Chap. 16.] THE HOLES FOR TRANSPLANTING. 469 



year beforehand, in order that they may absorb the heat of 

 the sun and the moisture of the showers; or, if circumstances 

 do not admit of this, that fires should be made in the middle 

 of them some two months before transplanting, that being only 

 done just after rain has fallen. He says, too, that in an argil- 

 laceous 65 or a hard soil, the proper measurement is three cubits 

 every way, and on declivitous spots one palm more, care being 

 taken in every case to make the hole like the chimney of a 

 furnace, narrower at the orifice than at the bottom. Where 

 the earth is black, the depth should be two cubits and a palm, 

 and the hole dug in a quadrangular form. 



The Greek writers agree in pointing out much the same 

 proportions, and are of opinion that the holes ought not to be 

 more than two feet and a half in depth, or more than two feet 

 wide : at the same time, too, they should never be less than 

 a foot and a half in depth, even though the soil should be wet, 

 and the vicinity of water preclude the possibility of the soil 

 going any deeper. " If the soil is watery," says Cato, £6 « the 

 hole should be three feet in width at the orifice, and one palm 

 and a foot at the bottom, and the depth four feet. It should 

 be paved, too, with stones, 67 or, if they are not at hand, with 

 stakes of green willow, or, if these cannot be procured, with a 

 layer of twigs ; the depth of the layer so made being a foot 

 and a half." 



It appears to me that I ought here to add, after what has 

 been said with reference to the nature of trees, that the holes 

 should be sunk deeper for those which have a tendency to run 

 near the surface of the earth, such as the ash and the olive, 

 for instance. These trees, in fact, and others of a similar 

 nature, should be planted at a depth of four feet, while for the 

 others three feet will be quite sunicient. " Cut down that 

 stump," said Papirius Cursor, the general, 68 when to the great 



65 The ordinary depth, at the present day, is about two feet ; but when 

 in an argillaceous soil, as Pliny says, the hole is made deeper. If the soil 

 is black mould, the hole is not so deep, and of a square form, just as recom- 

 mended by Pliny. 66 De iie Eust- 43 



67 This would be either useless, or positively injurious to the tree. 



68 See B. xiv. c. 14. It seems impossible to say with exactness how 

 this passage came to be inserted in the context ; but Sillig is probably right 

 in suspecting that there is a considerable lacuna here. It is not improbable 

 that Pliny may have enlarged upon the depth of the roots of trees, and the 

 method of removing them in ancient times. Such being the case, he might 



