loose from its stock, that it may be fed by its own roots just like a vine.

§ 4.31.1  Very dry places, which do not admit copses of this sort, require broom. A band of this material not only has sufficient strength, but also it is very pliant. The plant is raised from seed, and when it has sprouted, it is either transplanted as a quickset when two years old; or, if left where sown after that time has passed, it may be cut close to the ground every year in the manner of standing grain. Other bindings, such as those made of bramble, require greater labour, but still a necessary labour in poor soil.

§ 4.31.2  Willow for poles requires about the same land as that for withes; nevertheless it thrives better in well-watered ground. And it is planted in the form of truncheons; and when it has sprouted it is made to grow as a single shaft, and is frequently cultivated and weeded; and excess foliage is removed no less than in the vine, that it may be encouraged to length rather than spread of branches. When so cared for it is cut finally in its fourth year.

§ 4.31.3  For the willow which is prepared for bindings may be cut off when it is one year old, at about two and a half feet above ground, so that it may send out branches from the trunk and be arranged in arms like a low vine; but if the ground has been rather dry, it will be cut back preferably at the age of two years.

§ 4.32.1  The reed is planted in ground that is not worked so deep, though it is better to plant it with the two-foot spade. Although it is very hardy and does not refuse any situation, it succeeds better when put in loose soil than in compact; better in a damp place than in a dry one; better in valleys than on hillsides; and on river banks and in borders and thickets better than in midfield.

§ 4.32.2  Its bulbous root is planted, as also truncheons of the cane; and again the whole reed is laid flat on the ground. The bulb, when buried with three-foot spaces between, yields a full-grown stalk in less than a year. The truncheon and the whole reed are longer than the aforementioned time in coming to maturity. But whether truncheons of two and one-half feet are planted, or entire reeds laid flat, their tops should extend above ground; because, if they are entirely buried, they rot completely.

§ 4.32.3  But the culture of the reed thicket, for the first three years, is not different from that of the other thickets. Later, when it has become old, the ground must be trenched again. And this is its old age, when it has either dried up completely because of many years of decadence and sloth, or has become so crowded that the reeds grow up slender and cane-like.

§ 4.32.4  But in the former case it should be dug up again from the beginning; in the latter it may be cut out and thinned — an operation which farmers call castratio. However, this repairing of a reed thicket is done blindly, because it is not apparent on the surface what should be removed or what should be left; still the reed suffers castration better before the time of cutting, since the small canes, like pointers, show what is to be plucked out.

§ 4.32.5  The time for redigging and planting is before the eyes of the reed sprout. Then the time for cutting is after the winter solstice; for it makes growth up to that time, and is then checked when stiffened by the winter cold. The reed plot must be dug as often as the vineyard; but its leanness must be relieved with ashes or other fertilizer, and for this reason most people burn it over after it is cut.

§ 4.33.1  The chestnut tree is next best to the oaks, and for this reason it is suitable for supporting vines. Its nut, too, when planted in prepared ground, quickly springs up; and when cut down, after five years, it renews itself in the manner of the willow, and when made into a stake it lasts usually to the next cutting. It likes a black and loose soil; does not refuse a damp, gravelly soil or crumbling tufa; delights in a shady slope with a northern exposure; and fears a heavy soil that is full of red ochre.

§ 4.33.2  It is planted from the month of November throughout the whole winter, in ground that is dry and worked to a depth of two feet and a half. The nuts are placed in a row, half a foot apart; and the rows are separated by five-foot intervals. The chestnut is committed to furrows sunk to a depth of three-fourths of a foot; and when these furrows are planted with nuts, and before they are levelled off, short reeds are set beside the chestnuts, so that, with these markers of the planting, they may be dug and weeded with greater safety.

§ 4.33.3  As soon as the plants have formed a stem — and they may be transplanted when two years old — they are thinned out; and two feet of room is left free for the young saplings, lest crowding weaken the plants. The planting is closer, moreover, because of various mishaps: for the nut is sometimes dried up by droughts before it springs forth, or it decays from excessive wetness; and sometimes it is destroyed by underground animals, such as mice and moles.

§ 4.33.4  For these reasons young plantations of chestnut often grow up in thin numbers; and when it is necessary to increase them, it is better that a near-by sapling, if such a one is suitable, be bent over and propagated in the manner of a layer, than that it be taken up and replanted. For such a sapling, being undisturbed at its base, sends out shoots vigorously; but one that is torn out by the roots and transplanted is retarded for two years thereafter. On this account it has been found more advantageous to start trees of this sort from nuts rather than from quicksets. The spaces allotted to this planting, as described above, admit 2880 chestnut trees; of which total, as Atticus says, every iugerum of land will easily yield 12000 props. For the lengths cut closest to the stump generally supply four stakes when split, and then the second cuts of the same tree yield two; and this sort of split prop lasts longer than the round pole.

§ 4.33.5  The management of setting and digging is the same as that of the vineyard. It should be pruned lightly when two years old, and again when three; for twice in early spring it must be attacked with the knife, that its upward growth may be hastened. The oak also may be planted in like manner; but it is cut down two years later than the chestnut. For this reason common sense requires that we profit rather by the gain in time, unless it happens that brush-covered and stony mountains, and the kinds of soil which we mentioned above, demand the acorn rather than the chestnut.

§ 4.33.6  These matters concerning Italian vineyards and vineyard equipment I have discusses, so I believe, fully and not without profit. I intend presently to give an account of viticulture among our provincial farmers, also of the management of the arbustum both in our own country and in Gaul.